Wheat or White?

For two hours every Monday morning the cultural barriers that separate me from the nearly invisible Latin American newcomers fall away.  Rocío is learning English, I am learning Spanish, and we are each other's tutors. "Entiendo más que puedo hablar" is our motto as we laugh and learn.  Rocío works in sandwich shop, so her English vocabulary is focused on sandwich choices.  She says people always have trouble understanding her when she asks "wheat bread or white bread."  How embarrassing, I thought, having to stumble on this twenty times a day.  First we worked on the "wh" sound, then I realized that it's the similarity of the words that confuses people.  I suggested that she add one word to say "whole wheat or white." The next week she reported that the new word had made all the difference.  

 

Rocío's English is far better than my Spanish, which means that she is my mentor, and Spanish coach.  This reciprocity is what pleases me most.  Last week I was able to string together a whole bunch of words into two or three sentences. It was a thrill, and Rocío was at least as excited as I was. "Wow," she said, "you are such a fast learner!" I don't know about that, but what I do know is that Rocío sees herself as adding value to my life that goes beyond "wheat or white."     

Tags: spanish
Topics: English Language Learning-ELL, Leadership, Storytelling