The First Day of School

Okay, we made it through day 1 of language school (not counting my homework that I still need to complete!).

The language school I'm attending is called Fundacion Proyecto Linguistico Francisco Marroquin .  One of the reasons I selected this school was that they are the oldest Spanish school in Antigua and have a deep commitment to the preservation of Mayan languages and culture.  In addition to Spanish, they also offer total immersion programs for various Mayan languages and have been very active in projects aimed at preserving the cultural and linguistic heritage of this region.

After a brief group introduction, we were sent to work with our individual teachers. My instructor, Ceasar, is terrific. While other students were taking entrance tests, we spent the first part of the morning discussing indigenous rights, archaeology, and US, as well as Guatemalan, politics (all in Spanish of course)! Don't worry I still had to conjugate verbs, build my vocabulary, and work on different tenses all day too! Anyhow, Ceasar grew up speaking one of the Mayan languages as his native language, then Spanish, and ultimately some English. In his nearby village people still speak this Mayan language in their homes and the government has now allowed the teaching of it in schools as well. Ceasar is concerned., however, that the young people today are not interested in their cultural or linguistic heritage. He gave a few examples of this, including that many students prefer to take other languages, such as Italian, in school rather than one of the Mayan languages. He also said that he is a member of his community's traditional dance troop, but when they attempt to recruit younger members the majority of kids are not interested in traditional dancing but are interested in more 'modern' things such as break-dancing.

When we had a very small earthquake (you could barely feel it) we then discussed some of the disasters in the region that include volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, landslides, and hurricanes. He described a very serious landslide/flood that happened in 2010. He said that the village next to his was in the direct path of a major land slide and flood. People evacuated the village but many homes were destroyed. Caesar explained that what wasn't destroyed was later looted.  His village organized aid and each family contributed something to bring to the community in need. For example, one family was responsible to bring rice, another water, another beans, etc.  This is extremely important. This is the system of RECIPROCITY in action. This is the oldest and frankly the most reliable form of insurance. They helped this village in their time of need and the people will remember that and tell their children about it. If Caesar's village ever has a problem, this other community is very likely to come help in whatever way they can.

Anyhow, I am currently thinking in half Spanish and half English, so I'll end it here for now. My first day of Spanish school was exhausting but successful. 7 hours of one-on-one instruction is intense but very effective.

Off to do MY homework and to grade that of my students.

Will write again soon,
Chris