Holidays While TEFL-ing: Part 2

If you didn’t get your fill from the first installation (or even if you think you did), read on for more on celebrating holidays abroad.

Thanksgiving is of course not an official holiday anywhere except the US, so business as usually continues in nearly every corner of the world. You can look at this as a reason not to celebrate (“I have to work”) or you can look at it as an opportunity to share this holiday, which is about…um…sharing, with those around you.

In class, while I’d like to suggest that a full turkey dinner is in order for each group, a teacher can make a nice gesture in a number of simple ways. Sometimes I bring in cookies and draw a rather tacky, stick-figure turkey on the board (outline your hand like in kindergarten!); sometimes something as simple as offering your students instant coffee and asking them to share some of their favorite holiday memories is a nice gesture.

For a current (or…a day late) Thanksgiving authentic reading, you could give them these key words: “turkeys, New Jersey, platform, fate, traffic problems” and ask them to predict what news story could contain them all (and how they are related of course). Then they can read this Yahoo article to see if they were correct. You may be able to find or elicit other “unusual news” stories to complement this.

It’s nice to be with family but not always possible. I like that I have the chance to talk with my family cheaply via Skype. I also like the fact that here I can walk around with people going through just another average day here and know that it’ a special day for me and the people I’m lucky enough to be able to celebrate with.