Language, language, language

On Thursday I went in for my interview for my internship here to teach English to children in elementary school. The interview, which was more of a laid-back conversation about Siena than anything, ended with the director saying: “Wait. You’re willing to work Fridays? I can never find anyone willing to work Fridays...” Of course I am, and since when could interns refuse to work on Fridays? He went on to tell me that the boy he had scheduled for Fridays keeps cancelling and he actually needs someone to go in and teach there tomorrow, “Could you do it?” I explained that I have never taught anything, ever, and that I could do it but it would probably be better if I had a few days to prepare. He said that it won’t be a problem because it is so easy and printed me off a prepared sheet of advice such as, “Be enthusiastic.” and “Speak VERY simply.” and other things that I could have never figured out on my own. “It’s only an hour each class, and on the first day the children ask you twenty questions in English to get to know you. That should probably take up the whole class…”

Do you realize how quickly a group of energetic eight-year-olds can ask questions? Instantly twenty hands went up and everyone started asking questions on top of each other. “What is your favorite color?” “Whats is your fa-vor-ite foods?” “How many talls are you?” “Do you have a boyfriend?” “How olds are you?” “Are you rich?” So, that was over within five minutes. Fortunately I kind of expected this to happen so I had some ideas for games to play and things to talk about afterward.

Overall, I will say that my third grade class is adorable. I’m excited to continue to teach them. The fifth grade class will be more challenging. I had them play a game where they split up into two groups and had to race thinking of as many words as they possibly could in a certain category “clothing” “animals” etc. After a team won the two teams started passionately screaming at each other, debating about who should have really won. At which point in the chaos, one boy started shoving fake money at me jokingly asking to pay to sleep with me. The teacher came over and literally slapped his wrists, hit his head, and told him to stop and to sit down.

Afterward the teacher told me that they are a very bad class full of the worst boys in the school. She told me that they aren’t allowed to play games because they are too competitive. She suggests I read to them instead. And it has been implied twice that I can hit the students, which I don’t see happening.

It will be very challenging to learn to teach in a completely different culture in school system that I don’t completely understand right now. But its all really exciting. And from the looks of it, there isn’t much I can do that will be wrong.

Other favorite things that have happened recently:
1. An Italian friend showing me around his apartment, walking into the kitchen and saying to me, “Welcome to my chicken.” After I basically fell over laughing (with him, not at him) he said “Chicken? Chicken or kitchen? I always forget…”

2. My German friend Patrick coming to visit and us accidently finding a huge party for seven year olds, complete with dance music, DJs, floats, costumes, and way, way too much confetti.

3. My host brother's girlfriend coming over for dinner and unwrapping afterward a beautiful, big box full of Italian cakes and pastries. Everyone else saying that they didn't want to eat too many because of the calories. Me pretty much eating an entire box of pastries.

4. Riding bikes in the Italian countryside to a castle. It only costs five euros to rent a bike and I had the best views and workout ever.

5. Realizing how confused my brain has gotten about English while learning Italian. Remembering in retrospect that I told my language exchange partner that some of the English phrases he was saying were correct when they absolutely were not. “I like-a too much of this pizza. Is that right? You say, ‘I like-a too much of this pizza?’ “ And me at the time, tired, and thinking it over, “Yeah that’s right.”