Interview for teaching

I woke up early with a growling stomach.
Chow down a heavy breakfast which I really shouldn’t have done so.
Which instantly, I got stomach ache. My nervous juice churning like butterflies in my belly isn’t helping either as I reached UiTM.

To make matters worse, while waiting turns for interview, I was pinned in between two large boys.

(The chairs were so crammed together with no space in between at all). Thank goodness the boys actually put on cologne or else things can get ugly with the sweat smell coming from both sides. Not to mention, there’s NO AIR-CON not even a single fan. But the ceiling was pretty high up for better ventilation.

I’ve been holding myself from going to the loo the whole morning coz my turn was pretty soon. (I was placed fifth). So I didn’t dare to go to the toilet. Heck, I couldn’t even find it!
So, imagine how pale I must have looked!

Met up with Julieven there. She applied for teaching in Sejarah. Sze Kai was there too with his thick stack of files. Like me, he applied for TESL.

When my turn is up, oddly, I felt neutral and calm. Walked into the room after knocking on the door and immediately greeted them “Good morning”. I wanted to add “ma’am” but seeing the two lady interviewers looked pretty young, I stopped. (Saved myself from getting my marks halved).

They skipped my self-introduction and immediately questioned what makes me a good English teacher. Then they asked which university I applied for. Few other questions include my favorite authors and the most recent book I’ve read.
I blah-ed that I read “A total waste of make-up” as my most recent book but I couldn’t remember the author’s name for the life of me. So I tembak with CONFIDENCE that it’s by Cecilia Ahern while in fact it’s Kim Gruenenfelde. (please don’t go Google for it, please…….)

Then came the question about Literature. I told them that I liked “Romeo and Juliet” and the “Life’s Brief Candle” poem by William Shakespeare. I got ambushed with this question; “That poem is difficult to understand for some students. So tell us in what way can you explain so they can understand it?”
Shiat...
I CAN’T EVEN REMEMBER WHAT’S IN THE FIRST STANZA..................

“Never mind!”, I thought to myself.
“ I’ll just fire out my answer completely based on the title itself”, and I did.
Saying things like,
“To be able to explain it, I, as a teacher must first understand it! Poems like these with classical English have depth in its meaning. Poems like these don’t mean exactly as what’s written on it for students who are not familiar with the old Shakespearean English bla…bla…bla....…”

After that, the leading interviewer commented that I have the proficiency to become an English teacher as quoted, “I’m sure my partner here agrees too”. My head was high up in cloud nine until they abruptly commented that my expression is also a little… a little,err…

“Emotionless,” I added,
and the interviewer exclaimed “YES YES! That’s the word!”.
Lol…?

They wanted to see more variety of my facial expressions.

So what did they ask me to do next?

..


..


..


..


..

..

DRAMA!!!

They, as my students, and I, as their English teacher to TEACH them how to ACT.

At first they asked me to act out a scene from Romeo and Juliet. I was like “What…?”.
My head was thinking, “How can I act such an exaggerated love scene. So embarrassing……..”.
So I asked if I could do “Si Tanggang” drama instead which was pretty simple.
Finally they asked in Bahasa Malaysia on how to cope with students who refuse to communicate in English. Because I’m less confident answering in BM, my answers were also less confident and a bit off.

*Sighs*



I guess that’s pretty much it right after they end the interview by asking whether or not I have any questions.

Finally I’ve gone through all my interviews. Now I’m just praying that God will choose for me the best path I should take.

AMEN!