The English Invasion

Monday and Tuesday this week I had my "jornadas de formación," that for all the words it takes to say in spanish, I call orientation. Imagine, a few dozen more than 100 English speakers converging on a neighborhood of south Madrid for two days. At lunch time (which they provided, all three courses) we filled more than one local restaurant. I would have thought that I wasn't in Spain for all the English I heard, except that the sessions were held in Spanish. The first day they did the formal welcomes (30 minutes at least) by the government, department of education, and one diplomat from the US and Canada both, welcomed us a million times, and gave out insurance packets. The most interesting part happened after all of the official people left. Magdalena, one of the new people in charge, began to explain the handbook to us, about our rights, tasks, residence cards, etc, two people came in and asked us if we minded if we took the flags out. Less than 5 minutes after the officials left, they took the flags out and put them, I don't know where, but apparently without the official government people we weren't important enough to need them! Oh well, it's not like we needed them anyway. It was nice to meet people and talk about what we were going to be doing and living. Everyone is super jealous when they hear that I'm teaching in the center of Madrid, but then I think they think I'm a little tonto when they hear that I'm living outside of the city. I realize though, that for the money I'm paying, I'm living in a place that is way nicer than what most of the assistants will be living in, and that I have a community of people and countryside. And, I can go into the city whenever I want to visit the art museums.
Okay, back to the official program...the second day was more about pedagogy, which was mostly a review (except some of the stuff pertaining specifically to teaching English as a second language via immersion). For me, it was interesting to hear all of the vocabulary that I had learned in school in Spanish. I also learned that it is more than okay to touch students here, on the shoulder, head, back, and to give kisses. The culture is just more touchy here. Spanish teachers need to be careful coming to the states!

As you can see, Amy had a much more interesting Monday and Tuesday than I did.