Small Victories

Juan and Daniel are two students from rural Mexico. Daniel has been in the United States 4 years and has experience as a carpenter. He recently brought Juan, his older father, to this country.

Both are painfully shy and serious. I can usually get a class of Latinos to loosen up by joking about the oldest male student being "Mi Novio" (boyfriend) and getting everyone to dance during pronunciation activities. I'm generous with my "Bravos!" and telling older women in Spanglish they don't look a day over 21. Juan and Daniel smile with their eyes but fail to let go.

Daniel is gaining confidence and speaking louder and more clearly in class. Juan, as far as I can tell, is barely literate in Spanish. He doesn't speak much to other students and generally seems scared shitless.

A typical "good" conversation with Juan goes like this:
ME: "What's your name?"
JUAN: "Nombre? Juan"
ME: "Well, at least you understood the question."
JUAN: ::stare::

Asking him about his work in Mexico, his son translates:
ME: "What did you do in Mexico?"
DANIEL: "Su trabajo en Mexico?"
Juan: "Oh. Campos."

Even in Spanish he sticks to one word answers.

Me: "Farmer. I was a farmer." (writing the sentence on the board)

Juan needs to pass a job interview where he describes his previous positions and his expierence. I'm afraid he won't be very sucessful at this. I was at my wits end yesterday when after 4 weeks of training, he not only couldn't answer "how are you?" but didn't even seem to understand the question.

"Oh Juan, mi novio voy a estar jealous because I spend so much time with you."

He looked at me blankly. His son chuckled, translated. Juan broke a brief smile.

I began asking him every 10 minutes, "Juan, how are you?"

"Uhhhhh."

Finally exasperated, a solution struck me, "Juan, do you know the numbers in English?"

I held up one finger, Juan said "one." With two fingers he correctly answered "two."
I held up five fingers, and he said some mispronounced combination of "five" and "fine." Spanish speakers occasionally have trouble with ending words strongly, especally S's, D's, and M's. I don't know why his "Five" sounded like "Fine," and I knew that it wasn't exactly right to make him think "Five" was the same as "Fine."

But it worked.

Everytime I asked him, "How are you?" I held up 5 fingers. Eventually, I didn't need to hold up my fingers.

"Finve!" He'd answer, drunk with victory.

He's got a long way to go- I hope he remembers this little trick today.

¿Como se dice "Then, don't drink the Lemondaide?"

I am the only one in my department not fluent in Spanish but having worked on this program for two years, I can explain very basic things, answer basic questions, and generally help people in Spanish. Granted it's not very good Spanish, but most people, with a little patience, can get my message.

This morning at 8am, before any Spanish speaking employee has arrived, a client opened the door and, rather than enter, loudly queries:

"ESTA ANA?!"
(Is Ana here?")

The only visable person to her was a 70-something blackwoman sitting at her desk.

I move from my cubilcle and say (in Spanish):

"Ana is not here this week. I can help you."

She says "Oh," and begins to leave.

"I can help you!" I repeat in Spanish.

She pauses, looks at me, and says (in Spanish using the informal "you" after I'd addressed her with the formal "you") "I can speak to you?"

"Yes, you can speak to me," I say (in English.)

"You speak Spanish?" She asks in Spanish.

"Si, Pocito" I answer. (just a little)

Then she said the following very, very rapidly:

Spanish Spanish Spanish Spanish (Pause for breath) Spanish Spanish Spanish Spanish Spanish Spanish Spanish Spanish Spanish Spanish BREAKROOM Spanish Spanish Spanish Spanish Spanish Spanish Spanish Spanish LIMONAIDE.

I had been expecting a quetion about her job, her training, her computer application, or an upcoming interview. I certainly didn't expect her to complain to me about the breakroom with its free lemonaide.So I responded- in Spanish-

"LEMONAIDE! I Didn't understand."

To which she responded, in Spanglish:

"LIMONAIDE BAD"

I wanted to laugh out loud. She walked across the building on her break, passing a number of people in the restaurant who control the Breakroom, a number of whom speak Spanish, to complain to my co-worker, as if she had the magic lemonaide solution. Mind you, this client has been here three weeks and should be somewhat aware of what's going on. Well, I feel your pain sister- that's our limonaide too- and believe you me, it's only one step up from tart piss. The coffee ain't that great either- don't get me started.

And since I had no idea how to say any of that, my language broke down into a pathetic mess:

"Tiene que" (You have to)
"Uh uh uh" (thinking- what the fuck is the word for tell! Hablar, no, сказать сказать сказать no no no...fuck fuck fuck.)
"Decir" (Thinking- Is that Spanish or French?)
"the people in the restaurant" (dammit, it's 8am!)

I abandon course, and say the following:

"Esta las personas en the Restaurant?"
(Are there people in el restaurante?)

"Si," she answers.

I think, Tell them.
"Necesita digele" I say. (it's necessary tell him- quite grammatically incorrect)

She looks at me, responds "Oh" and leaves.

I always hope that my attempts to speak Spanish will encourage clients to take risks in English. There's no empowering some people I guess.

Happy Haitians

I was recently thrown into a "Customer Service" class for housekeepers working at a major Las Vegas hotel. Each week I had a new group to teach. The students were mixed in terms of native langauge and English ability. In one class, I'd have 2 or 3 Native English speakers and possibly 1 or 2 maids who spoke practically no English. My challenge- improve their customer service.

