Catalina - TP #4

This class started with dinner 'cause food brings people together, right? I tried ´pupusas´ for the first time and drank some great cebada while keeping on a good conversation that we´d started in the car about current El Salvador issues. If only they could tell me all this in English: politics, environment, their vision of the consumerism world… maybe one day! The class was later than ever. These guys really work tons of hours and it seems to fit better in their schedule if we can meet at night. Good for me too, so it all works out!

The after-dinner event was polishing some English. Alphabet song as a warm-up that they still really need to go over and then, once again, we started with their doubts. The knowing we´ll go over their doubts keeps them motivated to actually use their vocabulary log and gives me a better idea what they are interested in. Then we proceeded to dress the naked person we´d been going over the day before. I drew the first thing on the body, the underwear, which actually became a laugh when they understood the meaning of each part of the word and then the board was passed around the room. Each of them painted a different piece of clothing and tried to write its name down on the board… Alberto draws wicked shirts, with pockets and buttons included! We corrected some of the writing and accumulated tons of vocabulary that we had to proceed to put into use.

We tried out a dos and don’ts activities, where I asked them on what part of their body they wore what cloth item, and they had to say if they did wear it there or if they don´t, and if they don´t, where they actually wear it!

After that each of them came out and got a picture from a magazine. They had to describe what the characters in the picture were wearing. After getting them to talk for a while we ended up adding some extra info on how to describe clothing: patterns, colors, etc. The awesome adjectives! And then it came down to them: Emma had to describe what Alberto was wearing, Alberto had to describe Tony, Tony had to describe Emma. It was pretty funny and Alberto really proved how much he has learned. If I can only get him to speak a little slower, he is good! He walks around with a small dictionary he bought after the first class and is really taking advantage of the free classes opportunities.

Their homework is to write down what they are wearing every day until we meet again and that will hopefully train them a bit in writing and becoming less scared of pen and paper, since I want to introduce more reading and writing activities in the next class.

The drive back home was enlightening. Tony was telling me how he really wants to learn. I spoke to him about my impressions on his speaking – which I mentioned in the prior blog entry – and he said, ‘Se que me va a costar mucho, pero voy a aprender ingles esta vez, pase lo que pase.’ Whatever it takes…