Angloville - Idioms, Towel Ball and Vodka

The banter rolled on for six, glorious days.

I had a great time. The Polish participants were all good sports. I know it couldn't have been easy for them speaking English all day so they certainly gained my respect. As for the native English speakers, they were  top notch. Each one brought something different to the table which, hopefully, made the hours of conversation interesting for the Poles.

To shed a little light on Angloville - it's not so much about teaching English. It's more about helping the participants feel confident using the English they already know. If they pick up a few new words along the way and / or fix some bad habits, that's gravy!

Tip - If you're ever in a conversation with a non-native English speaker and they seem to be agreeing with you a lot - saying "yes, yes" and nodding their head, it probably means they don't have a clue what you're talking about. If you think that might be the case, try explaining it in a different way.

So who were all these people?

The Poles: 

• Iza - Neurologist who put on the best pretend MRI scan I have ever seen.
• Peter - Full-time Pharmaceutical Sales and Marketing Manager. Part-time mountain rescuer and, windsurfer. 
• Magda - Biotechnology student and fanny pack wearer (she pulled it off much better than PIP).
• Peter - Life Insurance sales manager, family man, story teller. 
• Slawomir - Ball Bearing salesman who was far more interesting than his job may lead you to believe. By the end of the week I had him selling blue beer.
• Konstanja - Account Manager and vodka connoisseur. She may not have wanted to be there but she ended up having some fun anyway. I take full credit for teaching her the word "lame".

The Natives:

• Maxine and Ian - Semi-retired New Zealanders who's current lifestyle I hope to copy one day. 
• Kevin - Born in the US but a man of the world. A drinker. A wise-ass. My roomie. 
• Glennis - Aussie gal who's got a serious case of wanderlust. We travelled together after the program and her sense of direction is worse than mine.
• Nik and Rachel - He's originally from Russia. She's English. They love frogs. 
• Heather - An American who wasn't keen on all the soup. 

The Program Coordinators: 

• Conrad - Goofy accent and a pony tail. Naturally we (and by "we" I mean mostly Kevin) took the piss out of him constantly but he took it like a champ. "HOWEVER".
• Joanna - Young Polish gal who's all business and as sweet as apple pie. 

Here we are: