Things have been fairly normal here, fairly steady. I've been working like usual and my Spanish has been getting better and better. Lately, I've been challenging myself to practice new grammar and reinforce the grammar that I already know when I'm speaking to my colleagues. I will only send text messages in Spanish, even though I've already passed the written portion of the exams that I need in order to be certified to teach Spanish in Michigan. I've been told that my Spanish has been improving immensely over the past few weeks especially, so I know that it's proving well for me!
I'm also very excited to teach my first official Spanish lesson on Monday. A few Canadians are here on an exchange type program where they work in the local schools and have a home stay for three months. They know very little Spanish (less than the first semester of Spanish in high school) and approached Wall Street Institute to inquire about the possibility of Spanish lessons. I'm very excited about it! There will now be four of them instead of the original two who just wanted lessons, so it should be very interesting and rewarding on my end as well. I'm definitely looking forward to it! I've been preparing my lesson for them all weekend.
I'm thinking of starting with the very basics, such as: "Como te llamas?" or "Como se llama?" and a few other basic conversations such as this. I'm also hoping to include some pronunciation for them as well, because I know that's one of the biggest challenges when it comes to learning a new language. I'm very excited and I'm sure that it will be a ton of fun!
Sunday, June 3, 2012
Wednesday, May 2, 2012
Musings of Ecuadorian Culture
I've officially received my proper working visa for Ecuador. Yay, I'm legal! It was certainly quite the process and I learned quite a bit about the culture here in Ecuador as well. Here's a list of some things that I've discovered during my time here so far:
1) If you know someone while you are waiting in line, especially at a government place, you can essentially cut in line and no one says anything to you. Think of this like a VIP treatment. It's daunting at first when you suddenly are granted permission to move up in line, cutting in front of people who have been waiting in line for at least an hour before you got in line. This happened while I was waiting at the Ministry to get my visa filed. It's entirely a normal process apparently.
2) It is important to make multiple copies of everything. We (in the United States) typically would make maybe one or two copies of documents so that we have one for ourselves and one just in case we need to prove something. Here, however, having three or four copies is highly recommend; it seems like the more that you make a copy of something, the better. It takes a lot of time, but it's worth it in the end.
3) Lining up 2 or 3 hours outside of a place is very normal. The Ministry didn't open until 8, but when I got there at 6:30 in the morning, people were already waiting in line and looked like they'd been there for about half an hour if not longer. I also see this at banks or other government run places. Lines can be 20 or 30 people deep yet people still wait in line, regardless of how long they need to wait.
4) It's a great idea to sell snacks to the people waiting in line. It's very typical to see vendors with a cart full of gum, soda, water, chips, sometimes even fruit or sandwiches. I've also seen people buy just one cigarette while they were waiting in line for I think I heard about .20 cents. You'll also run into people selling ice cream as you wait for the bus or in other similar situations. Great idea! And it's accepted for children to go into restaurants trying to sell gum for some extra change to the customers at a restaurant, as well.
5) Ecuadorians have come up with a great way to sell their products. If the company wants to sell something, they have someone get on one of the buses traveling between cities. The person sells their pitch, but they do it in a very unique way. They physically hand out their product to the people on the bus. You can decide if you want to hold on to it while the person is talking about their product, but at the end of their pitch, they go around and either ask for the product back or ask for whatever cost they said for their product. Usually it's very little things. I've seen individual packets of green tea, toothbrushes, candies, bottles of water, among other things. There are also people that come on the buses to sell fresh fruit that you can buy usually for about $1.
Definitely some interesting things that I've learned about Ecuadorian culture :D
1) If you know someone while you are waiting in line, especially at a government place, you can essentially cut in line and no one says anything to you. Think of this like a VIP treatment. It's daunting at first when you suddenly are granted permission to move up in line, cutting in front of people who have been waiting in line for at least an hour before you got in line. This happened while I was waiting at the Ministry to get my visa filed. It's entirely a normal process apparently.
2) It is important to make multiple copies of everything. We (in the United States) typically would make maybe one or two copies of documents so that we have one for ourselves and one just in case we need to prove something. Here, however, having three or four copies is highly recommend; it seems like the more that you make a copy of something, the better. It takes a lot of time, but it's worth it in the end.
3) Lining up 2 or 3 hours outside of a place is very normal. The Ministry didn't open until 8, but when I got there at 6:30 in the morning, people were already waiting in line and looked like they'd been there for about half an hour if not longer. I also see this at banks or other government run places. Lines can be 20 or 30 people deep yet people still wait in line, regardless of how long they need to wait.
