Politsia - February 2, 2012

So, I teach police. It sounds pretty awesome, doesn't it. It actually is pretty awesome. I am enjoying it for the most part, and it is providing me with an experience I never could have dreamed of.

When we first got to Zugdidi, which is where my placement is, Pavell and I stopped at the police station before heading to our host families. I met a woman named Tamuna who is sort of in charge of me at the police station. It's hard to explain. If there is anything wrong, I contact her instead of TLG (Teach and Learn with Georgia). She also sits in on my English lessons and translates where necessary. She is 29, very sweet, and unmarried. She has had experience working with other foreigners, so it has been a wonderful experience getting to know her.

Two days later, on Monday, I decided my schedule and found out who would be in my classes. I teach Monday, Wednesday, Friday of every week for 4 hours each day. In theory, I have two classes of 14 and each class should last two hours. In practice, I have between 4-8 police officers that show up for each class and each class is between 1.5 hours to 2 hours.

There is a police officer that picks me up everyday from my host family's house and takes me to the police station. The police officers who work at the station I teach at work in one of five different departments within the station: HR, Detective Investigators, and Financial are three of them. I can't remember the others. They are considered "Neighborhood Police." They usually tend to be better paid than patrol police which are at a different station. If I were to walk to work, it would be between 1-1.5 hours which is quite far when it is this cold out, hence, the police escort to work. :)

In general, the police officers' English level is much higher than I had expected. They are half way through the second Level of the Cutting Edge books we are using to teach. The past two weeks, I have simply been working on review and will start teaching a new Module hopefully this Friday. They are expected to take a test the Friday of each week to show understanding of the new information. Even if the police officers didn't show up for the lessons, from what I understand, most try to show up for the tests.

With the idea from Pavell, the Patrol Police teacher, I start my lessons with a quote, a tongue twister, and a discussion of current events. This past Wednesday is when I felt my first disenchantment with teaching adult police officers. They were talking in my class which as a teacher of any age level, is frustrating. They speak in Georgian, and I cannot understand them. With that, there is occasionally more translating within the classroom than I would like, but Wednesday was the first day where I felt truly frustrated. I had the class take a break, so I could get my frustration under control before continuing the lesson. I asked the class if they wanted to discuss current events and most said yes. I asked them to bring in a current even that they could share with others on Friday. We'll see if they do.

The other troubles that go without saying when teaching police officers is that they are incredibly busy individuals. They have to put work first and answer their phones during class and may even have to get up and walk out. These I understand. It is the nature of their positions. But the talking...NO WAY I'm getting used to that.

However, in general, I feel very fortunate for the experience I am having. Not to mention, it'll look great on the resume. :)