~CARNAVAL~

This post is VERY delayed because I have been busy and sleep-deprived lately.  It is also an event that I had high expectations for so I was disappointed when it wasn´t as exciting as I thought it would be.  But for those of you back home who don´t know about this festival I will share my experience.

This year, Carnaval was celebrated on the first weekend of March in Madrid (March 4th-6th).  It is usually celebrated the end of February but it depends on the calendar year.  Carnaval originated as a Roman Catholic holiday.  It takes place roughly six weeks from Easter, so right before the 40 days of Lent.  The Lenten period is typically a time of of fasting and penetencial practices without celebration.  So it used to be a common practice to get rid of all the rich food and drink before Lent.  This was usually done in the way of a big celebration, or party- thus thought to be the origin of Carnaval.

The Carnaval celebration is popular throughout Europe and the biggest Carnaval celebration in the world is held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.  Carnaval is much more popular in the southern Andulcia region of Spain- especially in the city of Càdiz as well as Tenerife in the Canary Islands. 

Carnaval essentially is a public celebration with parades and festivities.  It´s a street party and an excuse to dress up in costumes and go wild.  Many people use the celebration to "criticize" current events around the world.  They will express this in the imagination of the costumes, more than the glamorous dressings. It is traditional to paint the face with lipstick as a humble substitute of a mask.          

Seeing as I am in the capital of Spain I figured there would be a grand celebration and not only would I see many costumes but many street parties.  Wrong.  I later talked to come of my Madrileño (people from Madrid) friends who told me that since Madrid is such a modern, industrilized city that not very many people celebrate the festival.  So here I was on Friday, March 4th, getting all dressed up, applying crazy make-up and securing a multi-colored wig on my head....only to find out hours later that we were WAY in the minority of people celebrating.  We went to a bar outside of the main center of Madrid and literally found that we were the ONLY people dressed up in the bar.  It didn´t help that all but one of us was American.  We ended up looking rather silly.  However, decided to embrace our festiviness and flaunt it rather than hide it.

Saturday was a bit better.  We went to Sol, the exact center of downtown Madrid and we went to an Irish Pub (where its very common to see many Americans and other foreigners who don´t live in Madrid- as well as the young Madrileños who want to meet these people).  We saw quite a few more people dressed up on Saturday night.  But rather than outrageous costumes we would see groups of friends all wearing the same costume- dressing up as a duck perhaps or a clown.  I wasn´t too impressed.  The Irish Pub was also extremely packed.  I don´t think capacity limits in bars are enforced here- they literally fit in as many people as they can.  Thus you could hardly move and I was weary of getting robbed.  I clutched my purse tightly throughout the night and thankfully nothing got stolen from me.  My girlfriend, however, was not as lucky as me.  She got her jacket (which she had left hanging on a hook in the bar), as well as her camera and phone stolen from her that evening.

Aside from the fact that Carnaval didn't live up to my expectations- it was still an experience.  Getting the chance to celebrate a holiday that isn't celebrated in your native country is still a bit thrilling.

Lets Talk Politics...

Back a few months ago when I arrived I had to go to the Consejería de Educación ("branch" of the government that controls public education in Spain) to get help obtaining my NIE (foreign residence card that makes me LEGAL).  One of the people that helped me asked me how things were going at my school and asked for a copy of my schedule.  I gave her a copy that she photocopied and as she was looking it over she made some comment referring to the fact that I was working with the 7th-12th graders more or less equally and how I SHOULD only be working with the "pequeños"-the youngest grade.  I was confused because in my contract it says nothing about me ONLY working with the 1st level of Secondary Education (7th grade) at my Institute.  Anyways I came back to school the following week and shared my concern with the fellow auxiliar about how I wondered if our schedules would change or if our coordinator would get in trouble for our schedules not being what the Consejería wanted.  Weeks passed and then months and nothing happened so I figured that it had ended up not being that big of a deal and they had dropped it.

Fast forward to two and a half weeks ago, my school gets a little visit from the Comunidad de Madrid- what they call the Consejería de Educación specifically in Madrid.   Now let's remember that the Spanish government funds my program: Auxiliares de Conversación.  They gave me the scholarship that employs me at a bilingual institute as a native English speaker to help students improve their English.  They arrive and tell our coordinator,who is in charge of me and the other auxiliar, that our schedules need to change and that we can ONLY work with the 1st level (7th graders).  So that week, my schedule is completely changed, all my classes with the 8-12th graders are dropped and are replaced with only 1st level classes.  I am told that my "new" schedule will start the following week.  So now I am thinking in my head, not only will I be working with the 7th graders every day, all day but only that I will only be working with three professors compared to six in my old schedule.

Right away the teachers whose classes I have now been cut from were upset.  They weren´t upset at me of course but upset with the Comunidad de Madrid for suddenly changing my schedule 4 months into me teaching at this school.  Why now?  If it was such a big problem than why didn´t they address it immediately when they found out that me and the other auxiliar weren´t only working with the 7th graders????

