Back by Popular Demand

I thought I could get away with posting only when something interesting happened. I was wrong. Sorry. In the past week I've received several comments on my lack of blogging, some wondering if everything was alright. I am fine, just in a routine with school that I don't find particularly thrilling...

Before I begin this post I have to remind you all that I love Spain. Love it. But just like family members that we love, Spain has it's faults. Yes, Spain functions slower than most of the Western World. And they do love their ham products. But these quirks are at times lovable or teach us something. The one fault I'm going to talk about isn't all that lovable. Spain is racist.

I would venture to guess that most of this stems from their 45 years under a dictatorship that valued sameness. For example, Franco insisted that everyone in Spain speak Castellano, even though there are other major dialects like Catalan and Gallego. The goal was to paint everyone the same and have a homogeneous population. Clearly that was not going to happen, but he would sure try! Still after 34 years of democracy the effects of dictatorship influence the people.

Now one of the main problems I see in Spain is racism. Perhaps I'm more prone to notice it because the United States is almost hyper-sensitive to racial issues. At no point will I ever argue that the United States has it all figured out on any issue, especially race relations. But Spain has a lot of learning to do. In 2007 I did a short report for my Spanish class about an incident in Spain where an immigrant woman was beaten in the Barcelona metro simply for being an immigrant. I commented that I didn't know how the attacker knew she was from Latin America and my professor, who is Spanish, said "Oh, Spaniards just know" as to imply that they have a national 6th sense about "others". Side note, the kid was charged and there were anti-racist and pro-immigrant protests; it is not like these types of things go unpunished.

Things that shock Americans pass for acceptable behavior here. Early in my time at Rosa Luxemburgo one of the teachers was talking about a student of mine, Joe, who is from the Philippines. To make sure the people in the conversation knew exactly which student we were talking about he put his index fingers to the outside corners of his eyes and pulled the skin back. This same gesture has recently put pop-star Miley Cyrus on the proverbial firing line in the States, but it was acceptable lunch time humor in a Spanish elementary school.

Last week the 3rd and 4th grades of Rosa Luxemburgo were invited to a concert put on by the Social Works of the Caja Madrid Bank. The title was "Sonidos de la Tierra" or "Sounds of the Earth". The purpose of the show was to teach children, through music, that in the end we are all human. For about an hour the group preformed songs from various regions in the world. The first two numbers didn't bother me, but when we got to Mexico I began to feel uncomfortable. As Jose Luis and his mates played Cielito Lindo images of Speedy Gonzales and people sleeping against cacti were projected behind them. It started to feel like they were doing it in jest, slightly to poke fun at Mexicans.

Eastern Europe passed with little controversy; yes they had grouped together anything west of Germany and all of former Yugoslavia together but it wasn't particularly offensive. Perhaps they were saving the offense for their song from the heart of Africa. It was a call and answer song, so they tried to teach it to us. When I looked to my program for the words I was disgusted with the image on the page, then I looked up to see the title "Black Africa" above pictures of tribal people in Africa. To add to my disorientation the presentation of the song almost seemed like their comedic interpretation of a traditional African song. I'm not sure if their attempt to make learning fun just backfired into them making fun of other people, either way I was nervous for what was coming next. Who knew what culture we were going to offend and belittle next!

To close the show they played a song from a very young country that has invented lots of things, including many musical styles like Jazz and Gospel. The song they chose to play from the United States was a "country" song. I put country in quotes because the actual style of music was more along the lines of Bluegrass, but actually could have been Oh Susanna. This time the screen behind the band showed pictures of toothless men in overalls, but no shirts. The kinds of images Americans associate with mid-century cartoons about the gold rush. Lucky for us, kids in Spain are learning that is what America is like. Excellent.

After the concert two of the Spanish speaking teachers and I got into an excellent conversation about how that wasn't even a "Country" song, nor was it representative of my country. That lead us to talking about Oregon and how I do and don't want to go back (more on that in another post). These two women had previously seen rather stand-offish to me, but that was probably because they didn't know how to communicate with me. Unfortunately, when every we had crossed paths the kids were around so I didn't want to speak tons of Spanish in front of them. This time they were telling me to get a cup for some coffee and I responded to them in front of one of my 4th graders, Daniela. She promptly freaked out and wanted me to speak Spanish with her. I explained that I would if we saw each other in the grocery store or outside of school, but when I come to school I am there to speak English. She accepted my answer and went off to play. Pilar and Maribel, the two Spanish teachers looked on almost in awe and laughed when I explained the situation to them. I'm really glad we had our little talk; now I know they aren't as scary as I thought and they know we can chat in Spanish... but only when the coast is clear.

Now on to the truly disturbing portion of my racism post. The play that will be going on at school tomorrow. It is the only English language activity that the school will be hosting or really participating in. For a city that publicly praises its bilingual program, Madrid offers few activities outside of the classroom for kids to do in English. The group is bringing the play "Tarzan" to the multi-purpose room of Rosa Luxemburgo. "Tarzan" is also a musical. One of the songs is entitled Jungle Fever. I don't know about you, but I learned "Jungle Fever" as a derogatory term for people in an interracial relationship; for example one might say that a white man dating a black woman has Jungle Fever.

