Hola! Como estas?

Started learning Spanish this week with one of my students. Not sure how much of it I have taken in and so have to do some homework over the weekend. My homework on Thursday night was to order a beer in Spanish in a Colombian restaurant. I was fine until he started asking me questions like what kind of beer I wanted.

There has been a mad amount of languages going on at work this week as the Colombian guy has been learning bits of Turkish off the other students and saying them over and over in class. So I decided to get my revenge. I had to wait about an hour in yesterday's class until he said something in Turkish then I hit him with

'Turkce konusma!'

Of course he didn't understand but the Turkish guys fell about laughing at me telling him not to speak Turkish, in Turkish. All the rehearsing with my elementary class in the morning paid off.

I think that it is good for me, as a teacher, to be on the receiving end of the learning sometimes. It gives me a better understanding of what my poor students are going through and just how good they are. It has certainly made me more sympathetic and stop saying things like 'but I've told you once, how come you can't remember?'

As part of my ongoing Spanish emersion, we hit the salsa club again last night. I have seen this place many times over the years but never given it any attention until actually going in there last week. It has cameras pointing at the dancefloor and TVs outside the door so you can stand in the street and watch the action. I have to admit that I chickened out of the classes again but with good reason this time. I had company. There were several students and I brought another teacher along which made us laugh a lot because everytime one of the students asked an English question we replied in unison.

After a handful of beers and more than a sip of Wrong Island Iced Tea, both me and Sarah were up on the dancefloor. I danced with the guy that asked me last week (and asked again this week and later bought me a beer!) and she with some unknown. We were both a bit taken aback when we realised just how much these guys were enjoying the dancing, their interest was a little obvious.

I love going to the salsa club. The novelty might wear off in a couple of weeks but at the moment I am really enjoying something so different. I also danced with Camilo again and he started to help me 'right foot, left foot' but just gave up after asking me to move my hips and realising that I can't do everything at once. He then maintained a safe distance until the song finished. Smart boy.