Weekend Musings

If there's one thing I've learned from my time working with kids it's that you can never quite be sure what they are going to say. Whether the little ones are speaking English or Spanish their unpredictable utterances are often smile inducing and always memorable. Some of the best I've heard since starting work at the elementary school include: "You speak Spanish well for a British person.", "Why does it sound like a dog barking when you speak English?", "Why do you speak English if everyone else speaks Spanish?" and just the other day, "They speak Spanish in Seattle, don't they?". That last one is compliments of Alvaro, an 8 year old that I tutor. We we're finishing up class last Wednesday and had about 5 minutes left. He has a globe that sits on his desk so I thought to ask him if he knew where I'm from. He didn't, but after I pointed out Seattle he got really excited. Apparently the Disney show 'I-Carly' is based in Seattle and he wanted to know if I know the characters. I had to break it to him that unfortunately I do not, but that I do have some pictures of  the city I could show him. It was while we were flipping through the pictures that he made the above comment. I told that they speak English in Seattle and he said, "but the people in the show speak Spanish and you speak Spanish." After explaining the process of dubbing, I went on to explain that I only speak Spanish because I studied it and that neither my parents, my sister or my brother speak Spanish. His mouth dropped open in surprise and he said, "I always thought they spoke Spanish in Seattle."