The words to this Jungle Fever song go as follows:

We've got Jungle Fever,
We've got Jungle Fever, we're in love.
I've just found my baby,
We've just found our baby, we're in love.

This might sound familiar to anyone who has seen the 1991 Spike Lee movie, or heard the Stevie Wonder song associated with it.

Now my boggle is what to do. I didn't get a look at the lyrics until maybe Wednesday, clearly too late for them to cancel the show. But these kids can't learn a song that repeats this phrase over and over again without knowing that they really ought not to use it. I've informally polled many English speakers and, with one exception, everyone instantly recognized it as derogatory. But really, how do you tell a group of 3rd and 4th graders in a generally racist country not to use a catchy phrase from the song in the play because it is mean to interracial relationships?

Obviously I will let you know how tomorrow goes. If nothing else, we can all laugh at my discomfort in this situation!

18 Weeks Down, 24 to Go!

What to say, what to say...
This week had been business as usual. School had become fairly routine; I show up, I speak some English then I go on to private lessons. The kids seem to like the substitute for Elena, and I enjoy her too. She is a really nice woman and is well prepared to take on the class. I think she was a little shocked at their bad behavior, but is developing ways to work with them on that. I am mostly in charge of the English lessons because Carolina's English isn't as good as Elena's, but Carolina takes over the Science class. We work pretty well together.

On Tuesday I lectured one class of 3rd graders about being disrespectful and not taking advantage of the opportunity they are given. I recognize that it is easy for me to look at it from a grown-up perspective and know that they are in an amazing position to be bilingual, while they just see it as another subject they are forced to take. I can't stress to them enough how wonderful it is for them to be able to speak two languages, possibly more. They all talk about wanting to visit NYC and America, but honestly they would have a better time if they spoke the language and didn't wander around with half a clue. I've tried explaining that I would have loved for my elementary school to force me to be bilingual, but that just flew over their heads. Maybe, one day, when they are struggling to order a sandwich in a real New York Deli they will realize that I was right and they should have paid attention.

Also in school related news, Thursday this week is Peace Day. This means that the kids will be learning to sing Micheal Jackson's Heal the World, complete with actions. When I was younger I liked Micheal Jackson, mostly the Thriller album. This particular song now drives me nuts. It is fair to say I hate it. Now I get to listen to it over and over and over. It is like Eduardo knew and has selected it jus to torture me!! Thankfuly it will all be over Thursday afternoon.

I've also been working with my private lessons. They are all going along well, but I think I have to start challenging the older kids. Both Carlota and Fidel have good vocabularies, but they need to practice using them. Carlota is by far my most advanced student, which makes her class easy and difficult at the same time. Her questions are usually more technical or complicated than Fidel's. Also she will complete an activity in half the time I plan for it to take, leaving me to cook something up on the spot. Fidel's little sister, Miriam, is bright also, but she speaks very little English (mostly because she is 7 years old) and I have to work very hard to be clear and repeat things several times. I try to use very little Spanish, but there are times when there is no other way. With her I try to read books I've borrowed from school or play games. I think next week we will work on cloths and dress paper dolls. This will test my artistic skills.

I could close with promises to write more often, but that would be pointless. I've resigned myself to the fact that some weeks there just isn't much to write about. When something interesting happens, rest assured I will let you know!

17 Weeks Down, 25 to Go!

Laziness has taken over. What else can I say? Lets try and update you, but as I said before I'm in a lazy streak and might just cut this post short...

Well, last week we got a permanent substitute for Elena (the 3rd Grade teacher who had surgery). The only catch is Carolina didn't arrive until Wednesday. Tuesday I basically taught all of third grade. At the end of the day my voice was dying. These kids were awful. Terrible. Horrible. I was down right disgusted with their behavior. It was the worst I had seen since starting this job. It is entirely possible that I spent more time telling them to be quiet then I spent explaining English grammar or Science.

At the end of each class the Spanish-speaking teacher, who was just filling in for the hour, would leave and yell at them for being so poorly behaved. The teacher also tried to impress upon them that they have a great opportunity to learn two languages and they shouldn't be such little bitches about it. Well, the teachers didn't call them bitches, but I will. Yes, I called a bunch of 8 year-olds bitches. But to be fair, they earned it. The sad part is that they weren't angles before Elena left, so I'm not sure what I was expecting.

The new teacher is very nice, to me. She is tough on the kids, but they honestly need it. She moved their desks out of groups of four into rows. In the groups they did nothing but push pencil cases across the line and annoy the person facing them. It was torturous to watch. Even worse to yell at them the whole time. Now in the rows they fully turn around and talk to the person behind them. RIDICULOUS. Today I had to yell at them again. Normally I keep my voice at a decent volume and just project so the whole class can hear, but it got out of hand. I had to remind them that they were taken out of the groups for a reason, and that was because they didn't listen.

