¡Sillas Musicales!

After nearly two months of teaching English, Becca had learned three very important things about Peruvian students.

1. They can outlast even the most resilient kid from the United States in refusing to answer questions and creating an awkward silence.
2. They do not respond to games the same way that US students do.

Becca had tried Capture the Flag with brooms instead of flags, which had resulted in two minutes of madness and running around followed by the mysterious appearance of not one, not two, not even three, but four brooms...

She’d tried Pictionary with vocabulary words which had resulted in a lot of guesses to quiet to hear and a few more loud enough but only spoken in Spanish.

She’d had high hopes for English Jeopardy, but that had only brought on long silences and confusion.

Finally, in a fit of frustration, Becca had pulled out her computer and ordered her students to take their chairs outside and form a circle. 

“¿Conocen en juego...Sillas Musicales?” she asked, ready to explain when the answer was no. (Do you know the game Musical Chairs?)

“Yes!” many of the students said at once and grins began to spread around the circle like wildfire.

“Yes?” Becca was surprise. “Ok, vamos a jugar y cuando una persona falta una silla, tiene contestar una pregunta sobre vocabulario de inglés.” (Ok, let’s play and when some one doesn’t find a chair, they have to answer an English vocabulary question.)

The music started and each students started walking cautiously around the outside of the circle of chairs. When the music came to a stop, the frantic scramble of chaos went on until only one was left standing, Erika. Becca motioned her over and Erika stumped a bit, walking begrudgingly toward her.

“Como se dice cama en inglés?” Becca asked. (How do you say bed in English?)

“Como?” Erika asked. (Excuse me?)

“Cama,” (Bed)

“Como?”

“Cama,” this set off a round of giggles they’d all done so well to hold in, even Becca found herself fighting a terrible case. When they’d finally calmed a bit, Erika seemed to understand and thought about the question, obviously trying to conjure unpracticed vocabulary into her brain.

“Eehhhhh,” she began and the noise turned into a half sigh, half panicked hope for an answer that finished off with the beginnings of a fit of giggles. The other students followed suit, again giggling themselves silly and again Becca couldn’t help but join in. 

Eventually the silliness died down a bit, a few questions were answered correctly, but the activity accomplished more in saving some of Becca’s sanity than anything else had in the last three months.