(I'm a teacher. Get it?)
Bad jokes aside, I went back to the classroom as a student August 15th for my first Spanish class in nearly three years. CIEE set us up with classes through Tandem Escuela Innternacional Madrid where students from numerous countries come to learn Spanish, English, and/or German. The 70-some people in my group were split up based on level which was determined by an online test we took before leaving the US and a verbal test we took the day before classes started. The kind woman who administered the test stressed that it was just for placement and not to worry about how well we did. Which of course means I completely ignored her and stressed about it. My stressing (and minimal Spanish skills) didn't do me all that much good since I was placed at an A1 level. My school, like many others in Europe, uses the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages, which if your interested in you can read more about. The cliff notes version is that I'm a beginner. Like knows how to introduce myself but not much else style beginner. I knew this going in so I wasn't especially disappointed in myself and just took it as a opportunity to learn more than people who have a good base in the language.
Does it make the next year that much more difficult? Oh heck ya, but that's exactly what I signed up for.
Class itself is five days a week for three hours a day with a half hour break in between. I am with a group of about 10 other A1 beginners starting at 9:30 every weekday and during this time two different teachers come in an attempt to instill some Spanish wisdom into our brains. They have varying success.
Other than the teachers switching rooms instead of the students, the oddest thing for me thus far has been the lack for definite structure in the course. College classes, from my experience, have been very structured from the beginning; they always had a syllabus and a book list and I knew exactly what I was supposed to be learning. Thus, this class has been a change for me. I don't have a book yet and have never been given a syllabus. Class seems to be a bit random about what specifically we will be learning each day, especially the first week. And no tests. I'm not graded so I have no idea how I am doing. Apparently at the end of my four weeks I get a certificate of completion (Yay expensive paper!?) but I'm not really sure how much good that will do me.
But I know I'm learning things... at least I think I am.
Most of our class time is spent on activities, which makes the pedagogical side of my brain smile even as the rest of me is swallowing mouthfuls of anxiety. We do lots of moving around the classroom, presenting sentences in Spanish, playing games, and trying to get across to our teachers exactly what we don't understand with limited vocabulary. There has been some direct grammar instruction, but a lot of it is integrated into the rest of the course.
For example on the first day of class in our second session our professor, Provi, introduced herself to us and then started a game. The premise was each person chose a Spanish word that starts with the same letter as the beginning of our first names. Then we had to choose a motion the associate with that word.
I completely blanked and couldn't remember a single Spanish word that started with "C." The words "Off to a good start now, aren't I?" sarcastically swirled around my head.
My anxiety level? Skyrocketing.
After we had (theoretically) all chosen a word we circled up and the game began. Our professor introduced herself as Provi Pulpo (which means octopus in Spanish), doing a lovely little interpretation of how one swims as her motion. The next person repeated Provi's name and motion before introducing himself as Justin Jamón (ham), Thus the game went around the circle while I tried to come up with a word while simultaneously trying not to forget any of my peers' names.
I managed not to screw up any of the motions or chosen last names of my fellow Spanish learners and only forget one name (sorry Andrea!). Not as bad as I expected. My snap second decision for my own Spanish word came out as a question: ¿Cómo? Thus I obtained a Spanish last name my first day of class and a new nickname. It felt fitting.
August 15th, 2016
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