Via Lingua Granada
TEFL, in haiku
June 27, 2006

Arriving at school

Via Lingua summer day

Nervous excitement.

Give them the chicken,

Says Tim, not just an egg to

Be learning English.

Smog, mist, there are so

Many words for fog in the

Cold English language.

Antonia’s late

Arrival to class because

A broken down bus

Carls mountain bike did

Not make it to class but it

Sweetly sat outside.

Alastair picks on

Americans while dropping

Markers and flip charts.

The never-ending

Presence of ex-trainees who

Cant find any jobs.

Determinator

One and Two, The Verb Factory

The Board is Sacred.

Mike got nervous we

Feared he ran away, escaped,

Fled from teaching day.

The little comma

Can change everything from yes

To no in a snap.

Shall we correct in

The moment or wait until

Bitter cruel end?

Phrasal verbs have their

Hobbit roots big feet, small words
Used in every way.

TEFL is Twin Peaks

When verbs collide in white rooms

Bloody seagull tack.

The sound of flip-flops
Up and down the hall during
One final teaching.

Tim speaks to squirrels

While killing leprechauns and

His head strikes acorns.

Pippi Longstocking,

The Joker wears a black shirt,

Girls are so pretty.

Cathryns long walk to

Class but she always gets here

On time or early.

Lilac always late
And likes to speak for us all

So cute while boxing.

Someone was always

Somewhat late to class each day

Sometimes absentees.

Antonia reads

In bold and Tim picked on her

Until the long end.

Anything a plane

Can do to a cloud Darko

Flight proposition.

Feedback is mostly

Not fun for anyone but

The TEFL trainers.

Lesson planning is

A chore worse than cleaning the

Toilet with bare hands.

Oh flip chart we will

Miss thee entirely too much –

Never to be seen.

Teaching days over,

Some just beginning and some

Onto different things.

As a group we did

Not ever get drunk but now

Maybe we all will