Day Twenty-Two - Wednesday

ARGH

I woke up with that feeling that you never, ever want to have first thing in the morning:

Razorblades slicing up my throat.

Ugh. Long day ahead.

CHOCOLATE IS BEST AT 11:30AM

First of all, Cuentos was inexplicably canceled. YES. Second of all, there was this cute little cafe that we all wanted to try, so off we went!

We got there and ordered six different things... one of which (mine) was a chocolate and crushed-ice-cream-cone crepe, with whipped cream and chocolate sprinkles on top. HEAVEN, thy name is CREPE.

Best. Midday snack. Ever.

JORGINA, OBLIGATORY ENGLISH, DISSECTING STRANGE THINGS

Oh, conversation tables, how happy I am that I have you in my life.

Okay, after my victory with getting Ana to talk yesterday, I was riding the high and was ready to attack the group today (not with a sword or anything). I got there, and my two super-talkative, opinionated girls weren't there (NO!), so I had Jorge, Jose Angel, and Ana. I came prepped with a game – I had written down “BOY” and “GIRL” on a card, and had them each pull cards. Whichever they picked, was what they would act like in any given scene. I did this to take the sting out of possibly messing up, because it made it fun for everyone to just be goofy and to not care about it. I also wanted them to practice what they call “lift conversation” or “small talk” - a lot of times, when we are learning a new language, we worry about sounding too stiff or don't know the proper way to initiate a conversation, so this was a way to practice those skills.

We did three scenes, and this is how things played out:

SHOPPING: Jorge (GIRL), Jose Angel (GIRL), Ana (GIRL)

PARTY: Jorge (GIRL), Jose Angel (BOY), Ana (BOY)

BEACH: Jorge (BOY), Jose Angel (BOY), Ana (GIRL)

The first scene about killed me: Jose Angel and Ana (who were clearly not comfortable with just talking yet) started off in the shop talking about a chair that they wanted to buy for an apartment, and then Jorge walked – or really, I should say flounced – into the shop and said, “OH MY GOD HIIIIII! How ARE you girls? Don't you LOVE my new jeans?!” after which he started posing like something out of a couture magazine.

No lie, I almost wet myself, I was laughing so hard.

The scenes continued in this way, with Jorge doing most of the conversation initiation and continuation (he was my most advanced today, it's not his fault) and throwing in great English-isms like, “oh, I know!” “haha right?” “no way!”. Gotta say, I was highly impressed with him today!

Another funny moment came during the beach scene: Jose Angel mentioned that there was a beach nearby that had paddle-boats you could rent and ride along the coast line. I loved this idea and sat up two chairs next to each other, which Ana and he sat in and began to mimic paddling the boat... and stopped about three seconds later. I asked him, “Jose Angel, why aren't you paddling?” He responded: “I am very tired from all of this paddling.” I laughed and said, “you've been paddling for three seconds!” He shrugged: “I study information systems and computers for this reason: to avoid physical exercise.” I love these kids!

After we had finished with the beach scene, everyone sat down and we talked about the beach a little bit more: what they did for fun there, what kinds of wildlife they usually see when they visit, that kind of thing. Jorge mentioned that he has seen a fish that had been gutted and was only left with its skin and eyeballs still intact. Apparently it was a very clean job, because the fish looked like it could still be alive, it was just completely hollow. This got us talking about science and experiments and dissection, which of course got him and Ana thrilled because they both love experiments and getting manual with science – it was awesome to see her light up again!

After a few minutes, the conversation turned to education in general. I asked what other foreign languages besides English they were learning, and Jorge said, “well, English isn't a foreign language. It's just a regular class for us.” What?? “Yeah, we have to take it by law here – it is obligatory to study English, because it is pretty much the universal language now. You need it for so many things.” It was then that I realized that, when I had asked them at the beginning of our time together how long they had been studying English, this was the reason that they had all given me strange looks: because for them, it's been a life-long process with various degrees of success and capable teachers. I had assumed that it was how it was for my peers and me – that they had been studying it for different amounts of time and that their levels were tied into the amount of time that they had been studying it.

This got me thinking: the United States doesn't require that you take a foreign language from a very young age, they just (at least in VA) require that you take one or two language studies in high school for your diploma. There is no other one language besides our native English that is required by law to take. I wonder if this will ever change, especially since Spanish is becoming so incredibly prevalent in our community. Personally, I think that making Spanish obligatory in schools would do our society a lot of good – it would increase cultural awareness, lower language barriers, and help to diversify future generations. Just my opinion.