July 4th isn’t quite the same in a foreign country. It also isn’t a particularly popular day to celebrate here because the U.S. is responsible for the 1954 coup (the Wikipedia entry is actually pretty good) that destabilized Guatemala for the following 42 years.
Folks here are fascinated with the American way of life but it’s only to a certain extent. In any case, we didn’t do too much celebrating. There are fireworks everyday—but that is for a different post.
Things at the office were slow. We had a typing class with a couple of farmers—and then got ourselves together to go into Antigua for dinner. After a certain time, all the shops in San Miguel Escobar are closed and your dinner options are few and far between.
So, we ate at a cheesy tourist spot and watched bad reggaton videos on MTV Tres. Then, we followed blaring music to the central park—there was a band playing—and they weren’t half bad.
While we stood there, there were about 4 different bands that played. Few of them had original songs, but it was almost better that they covered other songs. There were a bunch of One of the bands covered Rihanna’s song “Umbrella”. That was hysterical—it was raining—people had umbrellas out, but of course no one understood the song at all because it was in English.
After that, we went dancing. As soon as I walked into the club, a very tall girl clocked me in between the eyes with her elbow. Luckily I had just taken my glasses off because they were fogging up. Anyway, the blow hurt a lot. I felt like I was going to have a bump or a welt. At least that would have proved that it hurt.
Anyway, we danced for a while. Twenty-something boys are very persistent individuals. It was merengue night, but it was so crowded that it was actually difficult to dance. We left the club, soaked with sweat, and made our way back to San Miguel.
That's how we spent July 4th this year. Hopefully, there'll be a little more fanfare wherever I am next year.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
Testing...mom can't figure out how to do this....
Jen - Rather than create an artificial dialogue that your students may have to memorize, write together with your students a curriculum using the current teaching approach,the communicative approach, i.e., eliminate any words or phrases that will be unnecessary, include words or phrases that are MEANINGFUL and will be more easily stored and retrieved, e.g., Where is the train station? comes to mind, as one of the useless sentences I can still say in French after 30 years, whereas my Italian is more basic to daily functioning.
Students under the age of 8 generally learn differently than students over the age of 8. Cognitive development theory held that something exists neurologically that was named 'the language center' that closed off after the age of 8.
Before the center closes off, students literally learn language by listening,absorbing, modeling and hypothesizing... the way an infant learns a language or a scientist learns. There is less fear of making a mistake, more trial and error and less embarrassment overall.
After the language center is closed, students consciously or subconsciously insist on learning by translating,often word for word, which slows the process down considerably.
When teaching language to students who have any of the attention disorders, remember to take into consideration that they often have trouble 'attending to audiological input.' (Think of your brother).
These students (myself included) have an easier time learning if they engage their stronger or compensatory senses: seeing, saying, writing, or acting out a word or phrase to enhance retention.
The exception is with adults who are called 'gifted language learners.' I would include you in that category.
In general, women learn faster than men, and students illiterate in their own language may benefit from gaining ownership without the written word, rather than beating a dead horse by trying to teach them the alphabet and never helping them to reach any proficiency in English.
Pronunciation sheets are available, but shouldn't be drummed in unless requested by the student. E.G., the Y/J or 'th' consonant cluster barriers to English are minor in the long run.
Many students have a vested psychological interest in maintaining their way of pronouncing words, even English words.
Just as our natives hold onto 'posh' accents from Boston, Great Britain or South Africa, because they are proud of their heritage, students must want to ACCULTURATE before they give up their way of enunciation. It took me years to pronounce anything with a 'chet' in it.
I understand that some students (like you) will become successful almost immediately, others will make attempts, but hold back. Others may have trouble 'hearing' their finished product or the difference between your pronunciation and their futile attempts.
Don't discount hearing impairments. With an indigenous population, untreated ear infections or genetic tendencies (like our narrow eustachian tubes) may impede progress. Certain consonants sound like other consonants to students. You'll notice the patterns.
Students ALWAYS learn best when forced to teach to others. Have students practice teaching to each other. Also, with your most reluctant students, have them teach you a dialect, or practice a pronunciation you will flub up, i.e., make them feel good to be able to switch seats and be the teacher.
Start the students on writing dialogue journals. They can ask a question, or write as much as they like and you collect the notebooks and answer back. They can use your answers to model future written language and spur more questions. This should be a daily task. They can also compile a journal with pages written at home, pages written while in a group....recipes, games, crossword puzzles, drawings, and so on. None of my students grades 1 through middle school disliked their journals. You can also incorporate haiku and cinquain instruction.
If any of this comes in handy, let me know and I'll write with more teaching tips.
Love, Mom
okay, writing after your mom makes me feel stupid since that was all so smart but still...
When do I get to see a picture of you wearing your glasses?
Post a Comment