4) It's a great idea to sell snacks to the people waiting in line. It's very typical to see vendors with a cart full of gum, soda, water, chips, sometimes even fruit or sandwiches. I've also seen people buy just one cigarette while they were waiting in line for I think I heard about .20 cents. You'll also run into people selling ice cream as you wait for the bus or in other similar situations. Great idea! And it's accepted for children to go into restaurants trying to sell gum for some extra change to the customers at a restaurant, as well.
5) Ecuadorians have come up with a great way to sell their products. If the company wants to sell something, they have someone get on one of the buses traveling between cities. The person sells their pitch, but they do it in a very unique way. They physically hand out their product to the people on the bus. You can decide if you want to hold on to it while the person is talking about their product, but at the end of their pitch, they go around and either ask for the product back or ask for whatever cost they said for their product. Usually it's very little things. I've seen individual packets of green tea, toothbrushes, candies, bottles of water, among other things. There are also people that come on the buses to sell fresh fruit that you can buy usually for about $1.
Definitely some interesting things that I've learned about Ecuadorian culture :D
Monday, April 9, 2012
Exploring Quito
Over the holiday weekend, I had the wonderful opportunity to visit the capital city of Ecuador, Quito. It's about an hour and a half on the bus from Cayambe and the overall journey costs only $1.25 to travel there. Definitely worth going. It's even easier in that you can ride the bus from the first stop directly to the last stop in Quito, which is a major outlet for buses and public transportation in Quito. I met one of my students in Quito and her family was wonderful and helped to show me a great time in Quito! Her niece was our tour guide and she spoke amazing English and was very knowledgeable about many of the famous places in Quito.
First, some pictures!
Me with the niece and nephew of my student Alicia. :D We were on a horse and carriage ride going through downtown Quito. Pretty awesome!
The inside and the outside of one of the most famous churches in Quito, located in the street called "7 crosses street". You can literally see 7 different crosses at different points on the street itself that winds throughout colonial Quito.
Me with Alicia on the carriage ride :D She was awesome for showing me around Quito with her family!!
One of the 7 crosses that you can see on this street in Quito. They all look fairly similar to this one and they are a few blocks apart. We weren't quite sure what number this one was!
An example of a typical street in Quito. We were still on the horse and carriage ride, but behind all the traffic you can see part of Quito sprawling in the background. Definitely a very cool city!
The main plaza in colonial Quito. It's also home to a fairly expensive hotel that you can stay at right downtown apparently!
It was definitely a very fun journey to Quito and one I hope to take again some time soon. :D Hope you all enjoy the pictures!
First, some pictures!
It was definitely a very fun journey to Quito and one I hope to take again some time soon. :D Hope you all enjoy the pictures!
Friday, March 23, 2012
Two Months!
I've officially been in Ecuador for two months now. It's definitely been interesting! I've learned a new teaching method, one that I think is quite beneficial to teaching a second language. It's amazing to learn that some of the students who seem nearly fluent in English have only been studying here for maybe a year, maybe two at the most. The method that this center uses follows Stephen Krashen's method of Second Language Acquisition. Basically, the students learn the second language the same way that they learned their first. They start first with just listening, then with repetition and trying to imitate the sounds themselves. Then they can participate in mini-conversations with the other students and with the computer as well so that way they can start learning their second language. They do learn grammar, but it's almost an after-thought. The grammar is taught after they have already listened and heard some of the vocabulary and different words in the computer system. Acquiring the "grammar" of English is a natural process for them, rather than the way that I remember learning Spanish.
Most of us in the United States learn grammar first, along with vocabulary. Speaking follows after we've mastered basic vocabulary. I remember in Spanish 1 and 2 in high school, for instance, we would learn a ton of vocabulary and have verb conjugation drills for our homework. There would be some speaking in Spanish 1, and a little more in Spanish 2, but by the time you reached Spanish 3, it was expected that you would probably be able to converse at least at an average level of ability with speaking Spanish. In my case, and many other students as well, there was that disconnect between acquisition and practice. Here, my Spanish is already improving. I've found that with the number of new students that we've been receiving lately that I've had the chance to explain English grammar in Spanish to my students. It's been rewarding for me, especially, to see their comprehension when they realize what certain grammar points are. They understand that I'm practicing Spanish, so they help me when I say something in a way that doesn't really make sense to a native speaker, and I help them. It's been a lot of fun so far, and already I feel that my Spanish has improved quite a bit since coming here.
