I wouldn’t go so far as to say that I can speak Spanish. I know words. I know phrases. I know verbs and how to conjugate (most of) them. I can get around by myself if I need to, but I’d rather not. Because I teach at a bilingual school, and all of my classes are in English, the point is for the students to be immersed in the language with a native speaker. Enter: me.
Now, it's very hard not to practice my Spanish in the
classroom because (1) I just want to and (2) they obviously understand that
language better than the other. For example:
Me: “Students, find your seats.”
Students: blank stare.
Me: “Find. Your. Seats.”
Students: “Fye my whaaa?”
Me: “Sentase!!!!” (Not even knowing if that’s the right
word.)
Students: “Ooohhh!! Sit down!”
Well, before I got to Costa Rica, the students whined to the
sub (a girl from Costa Rica) – “Can’t we just speak Spanish?” She told them no,
that they could not speak Spanish because when their "real teacher"
got there (me), I wouldn't understand it - so they would need to always speak
English. Never Spanish because their "real teacher" (me) didn't speak
ANY Spanish.
Well the first day, I let a few Spanish words slip on
accident. For example:
Me: “Students, listen to me please.”
Students: A few looked up, the rest still lost in
distraction.
Me: “Escúchame!!”
Students: Everyone looked up and
paid attention.
On the second day, I accidentally
let a few more slip throughout the day. By the end of the last period, I had “practiced”
quite a few Spanish terms on my students. So when Josué brought his notebook to
my desk I said, “Gracias, mi amor,” which means, “Thank you, my love.” He
walked away and Sofia, whose desk is right in front of mine, turned around and
said, “Miss Ashli. You’re such a fast learner. You Spanish is SO much better
today!”
I smiled and remembered that she
thought I came with zero knowledge of Español. How cute she was, to encourage
me in my “learning.”
And that’s how we started our
first week in Miss Ashli’s class.
5 of my beautiful 8
