I had a wonderful time at the Bytča Gymnázium last spring, and I was grateful for the opportunity to return for a solo two-week course this October. The students were, as before, very eager to speak English as much as possible, and enthusiastic about whatever activities I came up with.
Having both groups of students for 30 lessons provided me with many opportunities to try out new lessons and activities. I found there were fans of the Partička TV program in both groups, so we did some classic improvisational comedy games like Freeze!, What happens next?, and What are you doing?, and the students themselves helped me do some others: Arms and Party Quirks (with special thanks to my friend Roger Heyes for visiting and participating in that last one).
I always teach students the three rules of improvisational comedy before we start doing it:
1) There is love in the room
2) Dare to be stupid
3) Say "Yes!"
Doing these activities with the students in Bytča, I had this observation: The rules of Partička are also the rules of speaking a foreign language. As long as you feel loved, you can make the mistakes that everyone makes when they're learning, and saying "yes" will help bring you to a higher level. And, these rules can sometimes be good advice for life.
I think I had just as much fun as the students when we were doing these activities. I'm really looking forward to returning to Bytča in the future.
Ray Sikorski