Not only this but why am I to ONLY work with the 7th graders?  This whole secondary/high school is bilingual and don´t I benefit all the students equally?  If anything I benefit the higher levels more since the class sizes are not only smaller but their level of English is higher.  I am actually able to have conversations with the older students whereas the 7th graders hardly understand me.  In addition, isn´t the whole point of me being here to benefit a whole school....not just one grade level??

So two weeks into my new schedule and I am feeling frustrated.  I liked before being able to work with a variety of students who all had various levels of comprehension of the English language.  I liked teaching the younger kids but I liked working with the older kids on their pronunciation and their conversation.  I liked being able to talk about culture and current events in English with my high school classes.  Now I am stuck every day with the same three groups of students.  Each class is roughly 25-27 students of misbehaved children who are essentially out of control.  I will teach the same thing over again in two different classes in the same day because I am working with different groups of the same grade level.  I am bored with this and not only that but I feel like I am having a lesser impact on these children and this school.

The teachers from the English department drafted a letter to the Comunidad de Madrid complaining about the schedule change.  They all signed it and sent it along with my contract showing that no where in there did it say I was to ONLY work with the 1st level of secondary education.  However, assuming they will address this issue as slowly as they did with simply changing my schedule in the first place, I HIGHLY doubt I will go back to the old schedule.  It really is quite a shame to come to a school and start off working with every grade level only to be cut from all but three classes of the same level.

My only hope is that the only level I work with now really DOES benefit from me and that I either become more patient to the craziness that are 12-yr-old Spanish children or they begin to calm down in class since I am now with them every day.  I guess we will see....at least I can be thankful that for half the time I was here I got to work with such a variety of ages and levels of comprehension- at least I can be grateful for the opportunity that I did have.

Common Errors for Native Spanish speakers learning English

In the four months I have assisted in classrooms of students learning English I have seen and heard students make many mistakes.  The most problematic issue is without a doubt pronunciation.  Not only are there many sounds in the English language that aren't used in the Spanish language but Spanish speakers also have to deal with the fact that many words are not pronounced in the way that they are spelled.  In Spanish, each letter has a distinct and definitive sound.  So when you hear someone say a word you can almost always spell it based on how it is pronounced.  There are two exceptions:  In Spanish the "b" and "v" have the same sound, which is the sound of a "b."  The other exception is that the "h" when placed alone without a "c" in front of it it is silent.  Of course there is an additional exception for Castellano (the most dominant dialect of Spain): the "c" and "z" have the same sound- they are pronounced like our "th" in the English language.

I definitely feel for Spanish speakers learning English.  I will often say a word and they will spell it according to how it SHOULD be spelled.  But as we all know, there are countless, countless words that have spellings with no relation to their pronunciations.  Words that contain letters that have nothing to do with the way they are pronounced, two words that have the same sounds but are spelled differently (ex. site and sight or ate and eight  ), words that contain silent letters that must be included in the spelling but are not pronounced and finally spelling rules that have lists and lists of exceptions- words that do not follow the rules and thus must be memorized separately.  This is the biggest challenge to overcome for Spanish speakers learning English.

Here are also a few other phrases or words that Spanish speakers tend to use incorrectly:

-They say, "lets take a coffee"  instead of saying, "lets have a coffee."  In Spanish the verb used to say drink/have a coffee is, "tomar" and tomar directly translated means "to take."

-They say "I am making a party" instead of "I am going to have a party."  In Spanish the verb used to say host/have is, "hacer" and hacer directly translated means "to make."

-They say something is, "funny" instead of fun to describe something that is fun.

-The word for date/appointment in Spanish is, "cita."  It is used interchangeably to describe a date with friends and a doctors appointment.  Therefore, many Spanish speakers will say "I have a date with the doctor" instead of "I have an appointment with the doctor."

-They say, "take care" instead of, "be careful."  In Spanish the verb for being careful/taking care of yourself is, "cuidarse" so they translate directly and use the phrase incorrectly.

Going back to pronunciation, Spanish speakers are used to "s" being preceded by an "e" when it falls at the beginning of a word.  For example: español, escuela and estupido.  These words in English are: Spanish, school and stupid.  The "e" when pronounced in a word phonetically sounds kind of like "eh" but more like "ey."  So I very, very often hear students say, I speak "ey-Spanish," or I go to "ey-school," or he is so "ey-stupid."  It is SO hard sometimes to make them break this habit of putting the "ey" sound in front of an "s."

I guess the biggest thing I have learned from all of this is that I simply understand WHY they make these mistakes.  I don't think in any way that they are stupid mistakes.  They are completely understandable and have logic behind them.  Learning a second language is very difficult.  If anything, when I hear them make these mistakes I think to myself that they really are thinking and simply saying what makes sense.