Dear Readership,
¡Hola! Ever have one of those moments where you realize your life is not a random happenstance of events plopped together, like a Sunday leftovers dinner, but you have actually accomplished something that makes you competent and intelligent and even GOOD at something?
Well, I had one of those today. I have a SECOND friend now in Seville, who is named Rocío, and she's a lovely Sevillana: Mom is from Seville and Dad is from Peru. We were sitting in a bar this afternoon off of the Plaza del Salvador and she complimented me "! Tienes mucha capacidad por las idiomas, eh! !Eres muy inteligente!" You have a real gift for foreign languages. You are very intelligent." To which I said "Thank you." ("Gracias por el cumplido.") but the way that you respond to be polite, and then she said it again, so that I could actually recognize it as being true. Oh.
So I'm not just this random 35 year-old doing this weird thing that no one else is doing: I'm living in Spain to get fluent in Spanish. She pointed out: "How many Americans speak 3 languages? There's one guy in Alaska and one guy in Wisconsin." ( I thought about "Jackass" and realized she was right.)" You could work in Washington, DC if you wanted." She's right.
I suddenly felt today, as I was walking from the Plaza Alfafa with Maria and Rocío and they were discussing the level of corruption in the Spanish government ( that's a whole other post) that I'd said that I wanted real friend in Spain, and now I HAVE one, that I'd said I wanted to improve my Spanish and now I HAVE, I AM. It's nice to have a casual discussion with your friends, getting thoroughly worked up over the news of the day, and me be able to take in 90% of it, no problem.
I think that learning a language is like being a brain mechanic: opening up the hood of the car, taking all the parts out, so that while you're working on it the garage is a friggin' mess and all of these oily parts are strewn all over the floor and you feel totally out of control, you have to break down your "forma de ser" (your way of being): you cultural expectations, your ear for language, your level of patience with yourself and everyone else, and then slowly, carefully, one by one, you put the pieces back into the motor, cleaning out the kinks in your brain, close the trunk and when you turn the engine back together again, it sounds seamless, strong, and steady: like you, but better: you haven't replaced any parts, you've just given the old girl a tune-up. My mother found a wonderful quote from "It starts with a sound and ends with a deed." This year in Spain started off with a shot, and I was off.... I lost my voice completely and now it has ended with a deed: getting my voice back and getting fluent in Spanish.
I think that's what this year was hear to teach me: that I can go through challenges: Utrera, for example, and keep going until I find my way out of them. To quote Winston Churchill, it's the end of the beginning.
This also marks the very first weekend where I've called up a friend to hang out, someone that I really connect with, and we DID, just hang out! It's not about intercambios or conversation partners anymore: I have some "enchufes": some hook-ups into Spanish culture who I LIKE HANGING OUT WITH!
Here are some of the many words and phrases that I have learned in my last two meetings with Rocío:
"Nunca se va a poner en mi piel." which means, they will never put themselves in my place, or in my skin, in which Rocío was referring to the politicians in the two primary parties in Spain: the PPOE and the PP: there was a recent interview on a Spanish news program in which prominent members of the Spanish government were asked "How much does a cup of coffee/ a metro ticket cost?" and they weren't able to answer. Why? Because the taxpayers money takes care of all of their meals, transportation, etc.... This is one of the things I admire about Rocío: she is very involved in politics but she has a great sense of humor, so I can learn things from her without feeling like it's a "lavador de cerebro": a brain-washing. To be quite honest, I wish there were more of her in the U.S.: even Jon Stewart can get fairly didactic on "The Daily Show". Huh. I guess you CAN be politically-informed without being strident.
Rocío has been feeling stuck lately: she told me " Estoy estancada" on Thursday. She wants to move to the U.S. to teach Spanish and to improve her English, just as I want to stay in Europe and continue perfecting my Spanish. It's nice to have a buddy to help you out with that.
My horrible ex-roomate, who, in response to me breaking our lease: mind you (I paid all the rent IN FULL and left her wanting NOTHING: I just simply moved to a place that made me happier) went back on her agreement to switch work shifts with me when my family visits next week from the U.S., so now I have one day less with them. CUNT ANYONE?! ( Let me just way that I wasn't even aware of that word until the end of my '20's and I NEVER use it in my everyday life, but if the shoe fits..)
She's seems all pretty and blonde and demure but really, she's a "mosquita muerta": She will take advantage of you: she's not all sweetness and light: she is a hypocrite, or a piece of shit.