I am definitely glad, however, that China was my first experience with living outside of the United States. Many things here I know would have easily bothered me or concerned me had I not been there first. For instance, things do get communicated here. However, sometimes it is still only an hour or two before...or it's only half an explanation. In China, sometimes I didn't find things out in English until after it had already happened. There was one time when I found out I'd be teaching a class by myself twenty minutes after the class had already ended. Luckily by that point, I had enough of a working knowledge of Mandarin that I could ask the classroom teachers what was happening and go with the flow. Take today, for instance. Usually every Friday, we have "social club" activities for the students, where students of any level can come and practice their English for an hour with their fellow students. This is both very beneficial as it gives them a free hour to speak and to interact with students at all levels. I was asked to be in charge of this social club a few days ago, but never really informed that it would just be me running it (usually, it's me and another teacher). I found out from another teacher that I would be here by myself tonight with the receptionist. This is quite normal in Ecuador, and a lot of things are just understood without having to be said here. I know that before last year, this would have bothered me a lot; however, I'm learning how to adapt really easily to newer situations that might come up like this.
This same is true for how the transportation works in Ecuador. For instance, there's no "official" bus schedule written anywhere that I've found, yet everyone seems to just understand how the buses work. They know, for example, that the buses leave every 15-20 minutes, they know how much they are, and they know where the stops are. None of this is marked anywhere, so for a foreigner, it can be quite daunting sometimes. It's definitely been interesting, but that's all part of what makes living abroad a fun adventure!
Most of us in the United States learn grammar first, along with vocabulary. Speaking follows after we've mastered basic vocabulary. I remember in Spanish 1 and 2 in high school, for instance, we would learn a ton of vocabulary and have verb conjugation drills for our homework. There would be some speaking in Spanish 1, and a little more in Spanish 2, but by the time you reached Spanish 3, it was expected that you would probably be able to converse at least at an average level of ability with speaking Spanish. In my case, and many other students as well, there was that disconnect between acquisition and practice. Here, my Spanish is already improving. I've found that with the number of new students that we've been receiving lately that I've had the chance to explain English grammar in Spanish to my students. It's been rewarding for me, especially, to see their comprehension when they realize what certain grammar points are. They understand that I'm practicing Spanish, so they help me when I say something in a way that doesn't really make sense to a native speaker, and I help them. It's been a lot of fun so far, and already I feel that my Spanish has improved quite a bit since coming here.
I am definitely glad, however, that China was my first experience with living outside of the United States. Many things here I know would have easily bothered me or concerned me had I not been there first. For instance, things do get communicated here. However, sometimes it is still only an hour or two before...or it's only half an explanation. In China, sometimes I didn't find things out in English until after it had already happened. There was one time when I found out I'd be teaching a class by myself twenty minutes after the class had already ended. Luckily by that point, I had enough of a working knowledge of Mandarin that I could ask the classroom teachers what was happening and go with the flow. Take today, for instance. Usually every Friday, we have "social club" activities for the students, where students of any level can come and practice their English for an hour with their fellow students. This is both very beneficial as it gives them a free hour to speak and to interact with students at all levels. I was asked to be in charge of this social club a few days ago, but never really informed that it would just be me running it (usually, it's me and another teacher). I found out from another teacher that I would be here by myself tonight with the receptionist. This is quite normal in Ecuador, and a lot of things are just understood without having to be said here. I know that before last year, this would have bothered me a lot; however, I'm learning how to adapt really easily to newer situations that might come up like this.
This same is true for how the transportation works in Ecuador. For instance, there's no "official" bus schedule written anywhere that I've found, yet everyone seems to just understand how the buses work. They know, for example, that the buses leave every 15-20 minutes, they know how much they are, and they know where the stops are. None of this is marked anywhere, so for a foreigner, it can be quite daunting sometimes. It's definitely been interesting, but that's all part of what makes living abroad a fun adventure!
Thursday, March 1, 2012
The Equator...and pictures!
One of the unique places in the entire world is right here where I'm living. I live perhaps ten minutes from the actual equatorial line, at the foot of a volcano and in the middle of a mountain range. It's definitely a very exciting place to be. I had the unique opportunity to travel to the equator almost a week ago today with some of my students. It was rewarding to share this first experience with some of them, as some of them have lived here their entire lives but have never actually visited the equator line.
I took 5 students with me to see the equator and we, of course, had to try to balance eggs on the equator line. It's rumored that this is the only place in the world where this is possible because of how gravity works with the bulge of the earth. So, the majority of this post will just be some pictures of me, some of my students, and some of the things we got to do on the equator!
That line that you see is the equator. Pretty neat, huh? :D It's the only place in the world where the equator falls on highlands! Not even the equatorial line in Quito crosses Ecuador where there are mountains. Pretty neat stuff!
