Sawatdii kha, Profesora Lorena!

Today's Thoughts...

Today I had my first Spanish class. Correction, today I held my first Spanish class. Correction still. Today I held my first Spanish class in Thailand. Ahat have I gotten myself into?

When I asked my students in our introductory lesson why they wanted to speak Spanish, many cited the fact that the language is spoken in un sinúmero of countries around the world, which is totally true. When pressed for exactly which assemblage of countries spoke the language, the immediate responses were, in this order no less: Spain, Texas, Mexico, Brazil, and a country in the World Cup, ah, yes, Paraguay. I hung my head— this is going to be a loooong semester.

To their credit, in our first class, my students were downright exuberant. As per course, I informed them a week ago that under no circumstances would I speak English in class. Solamente en español, I warned frightened faces and horrified agape ‘O’ expressions. True to my word, Spanish only I spoke from Hola when they eagerly filed in to Adiós as they traipsed out—¡Hasta luego, profesora! ¡Hasta pronto! It was only then that I realized that whatever my obsession and amor for the language, it HAS been a year since I have held a fluid fluent convo, let alone taught for an hour and a half without so much as uttering ni una palabra inglesa. It was as daunting a task for me as it was for them, if not more so. So naturally I sprinkled in several phrases of Thai (quite a few I didn’t even know I had) and the occasional Japanese (really, now, it’s been like three years, c’mon). After all, language is just a giant word bank in the left cortex, isn’t it? Spatinglish (or Engsphai?)-- hmm, going to have to work on that. On top of it all, I'm pretty certain I vacillated somewhere between channeling Antonio Banderas and Carlos Mencia. Same, same, but different?

By the end, I was panting, they were cheering, and I had spelled Buenas noches three different ways on the chalkboard. My brain still tingled with the collision of tongues tangling in my head as I walked to my moto and heard an excited student call after me: “Odious, teacha!” I paused, flipped through the catalogues in my head and responded somewhat belatedly, “¡Adiós! ¡Hasta mañana!”

Well, learning takes time.

¡Ay Diós mio!