Miss Alicia

Megan Handy
Student

June 26, 2009 • 10:34 pm PDT
+ responses

I headed to Spain with the goal of learning how to speak Spanish. I found an income working for a Spanish family, with three children. My duties consisted of picking the little ones up from school, working on homework, and supervising when the parents were not at home, however my main objective was to teach them English. Day after day I struggled to make learning fun for my three young Spaniards. Constantly trying to come up with activities that incorporated new English words and phrases, and i felt discouraged when they didn't want to play one of my made-up games. I soon learned that they loved scavenger hunts, and their enthusiasm for hunting down items such as pencils, flowers, and toothbrushes never failed to amuse me.

Exhausted from forcing siblings to speak to myself and one another in a language they barely understood, I was usually eager to leave and go home at the end of the day. Quickly, I began to see a pattern... it was phrases such as time for homework or turn off the TV now that they never seemed to understand, but they had no problems comprehending "who wants a cookie?" or "lets go to the park" . Over and over my own impatience was made clear to me as I snapped corrections at them, the same corrections I made the previous day, and the day before that... Its 'can I have a cup?', Not, 'you are one cup for me?' . I couldn't help but wonder if maybe I wasn't cut out for working with children. Some afternoons, when the older two were busy working on long division and multiplication tables, I would give the English a rest, this was my time with 6-year-old Alicia.

Sitting close to one another, her little head propped on my shoulder so that we can both see the pictures, we popcorn read Blas y Epi . As Alicia focuses on her exclamations, making questions sound like questions and pausing after every period, I pay close attention to her pronunciation. She effortlessly reads over the words, basic words, that I am still in the process of learning. Its my turn to read, and I begin to slowly stammer through each sentence. Much slower than my 6-year-old student, and suddenly our roles are reversed and I am no longer the teacher. I come to a big word and pause. Alicia gives me a few seconds to try and figure the word out on my own before gently giving it to me. I try my best to repeat the word exactly as she said it. Bien she says, and satisfied, I carry on. I'm relieved when my turn is over, and I can once again listen to her read me the story of Blas and Epi.

She continues to be incredibly patient with me throughout our reading, I'm embarrassed by my earlier frustration. I also notice her become more confident as its obvious to both of us that her Spanish, is much, much better than mine. We are now equals, working together to teach one another our native tongues. I see her confidence carry over when its again time for us to work in English, and for a little while she co-operates with my amateur teaching skills. The magic of our popcorn reading always wears off eventually. She refuses to speak in English, and I feel my irritation rise once more... its at this point in our day that I know we both need some quality time with Blas and Epi.