Our guide at the equator told us that it was possible to balance an egg anywhere in the world, not just on the equator line. So, we had to try it for ourselves! As soon as we got back to the school, we spent maybe forty five minutes trying to balance an egg and the four of us who were sitting at the table kept trying to get it to balance. I was quick enough with a camera to capture this proud moment on film! Granted, we are only about ten minutes from the equator, so this isn't really the best scientific test in the world. Can you guys try? :D
I took 5 students with me to see the equator and we, of course, had to try to balance eggs on the equator line. It's rumored that this is the only place in the world where this is possible because of how gravity works with the bulge of the earth. So, the majority of this post will just be some pictures of me, some of my students, and some of the things we got to do on the equator!
Thursday, February 16, 2012
English as an inherently arrogant language
One thing I've learned about the English language from learning other languages is that English, inherently, comes across as being arrogant. Many phrases in English, for instance, talk about the other person, whereas in other languages, the phrases are more modest. For instance, the biggest phrase I've noticed is the way to say "you're welcome".
In English, we say "you are welcome"...meaning that we are taking pride in what we've done and we put ourselves first. In Spanish, the phrase is "de nada", which is literally translated to: "It's nothing." In almost every language I've learned, it is this same way. In Mandarin Chinese, for instance, you say, "dui bu qi", which means that it was no problem or don't worry about it. The same phrase is said in Cantonese Chinese, but it's said as: "mn sai ha hay". It also translates to "don't mention it". We, of course, have these same phrases in English, but our default way to tell somebody "you're welcome" is to simply say "you are welcome". We put ourselves first, even in our language and choice of words. Japanese also translates from "please do not worry about it, or please don't mention it."
This got me thinking: what other phrases in English are "arrogant" compared to the other languages around the world? One of the most fascinating things to me was in Mandarin. Receiving compliments in English, we automatically say, "oh, thank you." But in Mandarin, it's very common to say, "nali, nali" which means, "where, where?" It's considered to be a bad thing to even accept a compliment in Mandarin. In this manner, the Chinese say something is "not bad" when they mean that it is in fact pretty good.
Even saying "goodbye" in English is different. In Spanish, the phrase is "adios". Literally broken down linguistically, "a" means "to" and "dios" means "God". Interesting, isn't it? They also use "hasta luego" which means "until later" as one of their more common ways of saying goodbye. This same phrase is echoed in Mandarin, where the default way to say goodbye is "zai jian". "Zai" means at or until and "jian" means to see. Literally, it's translated as "to see again". In English, the phrase is more definite, more final, than in any other language that I know, at least.
See if you can find some other examples similar to this! That's all for now, but it's something I'd been curious about and when I actually thought about it, it was pretty interesting.
In English, we say "you are welcome"...meaning that we are taking pride in what we've done and we put ourselves first. In Spanish, the phrase is "de nada", which is literally translated to: "It's nothing." In almost every language I've learned, it is this same way. In Mandarin Chinese, for instance, you say, "dui bu qi", which means that it was no problem or don't worry about it. The same phrase is said in Cantonese Chinese, but it's said as: "mn sai ha hay". It also translates to "don't mention it". We, of course, have these same phrases in English, but our default way to tell somebody "you're welcome" is to simply say "you are welcome". We put ourselves first, even in our language and choice of words. Japanese also translates from "please do not worry about it, or please don't mention it."
This got me thinking: what other phrases in English are "arrogant" compared to the other languages around the world? One of the most fascinating things to me was in Mandarin. Receiving compliments in English, we automatically say, "oh, thank you." But in Mandarin, it's very common to say, "nali, nali" which means, "where, where?" It's considered to be a bad thing to even accept a compliment in Mandarin. In this manner, the Chinese say something is "not bad" when they mean that it is in fact pretty good.
Even saying "goodbye" in English is different. In Spanish, the phrase is "adios". Literally broken down linguistically, "a" means "to" and "dios" means "God". Interesting, isn't it? They also use "hasta luego" which means "until later" as one of their more common ways of saying goodbye. This same phrase is echoed in Mandarin, where the default way to say goodbye is "zai jian". "Zai" means at or until and "jian" means to see. Literally, it's translated as "to see again". In English, the phrase is more definite, more final, than in any other language that I know, at least.
See if you can find some other examples similar to this! That's all for now, but it's something I'd been curious about and when I actually thought about it, it was pretty interesting.
Tuesday, February 7, 2012
That's all for now; I thought I would put up a few pictures for everyone to see!
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