Friday, April 10, 2009

Week #Something (I've lost count) - Español

My Karen boys are amazing. Can I just say?

Last night we talked about "dream jobs" (the classic ESL assignment), art, hip hop music, the Karen script(s), copyright laws, bridges, American patriotic songs, bamboo, Thailand, the phrase "what else," Karen pop stars, and cows. Then I taught them some Spanish.

Really--lest you think I'm being an irresponsible English-teaching volunteer--the Spanish-teaching helped with English. They are voracious language-sponges, and the middle-schooler wanted to learn a few Spanish words so he could talk to one of the other students in his ESL class at school. They had to use English phrases in order to ask me what they were in Spanish, and it kept them talking, which is really "my job" anyway: keeping them practicing. (And, okay, I admit, it was way interesting to hear Spanish spoken with a Karen accent.)

Next week: tongue twisters. (Bwa ha ha.)