Thank goodness I've already had some nice long trips with my family around Europe: Rome and Paris, to be specific.
My teacher at CLIC, which is a great language academy with centers all over Spain: www.clic.es teaches a class of teen-aged girls, which she loathes, because ellos tienen la edad del pavo: "they behave like turkeys": it's an awkward age. It's also not that fun to teach that age, for example,
MY ENTIRE YEAR!!!!!!!
To do something for a time: por una temporada
"Viví en España por una temporada."
When you ask someone: ? Has cruzado el charco?" means literally "Have you crossed the puddle?" but really: "Have you crossed the Atlantic ocean?" "Have you been to the United States?"
You can also use this expression in asking Latin Americans if they've ever been to Spain.
A girl that is a little round ( like me) is 'rellenita"
Someone that is original can be "fuera de lo comun": out-of-the-ordinary, like Zooey Deschanel. (Though I don't buy for a moment that "New Girl" tagline "adorkable" because she is gorgeous and they're trying to dork her down to make her like nerdy-tragically-hip)
Since Rocío and I are both teachers, we were talking about differences in the classroom in Spain and in the U.S. "Copiar" copying a classmate's work is not a big deal AT ALL in Spain: it happens ALL THE TIME, whereas in the United States, at least, "Está mal visto": it's frowned upon. Even more than that, in universities it's ground for expulsion or at least for failing a class. I actually had a student in one of my French classes last year whom I caught cheating, and myself and three other students had to go to the administration and take an hour and a half out of our day to recount the event: that he had taken another student's work, which she and he had worked on together in a study session, and passed it off as his own. He then had the nerve to show his face in class the following week, as if nothing had happened, at which point I had to take him outside and advise him that dropping the class would be in his best interest instead of "Listen, Turdball express, you'd better hightail it out of here!"
That's ANOTHER thing that we talked about "ser arma de doble filo." A positive thing about higher education in the 21st century is that there are student study centers, students advisors, etc.. set up to help students and be a built-in sounding board and support system for them in their academic pursuits, but "es un arma de doble filo" ( a double-edged sword) because if they step out of line: ie. cheat, there is all this of this bureaucratic bullshit to go through to make sure the student is punished.
This highlights one of the key tonal differences between the Spanish and French education system: the Spanish are SUPER lax and "laissez-faire" with everything from the volume-level in their classes (through the roof! I have had to go to a "ferretería", hardware store to purchase earplugs that construction workers use) to cheating, whereas the French are Old School, Catholic-nun, break-you-down-to-build-you-up-pro-public-humiliation.
In the case of my terceros: my third-year students, I would prefer the latter system.
From what I understand in speaking with my director, who grew up in Spain under Franco, it was VERY brass-tacks two generations ago, those who lived under "Franquísmo" didn't want to subject their children to it, and so the pendulum has swung in the other direction."
I DO feel that the class has to be like a sonnet: there is a very strict structure, but within that structure there is absolute freedom.
My two years as a teaching assistant in France gave me a FABULOUS training ground for "? Cómo enfrentarse a una clase?" How does one go up in front of a class?"
My structure? I like to start with a 5-minute "moment de zen" where the students put their hands on their knees, close their eyes and breathe 3 deep breaths. Then we all open our eyes together and I say "Hello, class!" and they say "Hello, teacher Kate!" and then we start with students asking eachother a bunch of questions, then we go over the homework/review the questions from the last class, then we introduce a new topic and play a new game with it: like a mime, acting or pantomime game, or watch a silly video, then the class ends with a written exercise, which calms and centers the students and gets them ready for the next class. I like to think that when I teach, I'm also prepping my students to move on to the next class in their day: I like to set the tone and get them ready.
So yeah: that's me the teacher. I think that's what I've really missed about this year: is ACTUALLY TEACHING, not just reading out some sentences, but TEACHING A CLASS. I've been sorely underused, like Casey Wilson on "Saturday Night Live", so is it any wonder that up until this March, my experiences at El Palmar have been largely unsatisfactory? I mean, you take a professor with a Master's degree from the most prestigious language school in the U.S. and you don't give her ANYTHING to do, OF COURSE I'm going to feel unfulfilled! Did anyone ever make Michelangelo work as a house painter? I don't think so.
Wanton hubris, party of one.
Good to be back, folks.
