adults

how i came to czech and began teaching only adults i have no idea.

but it happened, and while i don't mind it (and even at times enjoy it - not dealing with discipline, that is), i'm not passionate about reaching out to adults.

but they're pretty cool nonetheless.

they grew up in communism and witnessed the revolution, so they can compare the now and then. i've never learned so much about pre-revolution before.

pre-revolution, they all learned russian in school (they were under russian rule) and were told they'd never need to learn english. a few weeks after the revolution, russian wasn't allowed to be taught, and the russian teachers had to start teaching english. this meant that most of the time, the "english" teachers were only one lesson of english ahead of their students.

during communism, if your family outwardly disagreed with the party, you weren't allowed to study at the good high schools or go to university. Babicka (grandma in the Kotas family that's been taking care of us) wasn't allowed to teach because she was a christian. and if you were too smart, the same rule applied. i suppose they understood that they could be overrun or outsmarted.

one guy was studying in prague at the time, and went to some of the protests on the square. but he was home with his family during the days of the actual revolution, and when he returned to prague he didn't know that anything had happened!

all the men had to join the army for a year, either after high school or college. they apparently didn't do much, but if you were the best at a physical activity, you ccould have the weekend off.

amazing stories - i'm thankful that my parents and grandparents don't have stories like this to tell!