What´s Your Name?

            “I’m going to speak in English and Spanish today. I’m going to...speak...in English...and...Spanish...today,” Becca said the words slowly and precisely, trying not to laugh at the panicked expressions staring back at her. She explained twice more in English and then broke down each word with the Spanish translation.

            In the day of English Teaching training they’d had, the point had been brought up that language classes should always be taught in the language, but that that was extremely difficult and possibly not realistic. However, Becca had had an amazing Spanish teacher in the beginning of her training, Pilar. Pilar had never once broken into English to explain anything, she’d painstakingly explained and reexplained, used hand motions and generally done everything possible to pound Spanish into her brain. So standing in front of a bewildered class of eleven to fifteen year olds, she pushed forward in what she thought of as 80% English (she wasn’t as good as Pilar, but she’d try to get close).

            Whenever she got frustrated or they got frustrated or it was just too hot or the day was too long, Becca had one thought: What would Pilar do? Of course, this usually meant dancing around, yelling, singing, or miming but hey, those kids were going to learn English.