Learning never ends

I speak Spanish. How well? It depends on the day, but I'm able to understand most thing and can manage to say what I want in one way or another. The kids at school aren't aware of this though since, per my job description, I speak almost no Spanish with them. They've heard me say words or common phrases and a few of them have figured out I at least understand some Spanish, but the general notion is that I don't know very much at all. Considering this, I wasn't surprised Tuesday when I received big smiles and nods of encouragement every time I wrote a Spanish word correctly on the the black board.

I was in fourth grade science class and they were studying weather. The activity was simple- they were provided the words in English and had to translate them into Spanish. The students yelled out the answers and I wrote them down for everyone to see. The words were basic enough and every time I got a thumbs up for spelling one right I couldn't help by smile a bit since it was apparent they hadn't realized I actually know these words. I had just finished writing the last one and was waiting for everyone to finish copying them down when one student walked to the front of the room. He pointed to the word calido (warm) and said very quietly, "there isn't the accent". Then he picked up a piece of chalk, drew a mark above the 'a' and returned to his seat. It was a humble reminder that the language learning process is a long one and that if you keep you ears, eyes and mind open anyone can be your teacher- even a ten year old.

Pesky accents...