Wow, the English class that I went to last night was pretty intense. I met Michael in front of UNI and we took a chicken bus to the class, which was 30 minutes away. It was fairly unpleasant. The bus was standing room only, and it started raining so everyone closed their windows. A small, enclosed space with a bunch of sweaty men with their arms in the air... anyway, I took a taxi on the way back.
Michael first led me to his class, which had about 25 students. I spent a few minutes with them, but then the teachers decided to combine all the classes so they could all take advantage of my presence. So there I was, sitting on a chair, on stage, in front of 60+ people, thinking that this was not what I bargained for. For the first hour or so, the students fired questions at me, and all I had to do was answer. I was impressed by how much participation there was... grown men and women were literally on the edge of their seats, waving their hands and going "ooh, ooh, pick me!" I guess it makes a big difference when students actually WANT to be learning a language. The questions covered everything from "do you know any tounge-twisters?" (I do--and I recited one in English and one in Spanish, which earned me some applause) to "do you believe in God, and how do you feel about abortion?" It was not the most comfortable situation, explaining my personal beliefs in front of 60 strangers, but hell, I'm leaving on Wednesday, so if I left a bad impression... whatever. The weirdest part of the evening was when students suddenly started lining up at the front of the classroom, and took turns serenading me. Apparently they have to memorize songs in English and be prepared to sing them. The songs ranged from "It's been a hard day's night" to "Move, bitch, get out' the way." Rap seemed to be very popular with the males in the class, and two of the guys actually started freestyling, in ENGLISH, which amazed me.
At the end of the class, the teacher told everyone to stand, and asked me to sing my country's national anthem. After yelling for two hours to be heard over the noise of rain and honking buses and students competing for my attention, I didn't have a whole lot of voice left. Plus, I don't sing. Plus, the national anthem has some high notes. Plus... I only know the first half and last fourth. But I couldn't say no. I forgot the thing about the rockets' red glare. It was quite embarrassing, and today I looked up the lyrics so I would know them in the future. Of course, after I finished my attempt at the anthem, all the Nicaraguan students sang their national anthem, which is about twice as long as ours. Every one of them knew the words, and (it seemed like) every one of them had a fantastic voice.
Although this all added up to a rather uncomfortable experience for me, I was extremely impressed with the results that the school gets. I wish I could have observed some of their normal teaching methods, because I would love to go to a school that taught Spanish as well and as quickly as this school teaches English. The students were not timid at all about approaching me and "inflicting" their English on me. The spoke quickly and confidently, with pretty good pronunciation. All the more amazing because none of the teachers are native English speakers. I'm going to try to hook them up with some more of the foreigners living in Nicaragua, so maybe they'll get more "guest speakers."
Michael first led me to his class, which had about 25 students. I spent a few minutes with them, but then the teachers decided to combine all the classes so they could all take advantage of my presence. So there I was, sitting on a chair, on stage, in front of 60+ people, thinking that this was not what I bargained for. For the first hour or so, the students fired questions at me, and all I had to do was answer. I was impressed by how much participation there was... grown men and women were literally on the edge of their seats, waving their hands and going "ooh, ooh, pick me!" I guess it makes a big difference when students actually WANT to be learning a language. The questions covered everything from "do you know any tounge-twisters?" (I do--and I recited one in English and one in Spanish, which earned me some applause) to "do you believe in God, and how do you feel about abortion?" It was not the most comfortable situation, explaining my personal beliefs in front of 60 strangers, but hell, I'm leaving on Wednesday, so if I left a bad impression... whatever. The weirdest part of the evening was when students suddenly started lining up at the front of the classroom, and took turns serenading me. Apparently they have to memorize songs in English and be prepared to sing them. The songs ranged from "It's been a hard day's night" to "Move, bitch, get out' the way." Rap seemed to be very popular with the males in the class, and two of the guys actually started freestyling, in ENGLISH, which amazed me.
At the end of the class, the teacher told everyone to stand, and asked me to sing my country's national anthem. After yelling for two hours to be heard over the noise of rain and honking buses and students competing for my attention, I didn't have a whole lot of voice left. Plus, I don't sing. Plus, the national anthem has some high notes. Plus... I only know the first half and last fourth. But I couldn't say no. I forgot the thing about the rockets' red glare. It was quite embarrassing, and today I looked up the lyrics so I would know them in the future. Of course, after I finished my attempt at the anthem, all the Nicaraguan students sang their national anthem, which is about twice as long as ours. Every one of them knew the words, and (it seemed like) every one of them had a fantastic voice.
Although this all added up to a rather uncomfortable experience for me, I was extremely impressed with the results that the school gets. I wish I could have observed some of their normal teaching methods, because I would love to go to a school that taught Spanish as well and as quickly as this school teaches English. The students were not timid at all about approaching me and "inflicting" their English on me. The spoke quickly and confidently, with pretty good pronunciation. All the more amazing because none of the teachers are native English speakers. I'm going to try to hook them up with some more of the foreigners living in Nicaragua, so maybe they'll get more "guest speakers."
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