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FREELANCE DESIGN WORKS

October 22, 2017

October 1, 2017

15 September 2017

October 1, 2017

Viktoria Dekany
Oct 1, 2017
3 min read

STARTING THE REAL LIFE...

Teaching Job in Spain

Written by Viktoria Dekany, Interior Architect & Design Teacher

Figure 1. Happiness in Granada (Dekany, 2017)

It’s time for writing a new post and reveal more informations of my job’s details as well as the last few days’ exciting happenings.

As I wrote before, I got a fantastic opportunity as a Design Teacher at one of the university in Granada. I won’t tell a secret that I was very surprised by this offer due that I was also a student few months ago. I believe that my years of hard work payed off, and that’s what probably got the Spanish university’s attention. As I explained before I always wanted to live in the sunny Spain, so I accepted the offer straight away.

After my last exam, I traveled to Granada to meet in person with the directors of the university and to talk about my job description. This three-day visit was more than great, and I was even more excited to start the job. It was a wonderful feeling that I, as a Hungarian who graduated in England is sitting in a business meeting in Spain regarding to my future teaching job. I think I don't have to say how big step it is in my life.

We have been talking about my teaching subjects on the meeting, but I received the exact timetable only a week ago. I wasn’t that happy about it as I got only a short deadline to write the teaching schedules for each classes. I will have six different classes over the year, 15-20 members of groups. I am responsible for teaching sketching, drawing and design concept development to the first- and second year interior- and product design students. Furthermore, I will teach visualization, different computer softwares and professional presentation making to the graphic design students. Beside the design, I have to teach Technical English as well, from the very basic.

As a freshly graduated person, this seemed a bit much for me. I don’t have any teaching qualification and neither materials which I could prepare from. This means, I have to write the teaching schedules for each classes on my own, and it is very exhausting. Luckily, in the past few days, I could manage to complete the first month’s schedule and I will add the others in the meantime.

Writing the teaching scedules (Dekany, 2017)

In the past week, I had a four-hour teacher training in each day. Obviously, everything was in Spanish which didn’t make my situation easier but as I spent days to translate each design projects, I could understand 50% of the seminars. My colleagues seem likeable for the first sight however the fact they don’t speak English is very disappointing. As I found out, I would take a note that in Spain, it is not necessary to have a language certificate to complete a degree.

In the past few days, I started to feel the excitement increases because I will jump to the real world from tomorrow and I will do my first teaching classes! I will do my introduction in Spanish to the students which received a great feedback from my colleagues - they say my accent is very nice.

The first message to my students! (Dekany, 2017)

As I pointed out in my first post, I would like to write not just about my career but my personal life. Exactly a month passed since my moving and during this period I had good but bad moments as well. The homesick and loneliness feeling come up periodically but the fact compensates me that this job is a huge step in my career/life. After the summer rest, I started to take care about my health again and I signed up for a gym. It’s not just the source of training’s happiness but provides a perfect place for the everyday’s socialization. I have more and more friends, but I have to note there are some funny situations when my conversation partner talks in Spanish and I reply in English! However, we are still able to understand each other and we can laugh a lot. :)

Slowly, but sure I am going to reach my goal, I will learn the Spanish language and everything’s going to be easier. I am still get along well with my private tutor, she does great classes.

From tomorrow, the real life is going to start and hopefully it will be one of the best period of my life. I hope students will like me and my classes will be fun. The most important for me is that they see me as an exemplar, but a friend as well - a person who they can trust.