Teaching English, Learning Spanish

In America, to be an English teacher you need at least a 4-year degree and months spent student teaching under the guidance of a more experienced teacher. In Spain, to be an English teacher you apparently need to a) speak English and b) have taken a one-month course that may or may not have been mostly spent coloring pictures and playing "getting to know each other" games even into the fouth week. Thus, I find myself teaching English - drawing a little bit from my TEFL course, but mostly just perfecting a combination of 2 parts activities from the books, magazines, and audio CDs my work gave me and 1 part making it up as I go. It's working well so far.

I have 7 different classes a week, and I'm working about 14 hours, Monday-Thursday. I admit that doesn't sound like much. But I'm beginning to envy my high school teachers of the past who could stay in one classroom all day and have their students come to them. As for me, I feel like a doctor making house calls all around the city of Barcelona all day. Need to learn English? I'll be there in an hour with my bag of English books in hand.

My earliest class is 8-9 am two days a week. Chances are, if you're taking the time to read this, you know my feelings about waking up early. The only positive thing about it is not having to dodge clumsy tourists taking pictures of all the street performers on Las Ramblas (the main street of Barcelona) during my walk to the metro. Every else is alseep in their warm beds.

Next up I have two businessmen to whom I had to explain that no, the word "huge" has no relationship to Hugh Grant. Then I take the bus to the edge of the map to teach very advanced business professionals who pretty much just want to have an interesting conversation for an hour. It's easy in that way, but it's hard to come up with things that will challenge them.

Not that I play favorites, but if I did, my favorite class would be my Tues/Thurs afternoon class. It's three students who I teach at the Bi-Cultural building: one who works there as a receptionist, her son, and their friend who's an interior designer. I always thought that I would enjoy teaching children more than adults, but I've realized that, while children are in a language class because their parents sign them up for it, adults are there because they have the motivation and desire to learn. Or their work is making them do it. But these three are genuinely interested in learning, to the point where they actually pay attention during grammar lessons (imagine?), correct themselves when they're speaking, and give really well-thought out answers during discussions. Last week I had them do a question and answer session using the present perfect tense, and one of the questions (from the book) was, "Have you ever been robbed?". I was expecting answers like, "No, I haven't" or "Yes, some (insert Spanish curse word of choice) stole my wallet when I was on the metro". Instead, one woman launched into a whole story of how 25 years ago a man busted into her design studio, held a worker at gunpoint, and searched the place while they were pressed up against the wall. In the end, they convinced him that they were only poor workers, so he didn't take any money and no one was hurt. But I was amazed at what a simple question from a workbook could lead to.

Two evenings a week I teach two brothers, 7 and 8, at their home. It's tiring getting them to focus and stop telling each other the answers in Spanish under their breath. When I first met with them their answer to the question "How are you?" was (confused grance to each other, then back at me, nodding) "Yes". So, it's rewarding to see some improvement, even if it's just being able to play Simon Says in English.

I've only taught my Tuesday night student once, so nothing to report with him so far. But last up is my private student who lives right near La Sagrada Familia. He's the 40-something photographer who likes movies, travelling, and telling me that I look like his goddaughter who used to work at "how you say... the party the night before a man is married?" to put herself through law school. He then proceeded to show me R-rated photos of said goddaughter, including my personal favorite of her ironing in her knickers and 4-inch heels. I guess the idea of a godfather is a little different here than in the US...

But all in all, I'm enjoying teaching, although irony of coming to Spain to speak Spanish, yet spending my days getting paid to speak English, is not lost on me. Plus, it's making me think of the language in a whole new way. How do you explain the difference between "in time" and "on time"? Why are you "in" the car but "on" the train? And why do we have so many damn irregular verbs? Please discuss.

Picture: La Sagrada Familia, under construction since 1882