Auxiliar de Conversación: Year 1

This past week was my last contracted week at my school, Hipolíto Lobato, in the town of Coría del Río in the Sevilla province:

Building 1

Building 2 across the street ...

Overall, I did enjoy my experience there, although by no means would I say I loved it. This may sound incredibly negative, but in terms of my overall experience in Spain, this specific "teaching" aspect honestly will probably leave the smallest impact.

Now, let me be clear: I didn't have a bad experience. The kids all treated me like a celebrity, even if half of them couldn't understand a word I was saying, and all the teachers were very kind to me, a couple of them whom I have formed a good relationship with. In fact, on my last day the teachers surprised me with this "goodbye" gift (there's a back story to the wallet and coin purse, which made me appreciate the gesture even more):

Even though I'm most likely returning next term

But if I were to evaluate my "job" in-and-of itself, the English language assistant position in which I served, I won't say it was entirely meaningless ... but close. As a natural cynic and an avid language and linguistics student, I'm probably way more critical about the auxiliary program than most people. It actually really starts with the poor excuse for a "bilingual" education system in Spain (unqualified Spanish teachers teaching English to children, bilingual coordinators who can't speak English, complete lack of language teaching methodology, etc.) So, as you can imagine, the auxiliar program seems like it was haphazardly thrown together by the Spanish educational powers-that-be in a desperate attempt to improve the quality of the children's English education.

Pretty much tells the story

I can probably write an essay analyzing all the flaws I see with this program, but I will refrain to just describing my personal experience. In short, I felt (almost) entirely useless. I worked 12  hours a week and my hours were distributed in such a way that I was in 12 different classes for 45-50 minutes a week. Without going into too much detail (again, I could probably write an essay's worth of reflection), such a short weekly investment in each class made my contributions rather minimal. Mind you, 45-minutes was the most instruction time I had if the teacher gave me complete control of the class; in other classes (e.g. English-language class), I did a good amount of bench-warming until the last 10-15 minutes, most of which was spent on the failure-to-comprehend phase. It also did my self-esteem some real good when the English teacher basically told me my activities were too boring, cause for the kids becoming restless and unresponsive. But hell, if they can't understand me, they get bored. It also doesn't help that I only get 20-minutes at most of classroom interaction with them each week. Really, ¿qué puedo hacer yo? What can I do?

Maybe the little time I have with the students does make a small difference, but even if that is case, this is not a teaching job. Not to suggest I don't try to help the kids learn with the opportunities that I have, just as the Spanish teachers try to do their best given the less-than-perfect circumstances, but the bottom-line is this program is a big joke and an opportunity for English-speakers to be on vacation in Spain. I mean, for the little work that I do, I get paid pretty damn well, so I can't really complain, right?

ANYHOW, so why come back for year 2, to this specific school, with this specific program, after all this ranting? Clearly not for the professional experience but rather for the relationships. Just by sitting-in on different conversations amongst (some of) the teachers at my school, I've learned that we share the same values when it comes to education, kids, and, in general, life. Also, my bilingual coordinator and I from day 1 have hit it off seamlessly - de puta madre - and have effortlessly gotten along real well. Oh, by the way, we have the same birthday and live 5 minutes walking-distance from each other; our car rides together to and from school have probably been the highlight of my experience in Coría. Also, I've started a basic friendship with a couple of teachers who don't speak English, so now I really want to improve mi español to deepen our relationship. And, of course, some of those kids are damn cute and really fun.

In conclusion, being an  auxiliar de conversación isn´t actual work, which is why year 2 will absolutely be my last with this program, but it does give me another 8 months to foster intercontinental relationships with fellow educators that I hope will last for a lifetime.