Back for Good

This past weekend I returned to Ambato from my trip to the United States for what will hopefully be an uninterrupted stay in South America for my remaining five months as a WorldTeach volunteer. Similar to the first time I went back to the States in October, my trip was mostly business and I am relieved to be back on a schedule and working again. Big thanks to Nathan, Jill, and Olivia for letting me crash at their places at various times throughout my trip so I didn't ever have to stay in a hotel.

Learn English through Astrology

A few days before I left for the States, my host family's housekeeper asked me if I could help her daughter, who happened to be in the house at the moment, with her English homework. I am always happy to help little kids with their homework because they are very easily impressed with things that adults find effortless, like counting by two's and spelling "elephant."

I was expecting a standard, basic-level homework assignment similar to the kind of Spanish homework I got as a kid, maybe colors or numbers. What I forgot is that the Ecuadorian education system leaves a lot to be desired, and the book the girl had was no exception. The exercise the girl was assigned provided several pictures of people with different haircuts. Underneath the pictures of different hairstyles was a list of adjectives and corresponding astrological signs. The directions asked the student "In your opinion, what sign of the Zodiac matches each hairstyle?"

They forgot to put "Douche-bag Taurus" for letter e.

I have lived in Ecuador for several months now and I have seen my fair share of terrible educational materials, but this book takes the cake. It's bad enough that someone writing an English book thought that matching hairstyles to signs of the Zodiac would be a good idea for an exercise in a basic-level book, but then some teacher saw it and thought to himself "Wow, what a great activity! I agree that this is pertinent information for someone trying to learn English to improve his chances of someday getting a job in an Anglophone country."

Keep in mind that this exercise was assigned to a student who didn't even know the letters of the alphabet in English when I asked her to spell something or the word "green" when I asked her what color her pen was. I can imagine what an interview would have to sound like for any student using this book to be successful in the future:

- Mr. Nuñez, so far I've asked you how you are doing, where you are from, and how old you are, all of which you replied to by staring at me blankly.
- (*continues staring blankly at interviewer*)
- To be completely honest, those questions were all just small talk to get you warmed up. Next comes the most important question we will discuss today, and the answer will ultimately decide for me whether you are right for the job or not. The question is: Using only an adjective and an astrological sign, how would you describe my hairstyle?

Say What?

I learned to speak Spanish while studying abroad in Mexico, so before I started working with WorldTeach I was only accustomed to Mexican Spanish. One of the most salient differences between Mexican Spanish and Ecuadorian Sierra Spanish is how they pronounce words containing "ll". Most of the time, pronunciation differences between different dialects has little effect on practical usage and it only serves as an indicator of where someone is from. In the case of the "ll", however, there are some interesting consequences that arise from how speakers from different countries pronounce it.

In Mexico, the "ll" makes the same sound as "y" (pronounced like the "y" in the word yes). This may lead to ambiguity in cases where two words are spelled exactly the same except that one has a "ll" and another has a "y". For instance, se cayó (he fell) and se calló (he shut up) would be pronounced the same in Mexican Spanish. Most of the time ambiguities like this are easily resolved by the context of the conversation, but it can have disastrous consequences for spelling. If someone hears a word before he ever sees it spelled out, he will have no idea whether it should be spelled with a "y" or a "ll", which occasionally leads to some sloppy spelling.

The Spanish that Ecuadorians from the Sierra speak, however, makes a distinction between these two sounds. The letter "y" retains the same pronunciation, while the letter "ll" sounds something like the "zsa" in "Zsa Zsa Gabor" or the "j" in "Jack". With Ecuadorians from the Sierra, it is impossible to make the kinds of spelling mistakes that would occur in Mexico (or even on the coast of Ecuador, where they also don't distinguish between the sounds of those letters). It is pretty interesting to me to think that Serranos probably spell a bit better than people from the coast because of their accent and the ambiguities it dispels.

Another classic example of how pronunciation affects spelling (and to a much lesser extent, comprehension in spoken language) is the pronunciation of the letters "s" and "z". In some parts of the Spanish speaking world, the letter "z" is pronounced like the "th" in "the". In Latin America, however, "s" and "z" are pronounced the same and spelling errors can lead to comical changes in meaning. This ad in today's newspaper pokes fun at this type of spelling mistake and how it would not be surprising for someone to accidentally write cazar (hunt) instead of casar (marry).

"When you're married you're as good as dead anyway, so what's the difference—am I right?"

Luxuries of the 21st Century

There are a lot of technological "advances" that have done little to really improve life, like 3D television and iPads. However, I feel that people who are overly cynical about new technology often unfairly judge innovations that truly improve quality of life. I would like to take some time now to highlight two such inventions: the electric toothbrush and Franklin's electronic Spanish-English dictionary.

I bring up the electric toothbrush because a friend of mine recently mocked me for bringing it with me when I travel. "Is this your toothbrush in the bathroom?" she asked, "You think you're better than us because you don't use a normal toothbrush?" Yes Jill, as a matter of fact I do think that I'm better than you for using an electric toothbrush. I haven't read any research that proves that using an electric toothbrush is more effective than a normal brush, but use an electric toothbrush just once and try going back to your bristle-stick after feeling the ecstasy of 31,000 strokes per minute stimulating and refreshing your gums while blasting away disease-causing plaque.

The second technology I am supporting is only relevant for people who are learning Spanish. All throughout college I used either a paper dictionary or an internet dictionary. The internet dictionary I use (wordreference.com) is probably the best dictionary available anywhere, but it is obviously not very mobile because I need to have a computer and internet connection available to access it. Using a paper dictionary is also not very practical because the number of entries is limited unless you have a gigantic tabletop edition and it is time consuming to flip through pages to find a word.

It is beyond me how knowledge of the existence of an excellent portable electronic dictionary evaded me for four years as a Spanish Literature major, but now I have seen the light and there is no turning back. I highly recommend the Merriam-Webster electronic dictionary made by Franklin. It is small enough to fit in my pocket so I carry it with me all the time and use it incessantly (it has a regular English dictionary as well, and I just used it to make sure "incessantly" meant what I thought it did).


Search Keyword Abuse

I would like to give kudos to whoever searched the term "krishna surasi is stupid" into a search engine and used the results to connect to my site multiple times. Whoever it was searched that term enough times that "krishna surasi is stupid" is now the number one result on the list of search terms that people use to find my site (a list that I can view on the statistics tracker on Blogger). Well played mysterious Blogger stat-tracker manipulator, well played.