8/31/10 Guest Teacher: Round 2

I planned on spending an hour in a quiet corner of spaces office/classroom while he taught, but he took advantage of my arrival and recruited me to speak with his class.  They were not as proficient with the language as the class from the previous day, but any exposure to English from someone who wasn’t their teacher would test them and their shyness.

Like the day before, each student was to ask me at least one question.  But unlike the eager girls this mixed class was completely silent off the top.  I got things going by being democratic and starting clockwise from my left.

Do you like Ryan?

How tall are you?

Do you like Taiwan?

How long are you staying here?

Do you like the Yankees?

All typical stuff.  And then…

How many countries have you travelled to?

The universal response was shock when I said 15… 16 if you included the Vatican.  But as a reformed/former Catholic, I’ll stick with 15.

As with Space’s other class, the students had an innate apprehension towards anything new or different.  A built-in distaste for adventure.  These students were younger and in the thick of their social crippling.  I anticipated what Space’s message was going to be so we attempted to tag team them into submission by emphasizing how important it was to challenge yourself and push the boundaries of your comfort zone.

I’ll say it again: Space is doing good work here.  We would have all been so lucky to have a teacher like him at some point in our adolescence.