3-22 Cunningham's

We were invited to attend an evening class for adult English learners which we attended this evening. The students were between the ages of 20 and 37 years old and all were eager to practice their English with us. The occupations of these learners included university students, small business owners, fashion designers, and cosmetologists. We split the group into two smaller teams and Stephanie and I took time getting to know each team. We shared interests and also received some much appreciated insight about some must see nuances of Buenos Aires. We helped the teacher to present her activity that she had planned for the evening which included translating some “slang” phrases; this was a fun way to generate more conversation amongst us and allowed me to pick up some new Spanish phrases that were not covered in other conversational courses I have participated in. Our attendance was welcomed very genuinely along with being invited to attend future classes Tuesday and Thursdays (as well as an advanced section on Mondays and Wednesdays), these are invitations I plan on accepting humbly. Tonight I made some new friends and also enjoyed an opportunity to improve my Spanish speaking. It was a pleasure to attend class and I am looking forward to meeting the other group.

Monday, March 21

Today we continued to talk about the simple past tense with our students. They will be having a test on this next week so we will continue to practice throughout the week. The lesson today was focused on the differences between an affirmative, negative, or interrogative sentence. The students have been given sentences that have a blank in the space for the verbs and they need to identify the correct verb form to use. They have trouble with wanting to use the past tense form all the time whether the sentence is affirmative or not. The thing that we are working on is identifying the sentence type before we place our verb form. The sentences that they are receiving are mixed with each type, the ones that are negative all have the phrase didn’t to identify that the sentence is already in the past so the past tense form of the verb is not necessary; all of the interrogative sentences start with did to help reinforce this relationship between did? And didn’t.
Examples: I __________ (visit) my Grandma last weekend.
We___________ (not/have) pizza for lunch.
_______ Mary __________(listen) to music?
Each Monday the students write a Weekend Journal about what they did over the weekend. This is another opportunity for us to practice forming sentences using the past tense. We were asked to create a short paragraph to share with the class.
Kyle and Steph’s Weekend journal for Junior 3
This weekend Stephanie and I went to Chinatown with Lillian. We took the train from Acasusso to Belgrano. We walked to a restaurant that is close to the train station. For lunch we ate Sushi, it was delicious. After lunch we walked through Chinatown and looked in the shops. Kyle bought a wind chime for his girlfriend because she collects wind chimes. Stephanie bought a colorful dress. After we shopped we went to the Botanical Gardens. We walked through the Botanical Gardens and learned more about the plants and trees that grow in South America.
On Sunday afternoon we went to the artisan fair at SanTelmo. We rode the train to Retiro station and then took a Taxi-cab to the artisan fair. We had fun listening to tango in the streets. We ate a Chorizo for lunch. After we looked at some very beautiful artwork we took the train back home.

Saint Patrick's Day

Happy St. Patty’s Day! Today is a day to have some fun so I played a game with my students. We made a set of cards of which one color contains present tense verbs and their forms in the past are written on a different color card. The irregular verbs in the past tense are difficult for English learners as they have to memorize all of the irregular verb forms. This game worked well to give the students an interactive way to practice with these verb forms. I passed out a past tense card to each student and then said, for example, “I have go, who has went”. The student who had the matching card would then stand up and say “I have went.” The next thing I did was pass out both the past and present tense cards to the students and have them find their matching card. With their new partner they then practiced using the past tense form by writing a sentence in their copy books. The students then presented their words to the class by taking turns in the front, using the microphone (glue stick) and saying their phrase and words to the class (they really like taking turns using the “microphone”). After that the students had drama class and after drama we recommenced our work on the past by writing about their last birthday. I had some green balloons and put them at the top of the board to generate some excitement about the birthday party topic (this worked well). After the students were done writing their paragraphs, and some were read out loud, we underlined all of the past tense verbs with colored pencil. Just before the end of the day I explained the real reason why I brought the green balloons, Saint Patrick’s Day! I explained quickly what this day means to the Irish and gave away some of the green balloons as the students went home for the day. The lesson went well and the students are really doing a great job of learning these irregular verb forms, a difficult aspect of our strange language to master. I wish that I could go to get a boiled dinner tonight but there are no Saint Patty’s day dinners in sight, so I think I may just have to settle for the Argentine staple once again, Pizza.

