Life is good in Málaga

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Wow...when I told you all that life in Spain is a bit more laid back, I had no idea to what extent that is true. I thought, surely when they say I'll be working 12 hours a week, they really mean I'll be in the classroom for 12 hours and then I'll have other informal job assignments. Nope. In fact, I looked like a total fool yesterday when I asked if a there was a refrigerator to put my lunch in. I couldn't figure out why they looked so puzzled when I asked, but eventually I realized that I get off work at 1:50 at the latest, so I won't even need to bring lunch. I'll be home long before the 3 o'clock dining hour!!

Let me create a little analogy for you all regarding the degree of difficulty of this job. If teaching in Brooklyn was like learning to walk barefoot on hot coals, this is like sunbathing in the springtime. The kids are practically angels. They come in to the classroom and sit down without being told. Then, as soon as the teacher walks to the front of the room, they stop their conversations and listen. The halls of the school look as if they've never seen a piece of trash and the "noise" in the hallways is nothing more than that of conversations. No fights, no grafitti, no vandalism. What more could I ask for?

Basically I'm a conversation teacher. I don't have to teach grammar at all. My goal is to talk and get the kids to talk as much as possible in English. The students are between 12 and 18 years old, depending on the class. Today I helped with a class of 15/16 year olds. Rafael, the teacher who coordinates my schedule, introduced me to the class and then let them ask questions of me. They were shy, but they could barely disguise how eager they were to find out about my life. Once they found out that I've come from New York, I was instantaneously cool. After the Q&A, I took 7 students down the hall to a little room with a round table and sat and chatted with them for 45 minutes. Again, I was astounded at how easy it was to get them talking. The 16-year old mind is not complex, as I'm sure you realize. For about 2 seconds they were quiet and then I started asking them about music and food in Malaga, and they were chatting away. Our supposed topic for the day was whether or not Great Britain should make soon-to-be citizens take a cultural test in order to get citizenship. We had a great chat about how the test wouldn't be fair because who's to say what is and isn't British culture. And that conversation flowed quite well into another about what kinds of things people would need to know about Spanish culture to pass a test. I thoroughly enjoyed myself, and I think they did, too.

In addition to the students, I am much enamored of my co-workers. They are thrilled to have me here, both for the benefit of their students and so they can practice their English with me. I have math teachers asking me if it's proper to say "three/fifth" or "three/fifths" and others already wanting to pay me for private lessons. The school has recently been converted into a bilingual school, so they are feeling the pressure of having to teach at least 1/3 of their curriculum in English (math, social studies and science). Teachers in their 50's who've never really learned English are suddenly having to explain fractions and molecular structures in English, which is obviously scary and difficult. That's where I come in. Part of my job is to attend department meetings and bring useful English vocabulary for the teachers to use in their classes.

Enough about me. Sage is also blossoming. She joined a rugby team and is learning how to follow tackling drills in Spanish (how frightening!). She doesn't love her classmates in the Spanish institute where she's studying (they're a bit young and immature), but she has 2 or 3 job leads and will start giving private English lessons next week. Tonight she's taking me along on a class field trip to a museum and then we're having dinner with some classmates of hers from Michigan. Should be interesting, and I think we could both use some socializing in English after having to talk in Spanish all day. We've been pretty wiped out from all our language practice, but we're both improving rather dramatically. Fluency here we come!!

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