Our Spanish lessons

We knew that it would take time for our new teacher to get to know us and assess our levels of Spanish. Only then could he provide us with a suitable programme of work. We therefore expected the first few lesson to be a little chaotic and they were.

Originally we were going to have three one hour lessons a week on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays starting at 6pm. That was changed to two x two hour sessions on Tuesdays and Thursdays still starting at 6pm and then that was brought forward to 5:30pm. In a revision agreed last night, classes will now start at 5pm.

It seems that the new hours have  caused a problem because there is no room available in the Auditorium for our class at those times. So, on Tuesday, our teacher took us to the local greengrocer’s to talk about the varieties of fruit and vegetables on sale. By the time we returned to the Auditorium there was a room free for us and so our lesson continued.

Yesterday, it seemed that there was still no room available, so we decamped to the Vai Ven bar for a coffee. En route, we met up with several friends of our teacher and inevitably got caught up in conversations.  Our teacher, who is obviously concerned for our safety, was very particular that we should walk on the pavement and use the marked crossings on our way. In crocodile fashion we therefore managed to get there in one piece!

Once we were sat down, our teacher told us he was going to make a phone call to summon up a 6 year old boy to speak with us and so off he went. In the meantime, we all ordered our drinks and settled down for a chat.

Ten minutes later, our teacher came skipping into the bar wearing a hat and one of those smocks that children in local primary schools wear to protect their clothing. To complete the effect, he had rolled up his trouser legs.

We could only assume that he was taking the part of the six year old boy. We never found out the true purpose of the exercise but as you can imagine it did raise a few eyebrows both in the bar and in the town square outside.

Although this was all very amusing, it was hardly likely to progress our understanding of the language. We are of course very grateful that our teacher has volunteered to help us but I think it is fair to say that things are not quite living up to our expectations.