English Classes at the Liceo

Liceo Luis González Vásquez

Teaching at the high school here in imperial might be my favorite thing I’ve done this semester in Chile. Everything about it is so great—It starts with the minute I walk in the door and the secretaries give me a besito (little kiss on the cheek) and offer to show me to the classroom. Then come the kids. They all wait outside the classroom until the teacher gets there at the start of class. The other day I got there early and was waiting with them in the hall and they started crowding around me and literally were all giving me besitos, one by one. And they were all like, “Are you gonna be our teacher today? Is the teacher not coming in?!” 

The teaching is really easy and so much fun. Pronunciation is the hardest part of the language for them, so I explained the “silent e” rule—like how to pronounce bit and bite, mat and mate, etc. I tried to explain how “th” sounds different in “throw” and “they”.  They all try to repeat the words I say, and it’s so funny when they just end up making random sounds and sounding like a bunch of farm animals. And it’s really funny when I try to get them to say my name; that's pretty much impossible for them. 

The classes are huge, over 40 kids, and there are always kids who aren’t paying attention or talking when I’m talking, but there are a few kids in every class who are so interested and it’s so precious. The other day I was giving a powerpoint presentation about the United States and this one girl kept stretching her long neck and moving when the kid in front of her moved so she could see me the whole time. And there’s this boy who sits up front but doesn’t talk at all in class. And after class one day he came up to me but didn’t really know if he should talk to me in English or Spanish, or what to say, and it was so cute. He kinda just stood there and wouldn’t talk until I started a little conversation with him, and eventually he was like, “do you have facebook? Can I friend you?” And there’s this boy who’s deaf and doesn’t understand anything I say but always has the biggest smile on his face. And this girl the other day was using her phone to take a picture of me during class and got really embarrassed when I saw her, but I told her it was okay. They are so precious!

And the teachers are so sweet too! (Just like everyone here in Imperial). In between classes the teachers meet up in the teachers lounge and always invite me to come have coffee with them. They all sit around tables to talk and laugh for a few minutes before the next class. And one of the English teachers had me over to her house to plan a lesson together. They are so nice I can’t even explain it.