My secret is out!

One thing that you are told at the beginning of this job is that you should pretend that you do not speak any Spanish.  This is because if the students know that you speak and understand Spanish, they won't make as much of an effort to speak to you in English.

Of course on the first day of introductions, the question I got from all three of my classes was: 

"Do you speak Spanish???"

To which my answer was always: 

"Nope!"

This worked for a while.  I very, very rarely spoke any Spanish in the classroom, and if I did, it was only to one or two students who were really struggling.  For this reason, a few of my students have known for a few months that I speak Spanish because if I never said a word to them in Spanish, we would never get anywhere.

Every once in a while, students will ask me something in Spanish or ask me for a translation to a Spanish word and before I can even respond, another student will say to them (in Spanish), "She doesn't understand you!!!"  I would feel pretty satisfied because I knew at this point that they weren't quite on to me yet.

Eventually I started letting my guard down.  I wouldn't ever respond in Spanish, but I would always answer the questions, in English, that they asked me in Spanish.  Sometimes I really don't think they noticed that they were speaking to me in Spanish and that I responded in English...

About a month and a half ago, my third level class started to catch on to my little game.  Every time my bilingual coordinator left the room to get something they would try to make me break down.  "Do you speak Spanish?" "You understand Spanish" "I know you speak Spanish, my mom told me" etc...  Also, every time I would answer one of them when they asked me something in Spanish, or if I had reacted to something they said in Spanish they would say, "Me ha entendido!! Me ha entendido!!"  (She understood me!!)

The only day I have ever felt embarrassed in front of any of my classes was the day that Carolina left the room and one of my students said to me, "Say something in Spanish."  This was the first time that this entire class was silent and that every set of eyes was looking directly at me, waiting for me to open my mouth and say something.  My face went completely red and I froze.  He said, "Come on, say something!  A mi me gusta la paella"  Then he says it slowly waiting for me to repeat. " A mi.....me gusta....la....paella"  So, I smiled and said, "A mi me gusta la paella."  They all broke out in cheers and saying "See! It's not hard!!"

That's not where it happened, though.

The incident happened about two weeks ago while I was walking home from the bus station.  I ran into the principal of my school who was with two of my students (one of which is his son).  I greeted them with a "hello and hola."  As I talked to the principal in Spanish for a little bit, I noticed that the two students looked shocked.  I could tell that as they had walked up to me, they said to the principal that I don't speak Spanish because after we had talked for a little bit, he turned to them and said, 'What do you mean she can't speak Spanish??"  After we said 'hasta luego,'  I smiled and walked away because I thought it was great that they really didn't think I could speak Spanish until that moment.

Then the next day, as I was playing a game with my second level students, I was called out on my secret and now they are all begging me to speak Spanish in front of them!  "Come on, say something!"  "You speak really well, I know you can speak Spanish!"  At this point I think it would be totally embarrassing to speak Spanish in front of them, but at the same time, I think it would be hilarious to go in one day and only speak Spanish to them.  We'll see when I do it.  I think I will definitely catch the attention of each student the day I finally do.