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Escape From The Big Green Button
Emma Whitfield sits in an airport on a typical day of fog and drizzle and wonders how she has ended up there.
Six months earlier, after two years of searching for a decent job and with only a folder of rejection letters to show for it, she makes a sudden decision to ditch her demoralising photocopying career and run away to Prague to become a teacher, thinking this might kick-start her life again.
This is a story of ex-Communist tower blocks, radioactive goulash, energetic games of 'Bananas', mishaps, general embarrassment and one girl's quest to overcome an innate shyness and find some direction in life along the way.
Six months earlier, after two years of searching for a decent job and with only a folder of rejection letters to show for it, she makes a sudden decision to ditch her demoralising photocopying career and run away to Prague to become a teacher, thinking this might kick-start her life again.
This is a story of ex-Communist tower blocks, radioactive goulash, energetic games of 'Bananas', mishaps, general embarrassment and one girl's quest to overcome an innate shyness and find some direction in life along the way.
275 pages, Kindle Edition
First published July 31, 2012
1 person is currently reading
7 people want to read
About the author
Clara Harland
1 book1 followerClara Harland is a writer and teacher based in the UK. 'Escape From The Big Green Button' is her first novel and describes the mishaps of a disillusioned graduate who winds up in the chaotic world of teaching English as a foreign language. She is currently working on the sequel as well as writing a series of articles for EFL websites. Clara is also completing a children's book about the adventures of a small but magnificent pony named Phoenix.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
Want to read
November 17, 2012I don't really Want to Read Escape From The Big Green Button. I just want to Escape From The Big Green Button (otherwise known as tUGB).
April 14, 2013
If you want to know all about TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language), then this book tells you a good deal about it. Whether this worked as a novel, I’m not so sure.
Emma is a post-graduate spanning the gap between university and finding her career path with boring, mundane office jobs with nothing more interesting than mind-numbing clerical duties like filing and endless hours at the photo-copier (the source of that Green Button). After an I’ve seriously got to change my life moment, she embarks on a TEFL course in Prague, Czech Republic, where she meets a motley crew of both teacher trainees and ‘guinea-pig’ students. She then returns to the UK to put her training into practice and finds herself in charge of an unruly group of cheeky Italian teenagers. And then there’s the rather gorgeous Xavi…
This book can be divided into two halves, the first where Emma makes some firm plans to embark on and complete her course, then the second when she uses her training. I found the first half very interesting, but the second half was just a little ‘stretched’: I wanted something exciting to happen. Emma and Xavi’s will they won’t they wasn’t quite enough to keep me captivated. The book needs a professional editing eye: apart from some grammatical and punctuation errors, the author has a tendency to write long, convoluted sentences with little punctuation. I almost found myself out of breath as I read!
That said, Clara has used her own TEFL experiences to create an authentic and very credible setting. A perfect example of ‘write what you know’. I gained a fascinating insight to the workings of the TEFL programme in a witty and entertaining way, and I can confidently say that I learnt something. Emma has a lot of mileage as a character: she’s young, hard-working, committed and funny, and I can (just about) remember being in that post-graduate wasteland, which makes her all the more believable.
A good book to learn about TEFL. A compelling novel: not so much.
Emma is a post-graduate spanning the gap between university and finding her career path with boring, mundane office jobs with nothing more interesting than mind-numbing clerical duties like filing and endless hours at the photo-copier (the source of that Green Button). After an I’ve seriously got to change my life moment, she embarks on a TEFL course in Prague, Czech Republic, where she meets a motley crew of both teacher trainees and ‘guinea-pig’ students. She then returns to the UK to put her training into practice and finds herself in charge of an unruly group of cheeky Italian teenagers. And then there’s the rather gorgeous Xavi…
This book can be divided into two halves, the first where Emma makes some firm plans to embark on and complete her course, then the second when she uses her training. I found the first half very interesting, but the second half was just a little ‘stretched’: I wanted something exciting to happen. Emma and Xavi’s will they won’t they wasn’t quite enough to keep me captivated. The book needs a professional editing eye: apart from some grammatical and punctuation errors, the author has a tendency to write long, convoluted sentences with little punctuation. I almost found myself out of breath as I read!
That said, Clara has used her own TEFL experiences to create an authentic and very credible setting. A perfect example of ‘write what you know’. I gained a fascinating insight to the workings of the TEFL programme in a witty and entertaining way, and I can confidently say that I learnt something. Emma has a lot of mileage as a character: she’s young, hard-working, committed and funny, and I can (just about) remember being in that post-graduate wasteland, which makes her all the more believable.
A good book to learn about TEFL. A compelling novel: not so much.
May 3, 2014
As a newcomer to the world of TEFL myself, this book hit me on so many levels. It took me back to the horrors of the training course, in particular the confidence crushing comments from the tutors and the varied backgrounds of the other trainees. It reminded me of the first summer school experience, both the highs and the lows. It illustrated that most of us have the same experiences and it's just part of the TEFL rollercoaster.
The protagonist, Emma, is a part of all of us. Her social awkwardness, her terrible flirting, her quest to do the right thing both enamours you and frustrates. You just find yourself yelling "Oh, Emma!".
This is an enjoyable, fun and heartfelt first novel from the author and I look forward to hearing what happened to Emma. I recommend this to anyone in or thinking about becoming part of the TEFL world - these things really do happen!
The protagonist, Emma, is a part of all of us. Her social awkwardness, her terrible flirting, her quest to do the right thing both enamours you and frustrates. You just find yourself yelling "Oh, Emma!".
This is an enjoyable, fun and heartfelt first novel from the author and I look forward to hearing what happened to Emma. I recommend this to anyone in or thinking about becoming part of the TEFL world - these things really do happen!
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews