English Village, Week 1

This past week, tutoring at "English Village" was so much better than we expected.  My personal expectations were quite low and my attitude was not good.  It was a very full week and we were able to learn so much more about language acquisiton by listening to Roman's teaching.  After the participants filled out a self-evaluation and we did oral interviews, Chris and I were both assigned the "low-beginner" groups.  These sweet people knew nothing more than "Hello" and "How are you?" when they arrived.  (Basically, the same words our boys knew in Spanish when we arrived in Argentina 18 months ago.)  It has been so much fun watching our new friends learn English.  They have worked so hard and go to bed every night with headaches because their brains are in overload. 

Between Chris and me, we are tutoring 5 people who plan to work in various countries in Africa or the Middle East where English is the common language in addition to the national or tribal language.  It has been so good to walk through this process with them.

In one of the sessions, Chris was asked to give a 4-step list of instructions on how to prepare mate.  He is a faithful mate drinker, but he has never prepared it.  When he gave the first instruction: "Boil the water", he was met with a horrified corporate gasp.  Such a cultural faux-pas.  You never boil the water because if the water reaches the boiling point, it will burn the herbs and therefore make the resulting round of mate bitter and, well, burned.  So, the correct instruction was "Heat the water." I know he'll never make that mistake again and I have to admit that I was laughing along with the rest of the crowd.

The boys are having a great time too.  Exploring, playing, reading, studying, English-talking, swimming. 
It's been a great week and we're looking forward to the second.