Spanish Class Rants and Invented Words

            I started Spanish classes and volunteering this Monday. This is actually a kind of weird week (or the best week?) to have arrived, because this Saturday is Guatemalan independence day, and the entire week is a feria week – the kids get off school, most everyone has a three day weekend, and there are parades and free concerts every day. Just outside town is the feria, which is basically a huge carnival. I haven’t gone yet, but I should be going this Friday so I’ll report back.

            Every day I go to El Nahual, which is a little community center with classrooms, a garden, and an office, to take Spanish classes in the morning and teach kids English in the afternoon. The Spanish classes are one on one and when I signed up for them I didn’t really think about the fact that they were going to be actual classes, as in there would be worksheets and homework. So basically, since I have now been taking Spanish classes for 12 years and I thought I was finally done with that ( last years Spanish was just goofing off and reading short stories in Spanish) the spansih classes are not especially enjoyable. In fact, I am harboring a great deal of both resentment and sympathy towards the poor woman who keep trying to make me give examples with the verb querer.

On one hand, I am not a particularly willing student… and I straight up refused to do some of the worksheets.. and I haven’t done any of the homework…and on the other hand I am paying her and she has ignored my suggestion to teach me local customs and sayings. Also, about every five minutes she asks me if I am tired ( I don’t know, are you tired?). And asks me rude questions to try and make conversation. No joke, today she straight up asked me – Are your friends gossipy and full of themselves? And then she asked me if people in the US believe in God. Can we please find some kind of middle ground here?

At least they are done on Friday. Thank god. My Spanish isn’t perfect, but I am definitely beyond worksheets.

The volunteering I actually love – the kids are adorable, and super willing to learn. I’m sure later on I will get frustrated with teaching the same things over and over again but for now I’m still in the honeymoon stage.

And for now, I’ll leave you with a photo of a test I gave a little girl about family members. Keep in mind, she was supposed to put the corresponding translation next to the first word ( which I wrote). Then, after her first try ( when she copied all of them except mother) I told her to go study some more and try again. The third word is her second try. Sisro, toto,toyo, and fori, don’t mean anything in spanish at all.

Pieces of pan today: 4

New words: Chompipe = Turkey