update on life in seville

So, I thought I would just post a little bit about what's been going on in Seville.

Yesterday I started my volunteer work at a high school in Sevilla. It is going to be such neat experience. I'll be going there every Thursday for about 4-5 hours. It's about an hour in transportation there, and an hour back, but I don't mind. Yesterday was my first day, so I met the teachers I would be working with and shadowed the classes.

In the first class, a level one English class, the teacher gave them the whole class period to ask me questions. It was really entertaining. They asked me things like, "What do you eat in America? Do you think the guys in Spain are handsome? Do you celebrate Halloween? Are you cold (I was wearing shorts)? and of course... "Do you like Obama or McCain?" They were all really surprised by my American accent. Most of the English that is taught in Spain resembles British English, so they had a hard time understanding what I said. For example, when I told them my age, I said, "twenty"... but in America we say something more like, "twenny."

In the next class, I just observed. They were reading a story in English. Each student got a chance to read, and it was really interesting for me to listen to the mistakes they made in English pronounciation. It makes me realize how hard English would be as a second language, seeing as it's not very phonetically forgiving.

In the third class, I was asked to give a presentation on myself. I talked about my family, my school, the differences between Spain and America, etc. The professor wanted me to just "be the teacher," so I was put in the front of the class an expected to keep the class in-line, use the white-board, ask them, questions, etc. At the end of the class, the teacher asked them questions on what I had said to see what they understood. They did pretty well! The teacher said that for my first time, I did a great job in front of the class, so that makes me excited. :)

One of the things that I was told when I came to Spain, is that they are much more open about grades. In the US, grades a personal thing, but here in Spain, everyone knows everyone's grades. I never realized what this really meant until the beginning of that third class, when the teacher was handing back tests. As he handed back each test to each student, he would say out-loud, "this is good...." or many times, "this is bad. very, very bad." I couldn't believe it!

The last class was much like the second, I just watched them read a story. It's always neat to see what words the teacher has to define for them, and things like that. Next week, I'll be working with my own group of students, practicing English and helping them. I'm excited!

This weekend, I'm going to Granada (a city in southern Spain) with the program here. I'm really looking forward to it. I'll post an update when I get back.

Take care!