The Letter E (Teaching in Chile)

CIEE offers a variety of volunteer opportunities for their program participants; these include working with impoverished families, assisting with after school programs, and distributing food to the homeless. Though I usually find any service experience rewarding and worthwhile, I was happily surprised when one of our program directors invited me to start an English language instruction program at one of Santiago's best colegios (middle/high schools). Colegio Benjamìm McKenna is a "magnet school," she explained, one of the city's most well off, with gifted students and plenty of resources.

However, with class sizes of 45+, no gym and bare rooms (some without desks,) the colegio was not what I expected. Upon arrival for a preliminary meeting with Señor Rodriguez, the school's English teacher, I inquired regarding the resources available (crossing my fingers in hopes of videos, workbooks, or even a photocopier.) "We have dictionaries" he announced proudly after much contemplation. I knew then this would be an interesting semester. Fortunately, I've had a little experience teaching English (and Spanish) in the States, and despite my uncertainty, I was relieved to discover that 14-year-olds are 14-year-olds regardless of what country you're in. Despite the requisite school uniforms and custom of standing while the teacher enters the room, much of what I observed in Sr. Rodriguez' classes was no different from my own high school.

The annual "Dìa de los estudiantes," (Student Day, with free food and no classes,) a few days later, provided me with an opportunity to interact with the students on a more informal level. A few of the girls were anxious to show me around, and pointed out the different "groups": boys who played fùtbol, boys who didn't play fùtbol, and boys who juggled and claimed they were training to be street performers. The girls seemed a bit less segregated. All of the room parents came in to serve completos (hot dogs drenched in avacado and mayonnaise) and the students attempted to raise money for a school trip by charging admission to a "Cafè con piernas," a (hopefully) more innocent version of the Coffee with Legs diners found on shady street corners all over Santiago.

Equipped with my new background knowledge, I was prepared to teach my first 2 hour class Wednesday afternoon. Sr. Rodriguez had assured me that all of the students had studied English extensively, thus I was a bit surprised when one girl confidently responded "Yes" when I inquired how many siblings she had. After a few questions, I concluded that the students' comprehension of English vocabulary ranged from near fluency to a few words, making subsequent lesson planning a bit of a challenge...

Though the students seemed a little shy at first, (my open ended discussion questions were met with eerie silence) by the end they had opened up and were anxious to interact. I assured them that there was no need to be hesitant about speaking a foreign language, since I can certainly sympathize.

Since high school students are known to for asking "trick questions," I was relieved when the questions remained innocent and fairly easy to answer. The most difficult involved why the United States grading system omits the letter "E." Thus, I was surprised when Julio very seriously asked me to write "beach" on the board, along with a similar word, and say them loudly several times for the class to repeat. The class did a very nice job of repeating, though this was probably the one and only time I will be asked to say this in a classroom.

Since many of the students here are big fans of US music (Coldplay is a favorite) I am hoping to entice them to participate by including music lyrics in next week’s lesson. If this doesn’t work I can always lure them with chocolate chip cookies...