I’ve been interested in learning languages ever since living with Tomo, a Japanese international student, in college. While we lived together I was fascinated and inspired by his experience living abroad, and the community of international students sharing the experience of learning English.
So I decided that I could do something like that. I picked Spanish equally for its convenience, as I have some background with it, and its practicality in the US. And here I am. I have been in Seville, Spain for about a week and I am living with a local family. Roll call in our house includes: our Señora, the mother and matriarch of this brigade who will stop at nothing to make sure we have enough to eat; Pablo, the 17-year-old son who is interested in soccer, women, and spending time with his friends in the streets; Javier, a unrelated 30-year-old border who is currently out of work, but never in a bad mood; Michael, another recent college grad from Texas who will also soon be a language and culture assistant; and of course, Me.
Starting in October, I will be living in a small town called Albox in the province of Almería. I have a job through the regional government (the Junta de Andalucía) to bring American culture and language to the Spanish classrooms. I’ll be helping high school teachers make lesson plans in English, share American culture with the class, and demonstrate the American accent in classroom activities.
Since my job will be less than full-time (and the wages only enough to meet the minimum requirement to fill out visa paperwork, in a word, low) I also plan to give individual English lessons.
In the year ahead I plan to write about some of the differences between American and Spanish culture, the process of learning Spanish, the Spanish school system, some of my funnier experiences.
No comments:
Post a Comment