I found my inspiration to write again. I was substitute teaching for a Spanish class. During a free period I opened a liturature book up that was lying around. I read a short story by Amy Tan called “Fish Cheeks”. I was a little depressed because it was dawning on me how hard it is to learn and master a foreign language. I was struggling with the story by Cervantes called Don Quiote. I was looking at the literature book and the famous novel. When I came acrooss the short story. “Fish Cheeks” really lifted my spirits because it was written so simply and it told such an amusing story. I made a mental note to get a copy of her book called “The Joy Luck Club” or at least rent the movie that was popular a few years ago. After this free period I had a Spanish 4 class and the kids in this class were all really motivated to learn. The class was given an assignment dealing with Don Quiote novel. I remember mentioning to the students that Cervantes, the author of the novel, had lived a life that was more interesting than his novel. He traveled most of the known world at the time and was enslaved for many years. And he had his left hand cut off in a battle in which he fought. This is why I like substitute teaching, when it is good. Because I either learn some good things or I remember some good things that I learned years ago. During this class one of the students asked me if I knew a sub from Columbia called Yugo. And then he started imitating him. With a Spanish accented voice from Tony Montana in the movie Scarfac”. He started saying “hey man how you doing?”. Then I responded in a thick Spanish accent, “that’s not my job, man”. And everybody in the class started laughing. This was one of the more rare times when the students were laughing with me instead of at me. So between reading the short story by Amy Tan and this student imitating Al Pacino as Tony Montana, my spirits were sailing and my depression of trying to learn a foreign language was gone. For the other classes this day, the teacher who was really organized, left me a video to show all the Spanish 1 and 2 classes. The video was about the spread of the Spanish empire. And I was thinking while watching this movie, who needs Star Wars movies when you can learn about the actual history of our world? In the video they mentioned about when Hernan Cortez showed up in Mexico City in 1519. The holy book of the Aztec people had said that the serpent god would arrive from the East. When Cortez arrived sitting on a big horse that these people had never seen and muskets that they had never heard, they thought Cortez was the serpent god. They laid down their stone age weapons and handed over their gold and bowed down to him and his men. Imagine what Cortez thought when he saw Mexico City with pyramids and a population that was as big as any city in Europe at the time. He conquered most of Mexico with a few hundred men on horseback. The Aztecs began to fight back after the Spanish began treating them badly. So determined was Cortez to conquer and rule this land that he burned his ships after arriving.
During one of the afternoon classes a kid came into class with a swollen black and red eye. I asked him what happened and he told me that someone kicked him in the eye and he had a slight concussion and that he did not even need to be in school.During the video he would not shut up so I told him to sit in the front of the classroom closer to the movie screen. Later, he came up to me and asked me if he could go see the nurse. We are not supposed to send anybody to the nurse during ceratain periods so I told him to wait until after class to go to the nurse. Then I told him you can find somebody anywhere in the world to kick your other eye in and your nose and both ears. I told him that you have to take yourself out of all situations that lead to getting your head kicked in. I said stick your nose in a book every chance you get and leave it there. And I guarantee nobody will ever kick you in the head while you are reading a book. He sat down and looked like Rodan’s Thinker in the famous sculpture.
I have always been able to stretch my abilities to a point where the challenges I have taken on were based on realistic endeavors. For instance I never even bothered to learn to play a musical instrument besides the drums because the chance of success would not have been to great. But attempting to learn a foreign language is not a solitary act like playing a musical instrument. You learn a foreign language with a lot of help from other people. So the social reinforcement you get is very rewarding. The only way someone like me can master a foreign language is to go where they speak the language. Maybe its time for another trip to a country to learn another foreign language – I have the urge….