My First Spanish Lesson by Fabrice Leveque

When I was introduced to my Spanish teacher I was completely terrified. I remember Mr. Martinez, Carlos and Brenda in front welcoming us to the school. I remember the two rows of chairs: one for the students and the other row for complete strangers. I finally realized these were the people who will be helping me with my Spanish for the next 3 weeks. All students were sat facing a random teacher with traditional Guatemalan music playing in the background. Carlos, the director of the Sevilla Spanish School, spoke to us first and then Brenda, the secretary, spoke. Brenda, Carlos and the teachers wanted to welcome us to the school and introduce themselves. After the whole introduction was finished, Brenda began to call students and teachers to pair up and converse with their teacher before we started lessons the following day. I saw students and teachers get their stuff and move away to speak to one another. Once I heard my name called, I wasn't ready but I sucked it up. I hear my name and Aracely's name called up; we greeted each other then walked to the back of the school. She introduced herself and right off the bat she bombarded me with her native tongue. What surprised me was how I understood everything she was telling me. She told me her name, how old she was, where she lived, etc. Then, it was finally my turn to speak. I started off with the basics: My name, age, nationality and where I lived. She was blown away as well because of my skin color. This was her first time meeting a Chilean person, which wasn't a surprise to me, but the thing that was a surprise to her was that I was both Latino and African American. It didn't take long for her to correct my Spanish, but that didn't upset me. Our first conversation really calmed me down and got me excited because right from the beginning she didn't judge me for my Spanish, but lent a helping hand. From that first conversation, I knew that these lessons weren't going to be 4 hour long tutoring sessions, but rather an opportunity to have someone be there to improve my Spanish.