Lazy Day

So today I don't have to go to school. No one does. It's a national holiday. I'll probably just walk around and take some pictures. I've failed to do that on other days, because I already have so much stuff in my hands and a camera adds to the pain.

Yesterday

I lead the English classes at the elementary school and the night school. It was very difficult, because the kids get bored really quick. We worked on some material for a play that they will see. They need to learn the plot synopsis and the vocabulary to be able to enjoy the play. I was surprised that so many of them wanted to answer the questions. The 11 year old kids are by far the funniest and most active. They tell alot of jokes and understand more English. The 9 year old kids don't understand as much English and so just start shouting at random words. I asked someone to tell me the meaning of "alone". Instead of letting me act it out, the teacher tried to explain the movie "Home Alone" to them in English. It was disaster. They started to shout out verbs that have nothing to do with the word "alone".

Night school was a bit difficult at first. The intermediate 1 class don't understand as much so they start speaking in Spanish when we break them into groups to do the exercises. They had to do exercises in which they agreed or disagreed with a given statement. We couldn't get anyone to disagree on the statement that women worry more about their diets than men. Everyone agreed with the man that said "I go to a restaurant and eat everything. She go and might eat nothing." They had a hard time understanding me, also, because I spoke too fast. Not because of my accent. I usually don't speak with an accent when I'm in school. I just need to work on speaking slower. It seems obnoxious when tourists do it. You've seen it. They talk really really slow and really loud. Well, in this class, that's what I'm supposed to do. I just need to get used to it. I also need to think of some simpler synonyms for the confusing words instead of more confusing synonyms...

The intermediate 2 class was fun. The jump in comprehension was amazing. They did excellent on reading comprehension. We read about the group ABBA. To begin the class, I asked them about the types of music that they listen to. Most of them said they enjoyed pop, but I didn't believe them. I assumed that this one guy didn't listen to pop. I totally stereotyped him because of his tattoos, leather jacket, and lip ring :/ I am a heathen, but I was right. He said that he likes metal rock and that his favorite group is Iron Maiden. This same guy also said that he does not like ABBA and can only listen to them after drinking. Also, he supposed that the group broke up, because love and work don't mix. He said, "If I'm around my girlfriend, I can't say what I want to say. These things don't mix. The working and the loving." We of course had to follow the book and listen to "The Winner Takes it All" to fill in the lyrics. This song was written after the group split. A lot of them could only fill in the blanks, because they knew the song. Sadly, the clip was a cover song and apparently the cover song was worse than the original. Oh and one more thing....Did you think Bjorn and Benny were boyfriends? One of my students did. :)

Pura Vida

P.S.

I promise the next post will have pictures.