What an unfair challenge. As the class continued, I discovered the real problem was neither lack of customer service skills nor lack of English skills per se. The real issue underlying a decline in service was a lack of perceived managerial support and a sudden change of management styles. A couple of the classes devolved into bitch sessions about management despite my best efforts.

There also some serious attitude problems...with the native English speakers.

"Why should I bother, all they do is speak Spanish?" The native English speakers had the most complaints about guests and management. They were the angriest and least interested in learning. Instead, they wanted everyone and everthing else to improve without looking at themselves and seeing what they were doing wrong.

In group disucssions they refused to talk to their partners.

In role plays, they failed to say things essential to customer service like "you're welcome" or "Good morning, ma'am" even though their direct supervisor was in the room.

And then when they saw that their co-workers who spoke less English were able to role play with smiles, apologies, and even a "Have a nice day," you could see their shame.

The best class I had was a group where there were two Haitian women with bright smiles and sincere laughter and no native English speakers. I routinely joked with the housekeepers about how many times they'd seen a guest naked. The native English speakers would lodge into a litany of complaints about how disrespectful guests could be and how they shouldn't have to deal with it. It was rather tiresome. The Hatians had a different reaction.

One Haitian wiped the tears of laughter from her eyes as everyone proded her to tell her story.

Marie:

One time, Maria and I were in the hallway when we saw this guest come out of his room. He had ::pause for uncontrolled laughter:: no clothes.:: insert downward wagging finger gesture mimicking a penis::And. ::laughter:: he went to Maria and asked for ::laughter laughter:: a towel. ::wipe tear from eye::

Marie grew bold and gained control of herself. Her voice became loud and booming:

And I ran after her saying 'No, no, no That's my guest!'

The entire class erupted in laughter. Admitedly, it was one of those "had to be there" situations, but I sat there noting how this class differed from my other classes of English speakers in terms of perspective. How one Haitian woman could see something hilarious when an American would find it insulting...

and I realized how wonderful everything could be if we all took a hint from Marie.

A school bus or an asshole boss

I just had the following conversation with a student after class.


Student: Thursday, I come 3?

(our class goes from 2-4 and she must attend as a condition of employement at a hotel)

Me: Why?
Student: Uh, uh, uh Mi baby. Mi baby,uh, aschol boss.
Me: I'm sorry, excuse me?
Student: Asshole Boss. escuela, escuala.
Me: Ah! School.
Student (flustered): Si, siSchool Boss. Bus. Bus. School Bus.
Me: Ok. See you at three.
Student: Thank you, teasher.

I don't know why, perhaps it's a bit sadistic, but I always derive such amusement from situations such as these.

How do you...?

Whenever people hear that I teach English as a second language, they assume I speak Spanish. Recently, I coordinated a Spanish class for English speaking employees of a major Las Vegas hotel. The training department called me not once, but twice, confused as to what would be taught.

"So is the class for Spanish speakers or people who want to learn Spanish?"
"It's a Spanish class for people who want to learn Spanish."

Likewise, many supervisors and managers refer to my ESL classes as "Spanish classes." Nevermind that there is usually one student who doesn't speak Spanish. In Vegas's job rich environment, there are plenty of refugees from Eritrea, Somalia, Bosnia, and China. There's always a random Bulgarian or Armenian.

People look at me in awe when I say I don't need to speak the students' langauge in order to teach them. In fact, I'd made a strict policy of never speaking anything other than English in class.

Until recently.

Maybe other ESL teachers have noted how their methods and styles of teaching change depending on the cultural group they're teaching. The way I taught Japanese students is radically different than the way I teach Spanish speakers. I couldn't get the Japanese to "dance" out a word or laugh hysterically. Spanish speakers do not demonstrate the same discipline or independence when completing activities.

Moreover, many of my spanish speaking students never completed more than 6 years of schooling, whereas my Japanese students were college bound. Japanese students picked up easily on patterns and structures when presented in English, whereas many of my middle aged housekeepers remain confused for weeks on end, relying on one sharp student to translate if I use the same methods.

So lately, I've taken to "Spanglish" when describing larger concepts like "Do you" and "Did you." It hasn't been enough to simply present the pattern and practice the pattern in context (by which I mean the lesson will revolve around how to answer guest questions, but students will ask me "What is 'Do'?")They focus on the fact they didn't understand "Do" which leads a compelte lack of confidence.

"Teasher, No entiendo nada!"
(Teacher, I don't understand anything!)But they undestand everything (!), except for the word "Do." It's not a matter of language or English, it's a matter of the student feeling as though she's made progress or is receiving comprehensible input. She focuses on the 5% she doesn't get, and ignores the 95% which is completely clear.

And then I've lost them to a sea of "No puedo, No puedo, No puedo." (I can't)

But with the Spanglish, they're getting it more. You can feel the braincells buzzing, as they nod, and you can hear them in pair work discussing the situation and not last night's soap opera...even if the discussion is in Spanish.

One small step for Maria, one giant leap for Maria-kind?

In the beginning

There was The Shannonosphere, and then there was Shannon's ESL Blog.