Category Archives: EduCoach

Oct30

Coaching and Language Teaching

Posted on by
Coaching and Language Teaching

In this blogpost I write about how coaching could help both with language learning and making changes in general.

 

So I have encountered my first victim of the season. :O

 

After the first class she kept missing classes. I knew there was something off  but I could not put my finger on it. Obviously, she could not discuss it either.

 

I am not sure what the problem was. I only have guesses. My educated guess is that I pushed some of her buttons in  a way that she is now ‘afraid’ of me. She may not want to address these issues that we touched upon – by accident, mind you – so she ‘subconsciously’ keeps missing the classes.

 

I also act as a coach. I bring many coaching tools into my language teaching practice. I support people to overcome the barriers that have hindered them so far to learn the English language. Some of my students have been ‘trying’ to learn English for decades. In vain. So, we look at the deep seated issues that blocks them from succeeding.

 

On our first lesson, I understood that this lady had given up on her dreams, settled in a comfortable. It became quickly apparent during our first session when I ‘routinely’ asked her about her hobbies. She has her excuses, mostly ‘not feeling good enough’. When I asked her what topics she wanted us to discuss so her lessons are enjoyable for her, she mostly chose the topics of her hobby and obviously her work.

 

I fear that as we had kept on discussing her hobby which is her dream profession, she would have been constantly reminded of her failure to go for it.

 

In some ways, I understand her choice to give up this attempt as well. It takes so much commitment and hard work to make those necessary changes within ourselves that will make us winners.

 

If you want to ‘ lean’  English with me, get in touch by clicking on the pictures below.

 

 

Jul5

Prioritás 101

Posted on by
Prioritás 101

Ebben a cikkben arról írok, hogy mit jelent a ‘prioritás’ valamint, hogy miért fontos a nylevtanulás mellett elkölezednünk ahhoz, hogy sikerrel járjunk.

 
 

 
 

Amikor valamit igazán fontossá válik az életedben, nem hozol fel kifogásokat többé arra, hogy miért nem teszel semmit érte. Bárki vagy bármi prioritást élvez, az olyan fontossá válik, hogy minden más fölé helyeződik az életünkben.

 

Manapság mindenki nagyon el van foglalva. Az elfoglaltság egy életforma lett. Ettől függetlenül mindig vannak dolgok, amelyek fontosabbak valami másnál. Van akinél az edzés, torna, reggeli futás élvez előnyt minden mással szemben, van akinek a gyereke az első, és van, akinek az olvasás vagy további tudás vagy ismeret megszerzése áll az első helyen.

 

Mások a prioritásaink. Viszont mindenkinek áll valami a fontossági listája élén. Amint elkezdjük megfigyelni, hogy melyek azok a dolgok, amelyekre mindig találunk időt, könnyedén megláthatjuk, hogy mik a prioritásaink az életben.

 

Nekem úgy tűnik, hogy egy idegen nyelv megtanulását kevesen helyezik a prioritási listájuk elejére. Talán kényszerből kerül oda ideig óráig, de aztán ismét hátra csúszik. Bavallom, én is gyakran így vagyok ezzel, ha nem hajt a Tatár, akkor hanyagolom a nyelvek tanulását.

 

Viszont, ha szükségem van a nyelvre valamilyen oknál fogva, akkor minden erőmmel azon vagyok, hogy minél előbb elsajátítsam azt. Tudom, hogy idő és energia befektetést igényel és így a prioritási listám elejére kerül a tanulás illetve mindaz, ami szükséges ahhoz, hogy a tanulmányaim sikerrel járjanak!

 

Mint már írtam korábban, ahhoz hogy elkötelezettek tudjunk maradni az elhatározásunkhoz és hogy a nyelvtanulás ténylegesen a fontos dolgok listáján maradjon nap mind nap, erős motivációs húzóerőre van szükségünk!

 

Fontos leülnünk önmagunkkal és végig gondolnunk, hogy miért és mennyire fontos – ha egyáltalán fontos – elsajátítanunk az adott nyelvet és hogy milyen mennyiségű energia befeketetésre vagyunk hajlandóak ahhoz, hogy a célunkat elérjük. Majd nap mind nap számot kell adnunk önmagunknak arról, hogy mit tettünk azért, hogy sikerrel járjunk.

 

Az az ember, aki éveket tölt azzal, hogy egy nyelvet megtanuljon valójában nem akarja bírni a nyelvet. Ez az ember a ‘jó lenne ha’ kategóriában evickél éveken át. Itt csak időtöltésként szerepel időnként a nyelvtanulási próbálkozások sora, amelyek többsége szinte semmi eredménnyel nem jár.

 

Az ebben a karegóriában lévők cserben hagyják önmagunkat minden alkalommal, amikor újra belefognak a nyelvtanulásba, mert már a kezdetekkor sem rendelkeznek egy letisztázott céllal, ami mellett elköteleződhetnének. Ezt hivják angolul ‘setting yourself up for failure!’, ami kb. annyit tesz, hogy eleve kudarcra ítélted magad.

 

Az angol nyelvű cikk végén van egy coaching teszt, amelyet ha megcsinálsz meglátod, hogy hol rejlenek a tényleges prioritásaid.

 

Emitt a cikk, CLICK

Remélem, hogy a teszt segítségével magasabb prioritási szintre tudod emelni a nyelvtanulást az életedben. 🙂 Hajrá!

 

Ha szeretnél velem angolul ‘megtanulni’ itt tudsz velem kapcsolatba lépni.

 

Jul1

Priority

Posted on by
Priority

In this blog post I emphasize the importance of prioritizing.

 


Making something a priority means that you don’t make excuses. You go for it full on with commitment. Yes, life is busy. Most of us are busy. We have a lot to do. You can still have priorities. We all do. We may not chose them consciously but when we start observing our behaviour it becomes obvious what our priorities are.

