How not to lose English

I am Polish and I am a teacher of English in Poland. I teach young children. Unfortunately, I have noticed that my English is becoming less and less perfect as I have no chance to use it in real life situations here in Poland and I have no person to person contact with native speakers of English. Could you suggest any ways of not losing English? Thanks.

Did you try to listen to British or American radios (On internet or on a RW compatible radio)?

Keep on practicing English all time you can. Listen to radio, watch television, read books and newspapers in English rather than Polish. While you don’t get the opportunity to talk with a native speaker out there, according to what you said, then why don’t you go fine a pen pal or chat with some native speakers on the internet with voice chat, if possible.

Yes, I listen to the radio, watch TV, read in English - however, I still lack some ( a lot of ! ) English words. How should I explain it to my pupils that I do not know the English equivalent to the Polish word they are asking for? I am the teacher, I should know everything for them. They are right, aren't they?

Finding a pen pal or chat with some native speakers on the internet with voice chat seems to be a good idea.

>>>How should I explain it to my pupils that I do not know the English equivalent to the Polish word they are asking for? I am the teacher, I should know everything for them. They are right, aren't they?<<<

Well, I believe there is about 500.000 words in English so, no, I don't think you should know all of them. Anyway, if you teatch to young children, I don't expect them to ask for too complicated words.
Plus children are more sensitive to how the teatcher feel than you'd think. If they feel you are ashamed not to now everything, they will think it's not normal you don't know everything. But if you feel you are OK even if you don't know everything (which is normal, who do?), they'll just think that's normal. Even the adults have still things to learn.
All of this is only my opinion of course and I am neither a teatcher nor a native English speaker.

Monika
That would be great if you knew every word in English. I wonder if there are English scholars who know every word in English.
The best way to explain to your students that you don't know all the words is to tell them the truth that you are not native and you are learning every day. Have a dictionary in your class and look up for the words you don't know. You aren't the sole teacher to encounter these difficulties.
I recommend you to go to Yahoo Messanger and talk to the people in different chatrooms. Be careful, you may come across natives who speak bad English but you can change room.
If you meet the tourists in your region, have some conversation with them.
If you don't find anyone, speak loudly to yourself or declaim poetry. Keep on practicing evey day a little bit by writing, listening, speaking, reading, ...etc.
What grade do you teach and how old are your pupils ?

Kabam, thank you for all you have written. I have summer holidays now, and I will try to keep in touch with English, first of all through the Internet. I 've been connected to it for two weeks only but I can see what a helpful thing it is in improving English. I will also try to find a pen pal on the net, although I do not know how yet.

Monika
Do you mind to tell me about the material you have been using in your classes ? Which books, methods, audio, vidio, nursery rhymes ?
Have you ever used "Let's sing let's chant" by Carolyn Graham. There are nice chants and songs in her books with a gammatical structure each time. Children chant and sing and learn English structures at the same time.

chantal
Thanks for the interest. As for my pupils, I teach in a primary school and my pupils are 10,11 and 12 years old. Of course , they are demanding but you know the coursebooks are really good now - with colourful pictures, songs and poems. What is sometimes really hard during the lessons is maintaining discipline - not every child can realise that English is what they will really need in the future.
To make my lessons more interesting I will try to get the chants you wrote about.
The problem I wrote about at the beginning was MY losing English as I am not using it constantly - but it's my problem and I should do my best to prevent it . Now I think that strong will and self - discipline is what I need. I hope that the Net ( I will go to Yahoo Massanger ) and people like you will help me. Thanks.

You could contact the Webmasters--they are Polish. They might be able to lead you in the right direction.

Monika
Go to http://school.discovery.com/teachers/
there are all sorts of neat teaching tools and free worksheets, puzzle making (great because you choose your own vocabulary).

If your people are interested in games,which is mostly the case of children of this age go to :
http://www.yahooligans.com/content/games/
There are different games. All the children like 'dots' and 'bingo'.

Sorry
'If your pupils are ...'

chantal,
Thank you for the web pages. Yes, they will be a great help to me. Now I see what people mean by saying that you can be easily addicted to the Internet... I can't wait to search more and more and more ...
As for my pupils, well , it's an endless story...

Monika
Have you used "Cambridge" or "oxford" university press books in your classes ? Like 'Join in', 'Chatterbox' (now Chit Chat), 'Primary colours', ...etc.