A tragic, tragic thing happened at the beginning of this week - ok, it wasn't tragic, but it was a little sad. I was switched out of my dear French class. I guess the maximum number of students that can be in a class is 26, and I was number 27. I had the choice of Spanish or German, so I chose Spanish since it seems easier to learn in another language I don't speak very well - Faroese. I figured it wouldn't be so bad, since I know how to count to ten in Spanish and my sister back home speaks it fairly well, so I can always email her if I have a question. Wrong. My Spanish teacher is very nice, but she clearly does not understand the common exchange student.
She involved me in the class discussion, which I appreciated. She started asking everyone in the class "De dónde eres?" and the students would reply, "Soy de ...". I could figure out that she was asking, "Where do you come from/live?" and the students were saying "I live in ...". So when she got to me, I replied with "Soy de Hoyvík". Then in Faroese that I couldn't understand, she asked me, "If you are from Hoyvík, why don't you speak Faroese?" I looked at her blankly and then she asked me in English. I said, "That's where I live now". She told me that I had to say Minnesota, because that's where I "come from". Since I have been here, I have always said Hoyvík unless someone asked me where I lived in America. I don't think she quite understands that it's hard for me to tell Spanish from Faroese, given that I don't know either language very well. When they are spoken so fast and back and forth, it's kind of hard to differentiate between them. She is constantly asking me questions in both, and then speaks in slow English when I can't understand. I won't lie, it's quite irritating.
Remember what I said about a fellow exchange student always being around the corner? The old AFS student who went to Italy last year, Jón, is also in my Spanish class. When we had a little break, he explained to me that he knows how it feels when the teacher asks a question, or how some teachers just don't get exchange students. We both laughed off the awkwardness, and I continued trying to learn Spanish.
I had been told that some teachers can be difficult with exchange students, and now I have experienced it first hand. Rotary has taught me to handle these situations in a mature way, so I hope that is what I can learn to do from my Spanish class more so than learning to speak Spanish.
Adiós!
Katie
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