Wednesday, February 23, 2011
Quechu-what?!?!
Super awesome day of class!!! Most of it was just standard class time, but after lunch, the tables were turned. Most people in the class speak some Spanish, some of us more than others. All of keep wondering what it is like that VERY first day when a student walks into an English class. They know NOTHING, and we're not allowed to use Spanish to help them. How does that work? Today we found, but from the student's perspective.
This afternoon we had about a one hour Quechua lesson. Quechua is a native language used in some areas of Peru. (Many of the people we met last weekend in Lake Titicaca spoke Quechua). That was certainly a fascinating hour!! I didn't learn Spanish using the same method we use to teach English, so this was truly a new experience. The teacher came in and just started speaking Quechua. I had no idea what he was saying! Couldn't really tell where one word stopped and the other started, but he seemed excited to teach us! Within the hour he had us asking one another "What's your name?" "Where are you from?" and "How are you?" AND RESPONDING!! Now.. I don't really remember any of it, but I could probably go back to my notes and get some words flowing. It was SO much fun and very insightful! I'm glad there is little to no chance that I will teach a beginner class anytime soon, but it was really interesting to get a feel for what the students feel like on that first day. WOW!!!
2 Comments:
What a great way to give you perspective. It is hard to imagine how he could teach you when you didn't understand what he said. I would love to experience something like that.
It was quite an experience. I've been studying Spanish for so long, with no real exposure to a language outside English or Spanish, that I forgot what it is like to hear those first words. So enlightening. I think they usually try to give basic level classes to people with more experience, but great perspective none the less.
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