Mis estudiantes

I’m working again! Not for the flamenco shop family who never learned how to smile . . . I’m an English tutor! One of my pupils is Mario, the previously-mentioned Peruvian gentleman, and my other two pupils are little Swiss-German girls who live in a suburb outside of Sevilla. I got the gig with the little girls because my German friends work as au pairs for their family and they gave me a very good recommendation.

The tutoring sessions are all quite short and I may only work for a few weeks, but the work is delightful. With Mario, I get to practice my Spanish a bit and I’m learning about architecture because some of his work involves designing country homes for Brits who wish to spend their holidays in southern Spain. Mario learned English many years ago, but he remembers a good bit and he just wants some conversation practice. Can do!

The little ones are spunky (today I tried to teach the 6-year-old “silly” because that is her primary personality trait.) I get to prepare a little lesson for them twice a week and we just have fun. I try to involve acting, singing, dancing, shouting, drawing and lots of “very good!” With young children, it’s fascinating to watch them soak up a language. Their dad is a professional fútbol player, so they’ve lived in Holland, Italy, Switzerland and Spain; this summer they move to Manchester. The younger one defaults to speaking Spanish during lessons, and the 8-year-old defaults to German. I try to stick to English.

Living in Europe, I’ve realized that English is such a vital language for businesspeople, travelers and students. In many parts of Europe, English is a lingua franca because people from places like Denmark or Poland realize that very few people speak their native languages and they need to learn English in order to communicate with the world outside their county’s borders.

By the way, learning how to spell and read in English is freaking hard! Glad I never had to learn how . . . wait . . .