--Rick Steves
The Argentine educational day, like most systems worldwide, begins at the civilized hour of 9AM, and ends at the even more civilized hour of 1PM, allowing both student and teacher plenty of time to aprovechar el dia, or take advantage of the rest of the day. It is customary after school to enjoy almuerzo, lunch, the biggest meal of the day, and then do lo que sea, whatever, in the afternoon. (Siestas are not common here in the city.) We have a break or recreo midway through at 11AM for coffee and medialunas, croissants.
The school is designed for adults who want to learn Spanish, and most of the students are in their 20’s. Classes start anew every Monday, (with the exception of the beginners), so after taking a placement test, a person can simply jump right in to whatever level is most appropriate. Classes are purposely small, so everyone gets lots of chances to practice and very few to slack off. For example, this week my class has five students—two from Italy, one from Brazil and one other Americana, from Arizona, here on a photography internship. Next week the dynamic will change as the Italians are leaving and our Brasiliena goes home for a week of holiday.
One of the most fascinating aspects of this school is that most people are here for much, much longer than I; in fact my six weeks on the continent is a short stay compared to what most others are doing-most are here for six months or longer.
The reason for learning Spanish is as varied as the person learning it; My Arizona classmate Wren is here on a photography internship; she bought a one-way ticket to Argentina. Another, Todd, just in from Hong Kong, works for the security division of Wal-Mart; after his six weeks here, he’ll be moving with his family to work in Costa Rica for two years and then on to Indonesia. Chloe, from Greece, just came from six months of English study in Australia and is here to learn Spanish for the same amount of time simply because she loves learning languages; she’s thinking of moving on to Italy to pick up Italian next; David, the engineering student from Hamburg, Germany, is giving up his three month summer break from his University (and his girlfriend) beacuse it will help him land a better job. Unbelievably, there’s even another person here from the other side of FoldintheMap—each and every one of them giving up everything and everyone that is familiar and friendly for their own reasons to pursue study of the language.
