Classes started back up at University of Buenos Aires--there are my Español para extranjeros classes. I am now in level 2. The class has grown to 17. That is strange because all the literature specifies the classes are capped at 14.
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Five of us moved on from the level one class. The other 12 either switched from the other campus of tested in to level 2. The class is big for an immersion class. It is easy to get lost. It is easy to hide. I went the whole day yesterday without getting called on. If I didn't volunteer a response, I was not called on. There is a certain amount of learning that goes on and attention that gets focussed when you can be put-on-the-spot at any moment. Now, that is missing in this class. There are plenty of students who are excited to be the first to answer everything.
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The two women from my first class, Maria from Sweden, and Barbara from Germany, complained to the coordinator at break time. While they were telling me about that, Ulrike, also from Germany, came up and said, "I just asked them it if was too late to get my money back." They told her they were thinking of splitting the class in two. I guess we´ll see what happens when we show up in the morning.
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Oh, and one funny thing . . . While we were talking about the class, one of the women said,"And I don't like it that there are so many Americans." (There are four USAmericans in the class of 17. ) Then the other two nodded their heads in agreement, and then remembered I am a USAmerican. "But, we don't mean you, of course," they said.
1 comment:
Do you have a feel for why they don't like the outlandish proportion of 23% Americans in the class? Jeez, are we hated in Sweden and Germany too?
I imagine that if I took a French class at, say, Otto-Friedrich University , and said during the break, "I don't like that there are so many Mexicans in this class," none of the Mexicans would find it funny.
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