The first submission for this year’s blog has finally arrived. And again, the first school to write to us is Sant Lluís Gonçaga in La Garriga.  This year, they are hosting Samuel, a conversation assistant from England. 

Thanks a lot for e-mailing us!

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Hola!

I’m Sam – or better known as Samuel in Catalunya – and I’m the conversation assistant at Escola Sant Lluis Gonçaga in La Garriga. I have been here since the end of September and will stay here till June 2013. Although I speak a high level of Spanish already, I was in for a culture shock from day one: my village is very Catalan! There is almost no Castilian around for miles! But for me, this was an exciting challenge that I am relishing. I was welcomed by some of the nicest people on the planet and I already almost feel Catalan, allbeit with very little knowledge of the language.

I live with a family in La Garriga who welcomed me with the words “nuestra casa es tu casa” (our house is your house). The son, Oriol, is in 5th Primary, and the daughter, Maria is in 2nd Primary. On different days we speak different languages so we all benefit – my Catalan and Castilian have improved dramatically in my first two months here. We play games and read books in English, and have a points system, where a point is gained for saying something correctly, and lost for saying something incorrectly, or for speaking the wrong language. Needless to say I am winning! Everyone at home has improved their English tenfold too. I am due to change family in mid February and I hope my time with them will be as great as it has been with my first family.

I work five days a week at school, nine till five, Monday to Friday (although I am blessed with only working half a day on Friday and there is a two hour lunch break from one till three). The school is tiny – about four hundred students – so it is easy learning the names of the students. I work with all ages, from 3-16 years old (P3 to 4th ESO). With Infantil and Primary students I work alongside the teacher, helping out in class and taking small groups to practise speaking activities, as well as playing games and entertaining them with my guitar. On the other hand, I take ESO students in groups of five or six, grouped according to their level of English and do a range of activities, to improve their spoken English, and sometimes to work on grammar issues. Once a week I work with my tutor, Marta, to prepare classes for the ESO students.

Samuel practicing conversation with two students

Twice a week I do private tuition; English is such an important subject here that every academy around for miles is full to the brim, so parents take advantage of a native speaker being in the village. It also gives me the chance to use everything I learned in my TEFL course. Similarly, I teach Oriol guitar on Friday nights.

In my free time I tend to go to Barcelona; the city is beautiful, and only a forty minute train ride from La Garriga. However I also spend time with the family; recently we went to the woods to look for the “Tio,” a Catalan Christmas tradition, as well as spending time in their mountain home a few weeks ago. I have some wonderful memories already, and it’s only been two months!

The Catalan people are among the nicest, most welcoming people on the planet. Everyone from Home to Home, to the staff at the school, to my host family have made me feel like I am a part of Catalunya, and I feel like this is home. Being thrown into a new culture has definitely been worth it, and I can’t see myself wanting to leave any time soon.

Adéu
Samuel.

April was a Conversation Assistant last year (2009-2010). She enjoyed it so much, that she decided to return this year, and she’s staying in La Garriga, working as a Conversation Assistant at Escola Sant Lluís Gonçaga. She is enjoying the experience, and so are all the students!

Here’s what they have to say:

April is here since October, we are really happy to share our classes with her, some of the students say:

• “We think that’s great April is here because we’re learning a lot”.
• “April is an active and funny person”.
• “We practice our speaking and listening, it’s great”.
• “We play some games, this helps our pronunciation”.
• “When we are with April, we have a good time and learn a lot.”
• “It’s an easy way to learn English”.
• “She explains us some interesting stories about her life”.

THANK YOU APRIL!!!

And now it’s April’s turn to explain us what she does in the school, with her classes that range from P3 to 4th of ESO, and what living in La Garriga is like for her.

¡Hola!

My name is April and I am working as a conversation assistant in Escola Sant Lluís Gonçaga in la Garriga, Barcelona.
This is my second experience working with the Home to Home program and both experiences have been really different! I have really enjoyed learning about the Spanish and Catalan cultures, seeing different teaching styles, exploring areas of Catalunya and of course eating food like fuete, pan con tomate, coca and La Mona!

This year I am living and working in la Garriga. It is a small beautiful village in the Vallés Oriental area of Barcelona. The town is small and very catalan, I always see parents and children from school in the center and love taking walks down the beautiful Passeig. My favourite thing of the town is that is is filled with amazing Modernist houses designed the modernist architect Manuel Raspall. This week I have taken two school trips with P5 to explore the architecture around the town and make our own modernistdecorations with clay.

The school is also small. There is one class for every age group from P3 – 4 ESO which is great as I can spend more time with each class and get to know the kids better. I spend most of my time with the ESO classes. I take small groups of 4-5 kids and we spend the classes doing a lot of talking, playing games, listening to music and sometimes watching films in English. I try to keep the lessons fun as I think it helps everyone learn a language if they are enjoying it! So we do different activites like filming our own mini movies.

Teaching ESO isn’t always easy though. Some days if I haven’t planned enough it is hard to get them excited, and the students have a very varied level of English. Some can talk all day, and some barely speak at all. It has taught me a lot about gaining and keeping interest, in preparing lessons and thinking on my feet!

I stay with the teacher in the Primary and Parvulari classes. We work from the books, sing songs and read stories. My favourite class is P5. The class is a little crazy! They love to talk, to move and to hear me speak in my really bad catalan! The class I help with is art based and I am there to assist the teacher, while speaking English of course, but end up spending my time joining the kids in whatever messy art activity they are doing. Thankfully, the teacher doesn’t mind and I have a lot of fun in these classes!

The different holidays have been fun, I especially enjoyed Carnaval when I dressed up as Bob Esponja, and making Panellets on Castanyada. I also love going on excursions. It is a more relaxed atmosphere and I have seen a lot of Catalunya. I am still hoping the school takes a trip to PortAventura, but I think this is unlikely!

April dressed as Bob Esponja (Spongebob) in Carnaval!

Unlike some of the other conversation assistants, I am only staying with one family for the entire 9 months. This has good benefits as I really feel like part of the family now, I have been able to know the kids really well and don’t have to pack and unpack every month. But I also think it would be a good experience to see different families and get to know more people. My family have 3 small girls, age 2, 4 and 6. This is an adjustment for me as I haven’t been around small children since I was 10. But it is also fun, we play a lot and I am always watching Bob Esponja with them. I speak to them in English and Spanish and they are very helpful as we can have very simple conversations. At the weekends I normally have lunch with the family, the uncles, the grandparents and we have traditional Catalan food and very good coffee.

The hardest thing for me is learning Spanish in Catalunya. In my village I never hear Spanish on the streets and while the teachers in school make an effort to speak to me in Spanish, 90% of the time I am surrounded by Catalan. I can understand simple conversations now in Catalan, especially when the teachers are explaining in class. But I am glad I am in Catalunya, it has been a really good experience to learn about another culture, they have everything here, the beach, the beautiful cities, the mountains and tasty food!