Monday, Week Three

Today was the beginning of another great week here in Buenos Aires (Martinez ). Our students are starting to really look up to us as teachers rather that fun visitors from the States. I am also continuing to learn about the differences between Spanish and English, and my students have been proud to teach me new words throughout the day. Today we introduced our mini-unit on Thanksgiving and practiced some English speaking by going taking turns and giving each student a chance to share what they are thankful for; I was honored to hear more than once that my students are thankful for their school and their teachers. Today I was able to see a choir class which thrilled me as I was able to participate in some breathing exercises! After class I was able to sing some Eric Clapton songs while the choir teacher happily (and masterfully) shared some guitar licks with me, what else can bring two cultures together more effortlessly than Slowhand? We received an exciting invitation this weekend to go out on a field trip to see a different bi-lingual school in another part of the city, and to work with the students there for a day. Stephanie and I are pleased to have the chance to see what another school in the area looks like and how the students function in the bi-lingual learning experience. Another thing that I am looking forward to is going to China-town next Saturday with Lillian, one of my mentors here who was born in Brooklyn and enjoys dual-citizenship as well a fine Sushi. I knew that I would be eating good seafood here and am extra excited to have found someone who shares my passion for quality Sashimi.

Parents' Night

Yesterday night we had parents’ night here at school. The headmasters gave a speech explaining policies such as attendance and buying books to the entire group of parents and after they came up to our room to hear the information that our teachers had to share with them about the goals for their children and their class specifically. I was a bit nervous about how I would be received by the parents, but they were all happy to meet me, and also to share with me the nice things that the students had to say about my contributions to the class. These conversations with the parents were very encouraging to me as they gave me a boost of confidence in my ability to communicate successfully with my Castillano, as well as feeling welcomed to the school by both the students and parents.

Finally what you have all been waiting for, the Tigre catamaran tour slide-show. I hope you enjoy these scenes as much as I do.
Also we started writing some letters to our students in Michigan today. I hope to get them in the mail this weekend (along with some post cards) so keep checking those mailboxes!

Carnaval Weekend

Carnaval!
This weekend has been great, long, relaxing, and exciting. There is something about being here in Buenos Aires that enables us to stay up with the locals until the wee hours; it is the subtle rush of seeing new things coupled with surprises around every corner. This weekend has been our opportunity to get to know our area well. We used all of the public transportation available to push our territory that we are comfortable traveling to by taking the bus, train, taxis, hired cars, walking, and my favorite the catamaran. Public transportation is what we have found to be our best option for getting out and sightseeing and doing the things that we came here to do. A train ride from place to place will cost us around .80 pesos or twenty cents American, the bus is the same but it has more stops and although they go to places off the beaten path of the train it can be much more time consuming due to frequent stops and traffic. Taxis are easily hailed especially around tourist hot-spots and we have had great experiences with our cabbies working with our in-expertise with the city and Castillano. Now that www.Globalearn-IT.com has provided us with a cell phone (and a nice one, Sony Ericson Walkman phone) we are able to take advantage of our most luxurious mode of transport, the car service next to our apartment. Our driver Herman is super nice and we can call them 24 hours, or just walk over there and talk to them about where we want to go or return from. It has been advised to us to avoid trains and buses at night so we take a bus or train somewhere in the afternoon for .80 pesos and then call the car later from wherever we end up at and a return trip for up to a 40 minute car ride has not been more than 25 US dollars. We are getting to know Herman and he has proven to be one of our many new friends that we can depend on. Last night we went to a spot for pizza close to our apartment and I noticed our first new friend Victor, the waiter that took great care of us the first night we arrived. I told him that it has been a week since we got here (it has been wonderful) and how excited I am to find our first new friend hanging out at our favorite pizza place. He remembered us well and insisted on buying us our pizza. We spent the rest of the night with Victor and his “future wife” learning new Spanish words and helping Victor practice his English. This is just one example of the locals opening up to us and genuinely wanting to bridge our cultural gap. Every where we go we find people who are excited for the opportunity to share intimate details about this beautiful city, the City of the Sun. I found the sandwich that will become my staple for the remainder of my stay as well. It is lomo, or sandwich del lomo… A tender steak on a large hamburger bun with a fried egg, sliced tomatoes lettuce and roasted sweet pepper. It is so delicious to use a knife and fork to eat for a late breakfast or lunch. Stay tuned for my slide-show of our catamaran tour of Tigre. Chao.