First Day Teaching, Borborema

6 March 2013

Woke up to the birds again at the 6 hour, wandered to a room and slept a few more hours. The rain from last night dried early. The day brought powerful heat. I went to the gym down the street, met up with the same trainers there I remember from 4 years ago. They all know me as Brian’s son. Made some grated beet and cabbage salad with some egg for brunch then got ready for the first day of teaching in Borborema. Daniela owns the school and she gave me some materials to go over in preparation of my three classes. I read through the material and took some notes for ideas to work on in classes. She arrived circa 1pm and thankfully we had the AC in the car, because it was full body sweat hot. Borborema is 20km away and in that drive time I learned that my three classes will be very casual, that I can use the book today or not, just get to know the students and learn their levels. Also, they speak enough English that I don’t have to completely speak Portuguese (something I was nervous about).

The school building is small, just an entry, common TV area for movies and two computers, kitchen area, and three classrooms. After 30 minutes of discussion with Daniela about teaching and ways that she can improve (she wants to improve her pronunciation, I suggested repetitions of trying to copy my dialect), I met my first student. Fernanda is an adult student, she will go to Toronto to study some English and then to New York. She has a strong grasp of English but a little bit strange way of speaking. Lot’s of um…uhh… ahhh… and mad gestures, like she is afraid of the silence when she is looking for a word. But she can correct her own grammar mistakes and usually catches them such as past tense conjugation errors. She rarely relies on Portuguese to help her and although she seems a little nervous with her mannerisms, she mostly finds her words.

Class 2 was also one person, Rafaela, who is also very competent in the language. She has been studying for 3.5 years and admittedly does nothing, because in her town there is nothing to do. She is a senior in high school here, and wants to be a dentist. When I asked her what she would do if she could do anything, she said she wanted to drive off-road trucks. Then she admitted that when she borrowed her father’s car, she crashed it into a fence. I told her it’s her parents’ fault if they are bad drivers and never taught her how to drive more safely. She seemed satisfied by this. We did not cover much of the book, but did a primer at the end of class about the topic of diet predilections for next week.

Class 3 was 5 people and Rafaela. This was the least talkative class and also the youngest. They were 15 years old with the exception of one older lady who was sitting in. They seemed much more nervous about chatting, and kept looking to one another before speaking. Bunch of lemmings, looking to one another. In any case, friendly but nervous folks, seemed genial to the idea of finding ways for them to talk. We decided to have a debate next week about movies, who makes better movies: America or Brasil. I’m hoping this sparks some talking.

Class 4 was Renato. He is traveling on exchange to South Africa to learn English. He intended to go to Canada but had his Visa application denied. He is high level and really wants to have practice conversation so that he can overcome his shyness when he arrives in Africa. He also wants to get a better job upon return to Brasil as a result of learning better English. Right now he works in a bank. Friendly guy, seemed really happy to speak with me. He also really liked the idea of doing mock interviews in English and we talked for 30 minutes after he was supposed to leave. When this was finished, I was invited into the last class of the night, a group of younger learners who were the least advanced group of the night. They seemed to just desire my company in the classroom. And they also seemed plenty content just to listen to me talk. I reckon I probably talked more than I should have, but I was maybe too tired to ask so many questions and pull the words out of them. I told them about different foods I like and asked which places they are curious to know about and how their lives are here in Borborema. The teacher of this final class also called her daughter in to chat with me, her daughter grew up in Connecticut and moved to Brasil three years prior but never spoke much English now. In this final class there was one student who looked very familiar to me. And near the end of class I recalled where I thought I knew her. When I first came to Brasil 8 years ago, I went with my Dad and Sonia to a BBQ with three other families. No reason other than chillin out and cooking tasty soup and shooting the breeze. It was really great, and I remember it really well because it seemed to me then to be a very quintessential Brasilian event, no one hurried, people love to talk and I had some great conversations with the older people. But I also remembered this very sweet and wide eyed little girl who I talked with, too. With my level of Portuguese then, I think I probably had the best conversation with her, about her family and school and such. And this girl, I could swear was sitting in this class. So at the end of class I said to her, “I think I know you. Eight years ago did you ever go to a BBQ with Brian and Sonia and some American kid?” She had no memory and asked her sister, who was in the class, neither of them had a memory of it, and why would they, they would have been 6 and 5 years old. I said, “Well, I have a pretty good memory for faces, so ask your mother.” They left and the younger one came back and said, “My mom came to pick us up and she remembers you!” Sweet vindication I was right, and went and spoke with her mother and told her that I had a great time and it was one of my greatest memories of traveling to Brasil and that I remember her daughters being very kind and sweet little girls. The mother was just like I remember them, calm and kind.

Daniela drove me back to Novo Horizonte and I told her that I didn’t really have food for dinner and asked her to drive me up to the sandwich stand on the end of the street. She took me up there and we chatted some more while they made my burger with egg. We talked about how in Brasil people love to talk, and we talked about how the dance instructor always tells Sonia to be quiet and listen to him, and she offered to show me around if I ever wanted to know the place more, and invited me to the dance class Saturday. I told her that maybe my heart and my stomach could be Brasilian, but my hips and feet are American. She left.

While I was waiting for my burger, two motorbike police parked and walked by. The larger one said “Hello,” and I asked in Portuguese is he spoke English, to which he replied that he does not. Then he asked if I knew Brian, and I said I did, that he is my father. The police man then extended his leather-fingerless-gloved-hand for a handshake, asked if Dad had left yet for his trip and told me when I speak to him next that I should tell him that Fabricio sends him a hug. I said I would then walked home and watched the lightning in the distance on this final promenade of the day.

The hours in the school flew by. All the students were pleased to have a foreigner around, no pressure, nothing needed to start on time, nobody interrupted anyone, no one was rude, or overly formal, people smiled, introduced themselves, Daniela had the forethought to bring some sandwich materials to feed me, she told me to do whatever I want in my classes. A more pleasant first day of teaching could not be asked for. I can’t believe they are going to pay me for this.