Paso doble and corrida

I don't know if I said it here, but I'm Spanish teacher. My students are children between 2 and 13 years old. I give privite lessons and teach in kindergartens and in a day-care center. The last one is my favourite work place. I just love the children from there! They are really cute, direct and not yet crafty like their oldest friends from the kindergartens. They give me kisses, hug me, do a swing from my legs when I'm sitting on the floor... They show me theirs little scratches, new clothes or toys. They tell on other child which kick or hit them... The girls also comb me. Of course, many times they run around the class shouting and aren't obedient, but they never complain about the contents of the Spanish lessons.

However in the kindergartens it happens that the children aren't interested in the materials I prepared. I should follow the outlines that my boss delivered me, I can't do whatever I want always, although sometimes I change it and I add or omit activities. I have to be flexible, because my work depends on each group, on how they work. In one group I'm able to do all the activities, in other not. At the beggining it stressed me a lot, I'm a person who like to do things that are completely planned. I wasn't very spontaneous, but it changed thanks to this work.

And now is the time to explain what have in common my work with folk. So, in one of the kindergartens where I teach only three children (two three-year-old girls and one six-year-old boy) I couldn't do the contents from the outline, because the children didn't collaborate. They always want to draw, but when they are bored with the drawing too, everything turns more complicated... Then I have to invent something extraordinary that catches their attention. In the last class I invited them to dance flamenco and do a corrida that is a bullfight. With my jacket and jersey I did skirts for the girls and using the castanets I imitated a paso doble rhytm. Although the jersey wasn't red, I did with it the rug for the bull that was Max, the unique boy. We enjoyed the lesson a lot and I convinced that culture and folk elements really works!! Maybe they are stereotypical, but it have to starts with something.

Oh, my lovely cases!

 

Three weeks ago I participated in my first class of Polish for foreigners . It was a nice experience. Maybe I had expected something extraordinary, like we say in Polish, fireworks. But it didn't happened. However, I enjoyed it and I felt more aware of my own language and culture. One of the strange things was that there almost weren't people of my age. We were 23 students and maybe only 4 of them was still studing (like me) or just graduated. The majority of the students were mature women. Yes, we were all women. The unique men was the professors.

Today I would like to talk you about one the subject that was typically linguistic. Grammatical system od Polish language against the background comparative, that was its name. It was 12 hours of lecture. One hour here is understood like 45 minutes. 

At the beggining it resulted quite diffult and boring. You can imagine what does it mean analize case by case (nominative, genitive, etc.) and their exceptions. Actually, there are more exceptions that words that keep the rules. Slide by slide I was feeling pity on all the foreigners, my future students included, treating learn it... It's necessary to have very strong motivation! That's my conclusion.

We talked about all the parts of speech: nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, etc., and about their funtions in the clauses. It was like a Polish lesson in primary school! I remember I loved it! But this time I saw it with more awareness, like a linguist, I can say. How much changed everything! The situation, my knowledge... but not my interest in grammar :D

My other folk preferences

Although I am Spanish linguist and I love latinamerican world and music, I have also other interests. In the topic of the music I'm quite open and try to find good points of everything I'm listening to. 

Thanks to my parents, since I was a child, I really enjoy Russian music. My mum has a CD of Alexandrov Ensemble, the official army choir of the Russian armed forces.

And, of course, I can't ommit the dance! You all should know it: the famous kasatschok. I think every Polish recognizes it and tried to dance like that, especially the boys.

Other influence I owe to my mother is that I like Greek music. She did me see the movie "Zorba the Greek" and then said that the dance that all the people know about didn't have the name of Zorba, but sirtaki. I remember that when I was 8, she took me also to the National Opera in Warsaw to see the ballet with the same title. Please, look at this video. For me the most surprising thing is that I know all the music they put...! Without want it, it's the inffluence of my mum, definitely. She went to Greece and left her heart there. And before did us fall in love in Greece too! :)

The last type of folk music I would like to mention is the Chechen dance that I saw thanks to the Polish mass media. It's so amazing!! So lively and, at the same time, difficult!

There are so much diversity in the world! Every one of us could enumerate me other three or four dances or genres that inspire you... From India, China, Denmark, Hungary, wherever... Conclusion? Our lifes are too short to discover everything :)