hmmm. . .
Hey kids,
Yesterday as I was getting lunch during my break, a former STAR student of mine came over to say hi. He was with his wife, who is from Mexico. Colima. I remember him telling about her in class, a couple of months ago, how he met her when he retired down there, to fish. She is much younger. She is very exotic, dark and beautiful, where he is every bit a 60ish paunchy white dude, ha ha! Anyway, she is going to ESL classes at the Columbia community college here. . .so I got a chance to practica la lengua which was fun. I am getting less stressed about speaking Spanish again, despite my atrocious verb handling. . .only took 17 years to knock the University angst out of me, ha! Well, suddenly as I am chatting with his wife, in Spanish, about meeting her husband in the customer service class a few months back, he grabs my arm and blurts, "Of course! You are the STAR teacher! I thought I knew you from AA!"
Now, I ask you, how should I take that?
Do I look like someone from AA? Well, maybe there is no AA look. . ..but in my insecurity I think maybe there is. . .and it is not flattering. . .and so now I can add that insult to the injury of aging not so gracefully ;-)
On the bright side, I got to charlar for quite a while with a native speaker, and also my class this time was nearly 100% Filipino folks so I also have learned a few words in Tagalog this week, which I will show off back at my office this afternoon, when I say Cumsta! (hello) to my Filipina office mates. . .now THAT is a weird pidgin of Como esta, eh? Language is fascinating.. .
Yesterday as I was getting lunch during my break, a former STAR student of mine came over to say hi. He was with his wife, who is from Mexico. Colima. I remember him telling about her in class, a couple of months ago, how he met her when he retired down there, to fish. She is much younger. She is very exotic, dark and beautiful, where he is every bit a 60ish paunchy white dude, ha ha! Anyway, she is going to ESL classes at the Columbia community college here. . .so I got a chance to practica la lengua which was fun. I am getting less stressed about speaking Spanish again, despite my atrocious verb handling. . .only took 17 years to knock the University angst out of me, ha! Well, suddenly as I am chatting with his wife, in Spanish, about meeting her husband in the customer service class a few months back, he grabs my arm and blurts, "Of course! You are the STAR teacher! I thought I knew you from AA!"
Now, I ask you, how should I take that?
Do I look like someone from AA? Well, maybe there is no AA look. . ..but in my insecurity I think maybe there is. . .and it is not flattering. . .and so now I can add that insult to the injury of aging not so gracefully ;-)
On the bright side, I got to charlar for quite a while with a native speaker, and also my class this time was nearly 100% Filipino folks so I also have learned a few words in Tagalog this week, which I will show off back at my office this afternoon, when I say Cumsta! (hello) to my Filipina office mates. . .now THAT is a weird pidgin of Como esta, eh? Language is fascinating.. .