Time for Class!

Class was to originally begin on July 29, but the student strike pushed the start of the semester back to August 19.  The actual details of my classes weren't finalized until just a few days prior to August 19, and since the tail end of the week before that had a holiday, I wasn't too sure there would be anyone signing up.  I was pleasantly greeted by 18 students on the first day of class, which is a good number and about as many as I could easily handle.

The class was advertised as instruction in English, so students knew what to expect, but I created Spanish versions of all of my materials to assist in understanding.  Just like there are words and phrase that are much different in English (US vs. England vs Australia vs inter city vs the Southern US...), there are many different regionalizations of Spanish.  Chileans tend to speak quickly, drop word endings, and use a lot of slang unique to Chile.  I have talked to a number of other people - including those that are pretty good in Spanish - and found that I am not alone in struggling with Chilean Spanish.  Mis oídos no oyen correctamente (my ears don't hear correctly).

Class seems to be going well.  It appears that I didn't scare anyone off after the first day.  I'm really looking forward to developing the student forensic skills and find the experience enjoyable.  The interest level appears quite high.  The University of Chile has very nice facilities and the staff has been very supportive.

This has been a very busy week.  All of the Fulbright Scholars and Specialists met for a few days this week to get to know one another, the various projects under way, and to present their initiative and interest areas.  It is a fascinating group - a teacher/learner specialist from the University of Georgia, a professor from West Virginia that grew up in South Africa, a professor from Evergreen in Washington, a journalist investigating data reporting, an engineer from U of Wisconsin Green Bay, a professor from Pittsburg, a professor looking at the Mapuche, a professor who brought his family and is staying a year (and thinking of driving back to the States when their time is up), and the list goes on.  Such different areas but some common interest threads. Any many of us are writing blogs and that helps with the linkages.

Tomorrow the Fulbright Commission takes us to visit a couple wineries.  This will be quite interesting because although I am not a wine drinker, where I am from has a few dozen wineries and it will be interesting to compare.  It seems every day I am exposed to something new about Chile and/or Chilean culture and the time seems to be going by very quickly.  As I wrote in an earlier post, it seems like so long ago since I left the States, yet somehow it also seems like I just got here.  Time is fleeting and I know the Fulbright experience will be over before I know it.

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