The semester here at the American Home is wrapping up, and it's hard to believe how fast it has gone by. It feels like I just started! We are doing final speaking tests today and tomorrow, and the final written exam is on Monday and Tuesday. I have definitely seen a lot of progress with my students, and there are some students now who know vastly more English than they did 4 months ago (although, when you start from almost nothing, it isn't too hard to make a big jump forward).

Every teacher, of course, has some bad students and--my least favorite--students who clearly have potential but who just don't put in the effort. I will definitely have some students fail, and I feel bad for them because, unlike other students who quit when it was obvious that they didn't have the time or the aptitude (I started with 63 students, and now I have 51), they have stuck it out until the end, and, unless they manage to pull off a miracle of last-minute exam preparation, there is little chance that they will pass the final. I'd like to give them an A for effort, but that won't get them very far in the next level, especially when they pose questions such as "Is drugstores on your neighborhood?" (asked during my speaking exam today).