 

Making studying a language a priority is difficult if you do not have a strong enough motivation to make it a priority.  Before we can place learning a new language higher on our priority list we need to sit down and figure our why we want to learn the language and what we want to use it for. We must find a strong enough motivator that will hold us countable, daily.

 

It seems to me that most people do not even have a priority list. They just go with the ‘ flow’ . They often give into the pulls of the world and whatever has the stronger pull, they just make that a priority. When we do not prioritize the ‘items’ of our life, we let ourselves down.

 

We maybe motivated to learn a new language because we want to move aboard or a holiday is coming up abroad, or there is a promotion in the pipeline and we still not find the time to practise. This is when we allow ourselves to be distracted by somethin or someone. This is when we say YES to things that we should be saying NO to.

 

Maybe it is time to notice these moments of choice where we make someone else’s priorities more important!

 

Here is a coaching task on ‘checking your priorities’! Have fun with it!

 

Your Priorities in Life

List of Priorities

Make a list of everything that is most important to you in life.

DRAW a circle and slice it up like a cake. Look at this chart below and find different areas of life where you may have priorities. List at least one priority for each slice. See examples below.

SOURCE

For example:

  • particular relationships such as partner, family or friends
  • having stimulating or rewarding work
  • being well respected
  • making the most of your creative talents
  • living in a home where you feel comfortable
  • being in good health
  • physical fitness
  • partaking in sports
  • spiritual wellbeing
  • being a respected member of a particular group or community
  • independence
  • having time to relax
  • taking on challenges
  • speaking a foreign language fluently
Now do your best to order these in order of importance with the most important first. 

 

Now, limit the list to the top five priorities for you. You can change the list but it is best to just take out the first five on your present list. Go through them again and CHECK if they are truly your priorities or someone else’s. If they are not really yours, do the task again until the first 5 priority is truly yours. When you found them, can you  somehow commit to achieving them with a timeline?

 

Once you have got your list in order of importance, spend a few minutes reflecting on how the current way that you spend your time matches (or doesn’t match as the case may be) the order of your priorities. In the light of your reflection on your priorities are you happy with how you are now living or is there anything you would like to adjust in your typical daily or weekly schedule to allow you to focus more time and energy on your priorities? If there is, then make a commitment – even if only a small one – as to how you will adjust your use of time in the desired way.

 

Making Decisions

If you have decisions to make and are not sure what option to choose, you can use the list you have created as a benchmark to help you decide what you want to do. This does not mean that in every situation you will choose an option that reflects the number 1 priority on your list, merely that in making your choices you will at least be aware of the different competing priorities that may inform the choices you make and you can make a decision based on how you would like to balance the priorities or follow one rather than another.

SOURCE

 

If you want to ‘ lean’  English with me, get in touch by clicking on the pictures below.

 

 

Jun17

The missing link

Posted on by
The missing link

This blogpost I write about why EduCoaching is important for me by telling a very personal story.

 
 

 
 

When I was a teenager, I was very lost. During elementary school – until the age of 14 – my grades were quite OK. I managed my studies quite well. Though my relationship with one of my teachers, the class master, was rocky, I was still considered to be one of the best students in my year. I was also one of the lead singers in the choir and played in the national youth orchestra.

 

When I was eight, after my grandfather, my main caretaker, died, I found myself in a whole. Members of my family had been used to my grandpa taking care of me so, suddenly, they did not know who should pick up the slack and provide for me. My mum was busy with a three-year-old. My grandma’s hands were full with a mentally challenged daughter and her newborn. My father was at work most of the time. So, I became a latchkey kid.

 

Luckily, I lived in a tightknit community so some of the neighbours took care of me here and there. Because children used to stay in elementary school for eight years, most of the teachers in that school knew me quite well. My home life was troubled, but in school I was still OK. I also liked studying and I liked being successful at the different things I was involved in.

 

Everything changed when I started secondary school. I was in constant sock. I did not understand a word of the subjects I was studying. I did not understand the kids in my class. There were 44 of us, most of whom came from different  parts of the city, some from more affluent areas, and everyone seemed to have a ‘sponsor’ in school.  It was an ‘elite class’ who were allowed to study foreign languages behind the iron-curtain because we were trained to be managers of foreign affairs.

 

Suddenly, I was not a good student any more. Each semester, I was failing 4 or 5 subjects because I did not understand the subject matters. I was artsy, I liked drawing, reading books, and playing music. In this school the main subjects were economics, foreign trade and languages. Teachers kept on telling me that I was a failure and I did not have anyone at home to discuss my struggles at school, either.

 

In that mayhem, I lost my sense of who I was, I lost in touch with the successes I had achieved, and with my ability overcome challenges. I played music for years, so I understood hard work, overcoming difficulties and succeeding over adversities. Somehow, during these four years of high-school, I simply was not able to access my abilities to achieve and do well any more. I was slowly sliding into a pit-hole of misery, self-doubt, and low self-esteem.

 

Looking back now, I can see that I desperately needed a coach. I wish, I had had someone to talk to, someone who had the tools to help me find myself again, someone who could see my struggles. I wish I had been able to confide in someone and told them how lost I felt in the jungle of these difficult subjects.

 

I needed some help not because I was not a good and capable a student, or because I was lazy, or I did not care, but because I did not know how to handle this new situation and I needed tools so I could conquer my challenges.

 

Later, at university, when I was studying to become a teacher, I was  constantly looking for a solution that would provide students the support  they need to overcome similar challenges. At first, I thought psychology would be the answer. Then, I looked into methodology. About ten years after university, I finally found the key. It is called coaching in educations or Educational Coaching, EduCoaching in short.

 

Read more about Coaching in Education, here, CLICK