Saints and Sinners
2/10/2020
I’m in San Diego, hanging out with friends and family. I asked advice about this blog, and my husband suggested the title. Why? He pointed out that I’m enjoying seeing all the place names and hearing random conversations in Spanish. They happen to have fallen into exactly those two categories! Why is it important to learn languages? There are so many reasons, but the pure pleasure that I get from being where I see and hear a lot of Spanish is one that I hope our students grow into. It has happened a lot in Alaska for me with my main language (Russian), and now that I’m working on acquiring Chinese, it is happening with that language too. I feel powerful when I can suddenly understand a few words that people are speaking near me, or know how to make a comment in a restaurant where folks speak Mandarin. Spanish is so common here in San Diego that it’s not unusual, but it’s lovely to hear the lisp of speakers from Spain, the jjj of the “ll” from Argentinians, and the range of accents from those of other countries. My family always gets a little worried when I approach people to ask where they’re from, but I always feel it’s fair to alert others that I know the language they’re speaking, especially when topics are a bit … salty. And after that introduction, we typically get into an interesting conversation or I find that I can help in some way. The little video that is attached to this blog is from a few seconds in second grade when I offered students the chance to hear and respond to language that they understand in a fun way. They are acting out lines of a story that they wrote about one of the students’ stuffies. (Everyone has a favorite, and each animal is getting a personal story.) This particular story is about a germ (el microbio) who has no mouth and therefore can’t do some fun things: eat, drink, or speak Spanish. He steals one student’s mouth, and another student gives him one, but then he’s still unhappy, because they can’t talk with him! If I do my job well, students will eventually not only understand me, but they’ll be able to understand random bits of conversations they happen to overhear. It’s my hope that they will have the same pleasure that I gain. Instead of ignoring a blur of incomprehensible syllables, they’ll feel a kinship with people of another culture, able to share a moment or offer help as needed. Comments are closed.
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Specialist & Enrichment Teachers Archives
February 2021
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