Over the past four months I have been keeping a running blog of my favorite moments/memories teaching.... I wish I could have put them all.... but as this chapter comes to a close I must share some of the hightlights of teaching ESL in Guatemala.
- Apparently the awkward turtle hasn't crossed cultural borders- When an awkward moment came up as I was monitoring one of my basico classes I immediately went to the awkward turtle for help. The word awkward even more so the turtle flopping around seemed to confuse them. As the rest of the class was working, I showed my students who had finished the full scale of awkwardness. I turned to the awkward snail that I learned this past summer in Indianapolis, which is hilarious when they have no salt on hand to kill my snail like hand crawling up their arm.
- Countable and uncountable nouns- confusing enough as it is for us English speakers, try getting native Spanish speakers to understand this. After my lesson of countable and uncountable nouns I was fairly certain that I was going to have a table full of lettuce welcoming me into the class the next day because of the five minute debate that resulted over its countability. I still stand by that it is uncountable, hopefully they will see the light before their quiz.
- Can- After teaching can and can't I discovered one of my students could cook. So every time a can statement came up I would ask who in the class can cook, and continued to ask her when she was making dinner. Needless to say, after their first quiz she spoiled the class with some pretty amazing chicken sandwiches. On top of that my morning class has a chef who welcomed us back after her Semana Santa break with ice cream and brownies.
- When telling my class that I'm a little bit crazy.... they always assure me that they are very much aware of that.
- I constantly have trouble with switching peoples names. It isn't that they look alike or that I don't know their name. It's that if they start with the same letter I can get confused. I had a five minute giggle breakdown one class when I mixed up three different pairs of names in the matter of two minutes.
- Chocolate cookies- There is a bakery here in Antigua that is to die for. One Friday my student brought me cookies from there and told me that she knew I loved chocolate and that it would help since I am always hungry. I love them so much!
- As many of my friends, family, and educators know.... I am horrible at spelling. There is nothing better than going to the non-native English speaker for some spelling advice.
- I have never seen some of my students laugh so hard as when I have to do some full out charades for vocab, or race them around the room to make sure they get the point of the lesson and vocabulary.
- I was helping a class with a Korean student and all the sudden he started speaking to me in Spanish. I was clearly confused on the switch of language and he made it clear as to why... "Well, if I speak Korean you aren't going to understand." Touche, touche.
- "You're a lady practice."- I took one of my classes to a coffee shop so they could practice ordering and when we were eating my student said. "You're a lady practice." I thought she was commenting on my manners and almost took offense, until she replayed the sentence in her head and corrected herself to say "You're a practical lady." It was quite comical how much the false cognate changed the meaning of her statement.
- Compliments during their writing time, no matter how cheesy never fail to make my day.
- Byron's light bulb- I have a class with a light bulb. When one student understands something it is as if the light goes off in his head, so we always communicate comprehension with light bulb.
- Spanish rule- Since I am not aloud to use Spanish in the classroom it is as if we have a timer until the last minute of class where they can ask me everything they want about my life, weekend, or even some translations. The time for this is always :01 and we all check our clock to see if it is a-okay.
- "I love my teacher!"- I have one class that really doesn't like to speak in English. So whenever I hunch over them looking as angry as I can possibly manage they always shout blurt out "I love my teacher!" They really mastered the art of brown nosing.
- Lovely moments-After subbing a class for a week I was one of the rambunctious jovenes blurts out "KODEE!" I asked him what and he responded in a very disappointed voice. "This is our last day that we get to play with you." It made me feel very special, and loved.
- Asian fun-There is, surprisingly enough, a few Koreans in my classes, one of which is very competent. I like to give him a hard time because he has a pretty fun personality. When I was eliciting sentences with vocab he came up with the following sentence with the verb to overcome: I overcame my class with Kodee. It was priceless and very fitting for how much I joke with him.
- Other sentences that have been the definition of golden-
- Kodee is hyperactive.... always.
- Kodee is a good teacher.
- "Smiling all the time.... you? Yes!"
- Take some rest-I have basically been in and out of sickness since I've been here, nothing makes me feel better than my students more or less correct advice (a topic we cover in class) posted on my Facebook wall.
- Leaving.... after telling my class I am leaving one of my Basico students goes "You're killing me, I'm going to cry." It made me feel special, because this sentence is totally grammatically correct AND well... it was far too kind.
- Louder!!- I acquired a few Korean students in my stay here. Yes, Koreans moved to Guatemala to learn English. Little did they know English isn't the first language. Anyways, I have a new one in a fairly basic class. There is one girl in there than is extremely quiet and I always have to work really hard to hear her. One day I was motioning that she needed to get louder and the Korean broke out, seemingly oblivious to others around him, shouting "Loud, loud, LOUDER!!!" It was so incredibly entertaining I can't describe it to real value.
- Nicknames- One of my class lessons was about the origin of your name and nicknames. To finish up the class I had them create animal nicknames for themselves and classmates. After passing some paper around I got my favorite nickname thus far. "Kodee is a Kangaroo because she always jump jump. We love her!" I feel like they hit it on the head. It was also fun to give them names like stallion, mother hen, or flamingo that were all fitting to their personalities as well as looks. The next week my mother hen brought me a snack and said "For my child."
- Meow!- With my Korean private student we were talking about the tingle/numb feeling when your leg falls asleep. He says "Meow." Completely lost as to why I asked him. In Korea this feeling is called mouse so they use a cat to scare it away. Oh how interesting culture is!
- Cushion- While eliciting the meaning of cushion I pointed out that Kodee means Cushion in some ancient language. One of my more basic Korean students blurts out..."Cushion? Comfortable?" while pointing to my stomach because he was trying to understand why I would be cushion... Ha! somewhat embarrassing, but we all got a kick out of it.
There are sooooooooo many more, I'm sure my roommates are sick of me coming home telling them all the fantastic things that happen in a day at Maximo Nivel. I can easily say that leaving my students will be the hardest part about leaving Guatemala. I have grown to love each of them for their own quirks and I am very protective of the future of their English education among other things. I owe each and everyone of them a huge thanks for helping me get to know myself a little bit more the past few months.
Yet, with that said I am excited for the next adventure to come my way. I feel like I have somehow been dealt a stacked deck this year, I can't wait to see what it brings me next!
