quick funny story, then i am off to lunch

i started teaching four profesores this week, a few weeks before students start classes, so that they can review. they also don´t want a book and are more pleased with me talking about grammar and writing on the board. so we meet in one of the prof´s oficina, and the first day they don´t care anything about english except how well i can explain my sisters, my dad, why on earth i left all three of them behind in america to fend for themselves in such a big, strange place, etc.

at the end of class, hour session, araceli meekly whispers that she wants help with the past progressive, or passive voice in general (passive: the president said: mistakes were made; this sentence means essentially that the president admits there were mistakes, but i am not ready to blame someone. ) essentially, the passive voice, in my opinion, shifts emphasis onto either an unknown agent or places more emphasis on an undeserved subject (the president is protected by the c.i.a.; this sentence places emphasis on the president when really the c.i.a. is doing all the work)

no more grammar talk. promise.

so i am digging this lesson yesterday. we are all prof´s, working for the man, just little people, i am thinking socialism at its best here. unite, comrads! i am making fun of the president of the u.s., mexico, talking about the university policy makers down here (and why don´t i get more photocopies, print pages, etc?; damn the man!)

right. so the four teachers (who cannot be more than 30-38 yrs old) are the heads of their respective departments. ya. damn the man (or them, as the case may be). one of the prof´s walked me back to the building and enlightened me. i knew their jobs, their respective departments, but when they told me i failed to understand that they ran the departments.

he laughed and said that they all thought i was basically giving them a hard time and that none of them really took me seriously. oops. luckily, my spanish is bad enough and their english is bad enough that humor unites us more than anything else.

and here i thought i was making a great point. no, i was making an ass of myself. nothing new, nothing new.

i also have some other funny stories about today´s visit from my boss (what classes am i teaching? how many? i am giving what kind of evaluation for new students? how do i evaluate them? next week?). good times here in ixtepec. luckily, everything is tranquilo. very very tranquilo. (slow, at your own pace, soft, tranquil, you get the idea).