I do like most of the kids, but their behavior is impossible. I also don't what will work with them. Elena chastises in English and Spanish, Eduardo throws pens and tells kids to leave the class, I try to be patient and talk to them. NOTHING seems to work. I don't know about you, but I don't remember being that bad in 3rd grade, or really any grade.

Thursday was my birthday. Typically on birthdays teachers and staff bring in a treat for everyone to share at our mid-morning break. I decided to hold on to the chocolate chips sent to me by my awesome friends Emily & Maja and bring cookies for my birthday. Gathering the ingredients wasn't difficult, if you define going to two grocery stores and eventually grating dry vanilla beans to substitute vanilla extract easy. I also resisted the urge to eat tons of dough, which was more difficult than the vanilla. From this self restraint I learned that they aren't kidding when they say a batch of cookies is 4 dozen. Before I thought it was a joke.

I made the cookies unsure of how the ladies at school would react. The Spanish are not big on sweets, but chocolate chip cookies aren't that bad... Usually people bring ham or other savory dishes to share, but I really would rather eat paste than more ham. I also didn't know what they would do about me baking the cookies. Sometimes I think they think we are babies or incapable for whatever reason, so baking and using the oven might be beyond me. One thing I was sure of was that they would all give me two kisses, one on each cheek and say congratulations. Which is a scary concept; imagine 20 Spanish women flocking to you, grabbing your face and kissing each cheek then making a huge fuss because you are such a baby and you made cookies.

When Thursday morning break rolled around I unwrapped the cookies and placed them in the middle of the table. I have to admit I was waiting for a few people to see me do it, so they would know it was my birthday and help explain to others why there were cookies on the table. And so it began. The kisses and birthday wishes flooded in. Then they started eating.

Every time we've made food or brought food the Spanish staff are hesitant to dive in. The usually pick up the item in question and look at it for a second before taking a bite. This time was no different. They picked up the cookies, clearly not from a package and tasted them. A HIT! No less than five of the women asked me for the recipe and I had to explain that the chocolate chips were imported and it would be difficult for them to reproduce it. Nonetheless I found the recipe on the Nestle website already translated into Spanish and passed it out after lunch. They were super excited to make the cookies at home and I was thrilled to have a reason to talk to them.

One of my favorite birthday moments was the several rounds of "Happy Birthday" sung to me by various groups of 3rd graders. For as much as they can suck in class, outside of class they can be super cute. I expected the hoards of girls who love me to come up and say something. What I didn't expect was little Javier to run up. He had seen several other students come up and say happy birthday, and he wanted to join. He ran up, opened his mouth and realized he didn't know what to say; quickly he ran back to his pal Pablo and asked in a very urgent tone "Como se dice feliz cumple?" Pablo responded, almost exasperated by the fact that Javi hadn't picked up what all the other kids were saying, "Happy Birthday". Then Javi came back and repeated it to me. Adorable.

Until this point I really hadn't engaged with many of the non-English speaking staff. Sure we exchange pleasantries and brief comments about weekends or students but never much more than that. This lead Fatima, the Religion teacher, to say that I frequently look lost when people speak Spanish. Luckily, one of the women obsessed with my cookies was Fatima, so we had a chance to talk about baking and I could prove I'm not always lost!

After school I came back to my neighborhood and took advantage of a coupon to the English book shop. For only 24 euro I bought four books. At the rate I am going this will last a while, but I could easily pick up reading more. When we first moved here I was reading all the time, but since we got the password to the wireless internet I've spent much more time surfing the web, reading perezhilton.com or news articles than real books. I've decided to cut back on the pointless internet, books are probably better for my brain.

My birthday celebration didn't stop with the books. I went to dinner with Melanie, Meagan and Theresa to a Mexican restaurant. It was delicious. They had some of the best guacamole I've ever had. Or maybe I just think it is the best because I can't remember what good guac tastes like... either way I was satisfied. The only downside was when one of the waiters was a jerk to us. He rather quietly announced a plate to give us; it was mine and I was far from him so I didn't hear him. He then gave us flack about not speaking Spanish and reminded us for the billionth time that we are in Spain and should speak Spanish. DUH! We know what country we are in and what language they speak here, get off my back. I wonder if he was a jerk because he heard us speaking English amongst ourselves and assumed we were tourists or imposed some anti-American feelings for no reason. Whatever his motive was, it was uncalled for. Meagan, who was sitting at the other end of the table, heard him and told him where to put the food. No pasa nada, buddy!

Now I am back to the daily grind. Yelling and 3rd graders and talking to kids in English. I'm also back to working my private lessons, I even managed to pick up an extra one. Oh! I forgot to mention that on Tuesday i bought tickets to meet up with my cousin in London. It will be awesome, but it will also be in May...

Note: I know that today is Inauguration Day but I won't be posting on that today. I am too upset about not being there to think about it too long. It could be fair to say that I am more upset about missing today than I was about missing election day...