La experiencia de escuela

31 de Mayo

Three days into Spanish School and the knowledge and pronounciations are coming along fine, poco by poco. Its all about verbs and ser and estar at the moment, really boring grammatical stuff but pretty important when trying to get even a basic grip of Spanish. Our word counts are increasing daily, which we put into practice in the local cafes and teinda’s and with our host family. Confusion does exist, as some words are extremely similar but entirely different. Easy way to get in trouble here is to try and tell somebody you want to get or take something, which in Spanish the verb is coger. For example, Donde es coger el tren, which translates to Where can I take a train? Unfortunately in these parts, coger means fuck, so wanting to have intimate relations with public transport is a bit odd, and possibly dangerous. I’d buy it flowers first.

Our teachers are fantastic, and perhaps the most patient in the world. They turn up each morning and sit and listen for 4 hours while gringos completely ruin their language. Their help is immense.

Kylie’s teacher is Clara, who is patient , kind and only 18. She is the more traditional Guatemalan woman in that she wears traditional dress and still lives with her parents and will so until married.  She only speaks Mayan at home, as her parents do not speak Spanish. It wasn’t until she started school that she started to speak Spanish. My teacher is Laura, who could almost be considered a bit of a rebel in this town. Only 21, she lives with her partner in their own place, but they are unmarried, and have a 2 year old daughter out of wedlock, and wears denim and tank tops and her hair down, all of the above largely unheard of around here. She still attends church every week though, and was horrified to learn that church to us was a classic 80’s band or an all you can drink institution in London.

Did we mention the cost of all of this? $160 per week for 4 hours of private one on one lessons a day, home stay accommodation in a comfy room with a local family, three meals a day and even wi fi. Absolute bargain, but the best bit is the classroom, as you can see by our school snaps! The school also has its own restarant and they are building rooms at the moment to house future students. In 4 weeks once all done we will even have a graduation ceremony!

Downside is homework.

No he loves homework he is nerd KG.

We will be here for four weeks so we hope to have a basic grasp by then, how to order, how to ask for directions, have conversations and make fun of Mexicans.

Classroom at San Pedro Spanish School

Another classroom with outstanding views

Schoolyard

Walkway to lake via the classrooms