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.
