Meet the Students

I do not know the precise level of noise that can be generated by a small group of primera de ESO students, but judging from the students before me it is the rough equivalent in decibels of a jet engine.  Rafa alone is loud enough to be heard several classrooms away, and combined with his peers he could   probably go to a heavy metal concert and drown out the performers. In another of my classes is a boy whose name I don't know, mostly because he insists on being called "Jetty," the Spanish word for the infamous ape-like cryptic that we call Yeti. Little Napoleon, a student of mine who resembles a thirteen year old version of the French Emperor in both appearance and stature, has mastered the standard greeting: "How are you?" He practices with me in the hallways every time we pass each other. Then there is The Lopexx, who is unique among my students for both abiding by a title with a definite article and for including his YouTube channel on his name tag, although he is not the only one who has his own channel. Little Napoleon also apparently has a YouTube channel, and last week he triumphantly claimed to have five thousand followers. 

"Five thousand!" he affirmed, after I asked him to repeat the number. "Five thousand followers!"

The student sitting behind him waved for my attention, holding up two fingers.

"Two followers," said the other student. "He only has two."

Meanwhile, in tercera de ESO, we continued our game of mimica, the name in Spanish of Charades. This game, while relatively straightforward, has had its complications. Most of the difficulty comes from simple errors in translation, though illegible handwriting is also a factor. Recently, I had to ask one of my young students to clarify what she was trying to say. On her card, she had written: I am going to the 200. 

"What do you mean to say here?" I asked. "I am going to the 200."

"I am going to the zoo," she replied. 

"Oh...right..."

But it isn't all fun and games in IES Litoral. As part of a unit on describing the community and landmarks, I had my students create and present their own towns. They were instructed to brainstorm different buildings important to a community, and then to work in groups to design their towns. Among the most important buildings was the school, the library and the soccer stadium. Among the least important buildings was the bank. Once they had finished designing the town, they presented their work to the rest of the class. One student, Juan Pauli, was especially pleased with his community. 

"I will call it Chernobyl," he said proudly. 

In another class, love is in the air. 

"Claudia is my girlfriend," declared Eduardo, pointing to the wide-eyed girl sitting beside him who was vigorously shaking her head. 

"No," said Claudia. "It's a lie."

More recently, I met Aula, an American student who is doing a year long exchange program at Litoral. No one had bothered to tell me that there was an American exchange student at our school. 

"You know," I said to Aula. "Your English is very good."

"Well, I am from Texas," said Aula. 

I have eleven classes, and approximately 250 students. Since I only see them once a week, I am still in the process of learning all of there names. In all seriousness, it is a privilege to work with these students, even those who do not put in much effort. Many of my students express a strong desire to learn English, and those students are the ones who make this experience so rewarding. Though there are students who likely will not show much improvement at the end of the year, there are others who work very hard and consistently express interest in acquiring new language skills. I can only hope that, by the end of my time here, I will have enriched their lives in the same way that they have enriched mine. 

I Love The Nightlife

The most difficult part about Spanish nightlife is not staying out all night. It is waking up the next day and realizing that it is already three in the afternoon. Here in Malaga, as in the rest of Spain, the Spanish regularly stay out on weekends until six or seven in the morning. Returning home at three a.m. is an early hour for them, and not necessarily one that they only see on Fridays and Saturdays. Nightlife is an integral part of Spanish culture, and they have made it an art like no other culture in the world.

Thanks to the flourishing language exchange scene, it is very easy for foreigners, especially those fluent in English, to meet locals and other foreigners in Malaga. The language exchanges are held at local bars in the center of Malaga, and are usually organized so that participants speak to each other for one hour in Spanish and then one hour in English. One of the best exchanges, or intercambios, is through the Pachange network. I have attended this exchange several times, and through it I have met Spaniards, other auxiliares, and nationals of other European countries. Pachange meets every Monday and Friday, and on Fridays the groups often go out for drinks after the exchange. On Wednesdays, there is an exchange at Casa Invisible, and Morrissey's holds an exchange of their own on Thursday evenings. If one were to look hard enough, attending an exchange every night of the week would not be out of the question.

Beyond the exchanges hosted by local bars, there are also numerous websites such as conversationexchange.com through which I have met locals here in the city. One of these individuals, David (in the photo below), has become a friend of mine. This past weekend he took me to some of the more popular bars in Malaga, in particular those where many of the students and young people hang out.

Through one of my roommates, Scott, I have also met more of the auxiliares based in Malaga. Though only two of us from the January orientation came to Malaga, more than one hundred auxiliares were placed in the province last September. I also have encountered US students on study abroad programs, and European students who are participating in the Erasmus program.

Right now it is still winter in Malaga, which means that it is sometimes rainy and windy. Compared to Chicago, however, the winter is very mild. Still, one of the other auxiliaries yesterday informed me that many Spaniards go out less during the winter, and that once the weather becomes more agreeable over the next few weeks, more people will meet up by the beach. I am very excited for this experience.

The upcoming week of classes should be relatively uneventful. Of the eleven classes that I teach, only one is difficult to manage. Since the other teachers give me so much autonomy, I plan to prepare a lesson on the Olympics in Sochi. Here in Malaga, the Olympics are being overshadowed by the Copa del Rey, a national basketball tournament that has overtaken the entire city. Since I don't follow basketball even in the United States, I am not much interested in the Copa del Rey. The Olympics are much more exciting, though I have not yet been able to watch many of the events, as NBC's content is not available outside the US. Hopefully, my students will find it interesting.