Two Bats with One Stone

As the quarterly exams loom ever closer, tensions continue to escalate. The battle is being waged on many fronts, and I would like to think that we are winning more than we are losing.

The most recent victory came in the form of a new classroom policy crafted by Maki. Following the visit of Jess, a volunteer from prior years, it was noted that our 7^th and 8^th grades are being out-Englished by the 5^th graders at the elementary school. This is not through any lack of intelligence on our student’s part, but a lack of drive. In all of their English-speaking classes, they speak Spanish unless addressing the teacher…and even then many of them don’t try very hard. I’ve had kids translating for their classmates before, or just walk away from me in disgust when I refuse to reply to them in Spanish. This laziness has resulted in increasingly bad English comprehension…which is a problem when you are supposed to be a bi-lingual school.

So Maki decided to bring down the hammer. From now on, the first time a student speaks Spanish in an English speaking class they get a warning. After that, if it happens again, the student has to stay in at recess and write 50 to 100 different sentences in English. All the spelling and grammar must then be corrected.  This new policy has been implemented with all the surgical precision of a tactical nuke, and the effects have been immediate.

The classroom suddenly feels more under control. Simply by walking past student, in a slow, ominous stroll, they busy themselves with their work and stop talking. I know they still talk Spanish when I’m not peering over their shoulder, but that just keeps me circulating the classroom. Another unexpected side effect is that the students talk a lot less than they used to. So not only is the classroom more orderly, but it’s quieter too!

Another resent windfall has been the discovery of the local movie theater! Well, it’s not so much a discovery (the place was pointed out to us the first week here), but we have found out that almost all of the movies are in English with Spanish subtitles! The kids movies are in Spanish, so no Megamind (unless I really feel like working on my Spanish), but I did get to see The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, which I missed over my Christmas break.

Inside the theatre, one could almost believe that you were back in the United States, apart from two things. One is that the movies are definitely bootlegged (you can pick up a bootlegged move at any roadside stall…not that I have). The other thing is the nature watching. The theatre is quite large, and the ceiling is missing a few tiles. During the movie, you can watch small dark objects flitting across the screen.

There are bats in the cinema. At least you can enjoy the air conditioning mosquito-free!