Ashamed of my education
Last week we signed up for a Spanish course and this evening we went to the introductory evening where they would tell us the details about when, where etc.
We got a Power Point presentation about the organisation, a non profit making body and though they didn't say it explicitly they implied that all the tutors were volunteers. Maggie and I began to feel uncomfortable. We may be a bit hard up but this organisation wasn't set up to help folk like us.
There were just seven of us who had signed up for the Spanish for Immigrants course. Of the three Moroccans one had no schooling of any sort, one had done two years of Koranic education and one had eight years school behind him. The Rumanian couple had completed Primary but not Secondary Education. We shuffled and tried not to say too much about our degrees and postgrad qualifications.
Fortunately the man who co-ordinated the Spanish courses had worked out what he'd got with us and he suggested optional ways that we might improve our Spanish through exchanges and what not. It doesn't look as though we're going to find a reasonably priced Spanish course in Cartagena because there just aren't enough people like us to warrant it. As the man said, there are lots of Brits living on the Mar Menor and La Manga but there are very few of us here in the city.
We got a Power Point presentation about the organisation, a non profit making body and though they didn't say it explicitly they implied that all the tutors were volunteers. Maggie and I began to feel uncomfortable. We may be a bit hard up but this organisation wasn't set up to help folk like us.
There were just seven of us who had signed up for the Spanish for Immigrants course. Of the three Moroccans one had no schooling of any sort, one had done two years of Koranic education and one had eight years school behind him. The Rumanian couple had completed Primary but not Secondary Education. We shuffled and tried not to say too much about our degrees and postgrad qualifications.
Fortunately the man who co-ordinated the Spanish courses had worked out what he'd got with us and he suggested optional ways that we might improve our Spanish through exchanges and what not. It doesn't look as though we're going to find a reasonably priced Spanish course in Cartagena because there just aren't enough people like us to warrant it. As the man said, there are lots of Brits living on the Mar Menor and La Manga but there are very few of us here in the city.
Hi, Chris.
ReplyDeleteThanks for doing this blog. I love hearing about life in Spain. Even the less rosy side. It's not like you and your wife have got degrees in Spanish, right? Do you think they'd take you on if you offered to pay something reasonable?
Thanks for the nice comments.
ReplyDeleteI don't think the course would suit - even in Spanish we understand the concept of the alphabet and it's likely they will have to start there with the Moroccans for instance - so the pace would just be wrong.