Blog 5: Learning About Learning

            Being totally emerged in a culture where Spanish is the primary language has been a challenge for me. I spend my mornings shopping in stores and going to elementary schools where the people do not understand me since I speak English. I then go to four hours of Spanish every afternoon five days a week and listen to a teacher that doesn’t speak any English. Spanish for four hours is extremely long and I feel mentally exhausted afterwards.  After Spanish I go home and sit with a family that speaks very little English. Honestly I find it very frustrating. I constantly feel irritated that I can’t tell my family and teacher how I really feel because I don’t know how to say what I want to say. I always get really excited every morning when I get to see my friends from Missouri State because I know I will finally get to talk to someone and they will understand me. 

            Anytime I am able to communicate with my family it is a small victory. It may only be one sentence and that sentence may be very choppy, but if they understand what I say to them then I feel really excited. I also feel like the family gets a little bit frustrated with me when they have to keep repeating what they are saying because I do not understand. Although I have had these struggles with learning Spanish, I am very pleased to be emerging myself in the culture.      

            Throughout this whole experience I constantly keep thinking about English Second Language students in my future classroom. I now understand the frustration that they will feel when they are at school in an English primary school. I know that while they are at school they will probably keep to themselves because they can’t communicate very well and might feel embarrassed to say the wrong thing. They probably also feel belittled when English speakers keep correcting them. As a student experiencing what it is like to be a second language student, I see that it is irritating when the teacher keeps repeating themselves to me and I have no clue what they are saying. I wish my teachers at school would say things to me in English so that I could understand what they are meaning in Spanish.

When I am a teacher I will make the effort to speak some of their second language to help them understand. I will also try to greet them in their native language and talk to them in their language so they do not feel alone all the time. It is tough to be around only people that speak a different language. As a future teacher I vow to myself that I will learn some of their language and try to communicate with them in their native language in addition to English.