My two placements here in Argentina have been in private
English institutes and in my final week in Villa María I went to a local
secondary state school which teaches ‘technical’ subjects: Electronics,
Electricity, Mechanics – subjects I know nothing about! I joined my supervisor/host Mum to drop in on
her regular English lessons and show my face and native language to the lads!
Tuesday morning and we walked into the large, white-wash
building with tall ceilings and thick brick walls that kept any little heat
from the sun firmly outside! I walked
into the classroom to be met by 24, 18 year old guys sitting slouched around
the walls of the classroom, Spanish echoing round the bare room.
Short, foreign and female - I felt distinctly out of place
here! I was pretty intimidated and nervous to say the least!
Anyhow, 80 minutes later and despite the wide range of
levels of English - from nothing to intermediate - we had successfully learnt a
lot about each other and were leaving with smiles on our faces.
Jokes and laughter from unexpected answers, such as that I
enjoy fernet and Coke; hurriedly
whispered translations to friends who hadn’t understood; moments of absolute
silence where all eyes, even from the less-interested ones at the back, were
focused on my every word; and the amusement of this English girl reeling off
phrases of Castellaño in the final
few minutes made the lesson, the first of several, pretty special and amusing
for all!
For many of the students it was their first time meeting a
European, even foreigner. I heard that several of the guys had promised my
supervisor that they would study harder or were really keen to attend a private
institute! What a brilliant surprise - though whether this follows through I
will never know!
The great thing was that I had influenced them in some way,
something which can be very hard to realise when you’re on the inside.
Whilst the classrooms in the school were...err...less than
spectacular, the workshops were adorned with electrical technology and
equipment that I wouldn’t even know where to begin with!
Four sparkling new cars sat around waiting to be played with
and an old banger sat as an empty metal shell soon to be revamped with the
latest engine and wiring. What a
playground; isn’t school great!
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