School

The Woes of Switching Classes

The Woes of Switching Classes

School started for me two weeks ago. As a freshman, I was constantly getting plowed over by older non-freshy people and walking down the wrong hallway. Luckily, my high school is actually arranged pretty non-confusingly so I figured it out quickly.

My classes weren’t that bad actually. I find that when people say that a certain teacher is awful, I can tolerate them. I can safely say that I think I’m not the best at Spanish. Foreign language classes have to be one of the most difficult things I have ever had to take. It’s not that I hate them. In fact I’d like to be able to one day, speak fluently. It’s more like I’m not good at memorizing conjugation and vocab and all of the stuff that comes with learning a new language. Thinking this earlier in the spring, I thought that I’d sign up for Spanish 2.

This was a mistake.

On the first day, it was quite clear that my class had no idea what they were doing. We were reviewing vocabulary and terms from Spanish 1. Naturally, I thought that it was probably just going to be a one day thing. It ended up being a three day spiel.

Yes it was only three days. My high school runs on block schedule. In other words, there is a two day schedule, A-days and B-days. Our classes are divided between these two days so that teachers can have more instructional time in a day.

By this point, my friend and I had realized hey this class is too easy. If we have to review colors, numbers to 100, months, days of the week, and seasons for THREE DAYS, then I’m pretty certain that it maps out what the rest of the year is going to look like. So on the third day, we decided that we’d request for a class change to Spanish 3. Obviously, we wanted to scope out exactly how difficult the classes would be and how much work they got. In the end, it didn’t even matter. My friend emailed the guidance counselor yesterday and got both of us scheduled for a class change. I didn’t even know I had an appointment until halfway through Chemistry. I got up, thinking that the appointment was at that moment. So embarrassing when I realized it wasn’t.

Flash forward to 12:10 when I finally did get it changed. I now have a different English and Spanish teacher and I’m pretty excited to see how hard the higher level is. My first class is on Friday. But before that, I had to sit through my last Spanish 2 class. Here, the awkwardness began.

At the beginning of class, my friend had told the teacher that we were going to change into Spanish 3. Cue his actions to really really guilt trip the two of us. Do you know preterites? How about so-and-so form? Not a moment later, he put me on the spot and asked me what the season was. Now I already told you guys how I’m not exactly the best at Spanish but I do know what all this stuff is. Stupidly, I asked him to repeat what he said three times and went on to say August. FML. I realized Oh my gosh he’s asking about the season I’m so stupid, mumble out a “verano” and get an unhappy grunt and frown. He really really hates the two of us now. A moment later, he asked my friend what the color of a piece of paper he had on the wall. Everybody and their grandmothers could see that it was obviously red. She answers “rojo” and he responds with “mmmm es rojo/rosada. Mas y menos” or something along those lines. IT WAS RED. NOT PINK. I KNOW YOU STILL HAVE ENOUGH COLOR RECEPTORS IN YOUR EYES TO KNOW THAT IT’S RED AND I’M FAIRLY CERTAIN THAT YOU AREN’T COLOR BLIND BECAUSE YOU’VE BEEN FINE IN IDENTIFYING COLORS IN THE LAST FEW DAYS.

It was quite obvious that he didn’t like us too much but whatever the two of us were OUT OF THERE.

u mad

Later in the class, when we were all finishing up class work and getting ready to leave, we asked him if we could go see the other teacher to see what they were doing in class and to get handouts and homework we might get. He made sure to nitpick every single thing we said.

Friend: Hey is it okay if we run down to the other Spanish teacher’s room so we can see what they’ve been doing in class and get the handouts and stuff?

Teacher: Well you don’t have to RUN down to her class. She’s right next door.

We did go to her class and can I just say that I like her a lot more than the Spanish 2 teacher? I mean, he was an interesting guy, but I don’t need a History of Vocabulary lesson for every single Spanish word. He was a really odd person. He would hum and sing random words during class and his floppy hair was a prop in some of his teaching. I do feel bad for him though. The Spanish class I’m in isn’t the brightest in any way. On the third day of class, there was one guy who didn’t request to change classes although he hadn’t had any form of Spanish curriculum in his life. This was the third day. He still hadn’t handled it. Meanwhile, half of the class is either sleeping or has headphones in. The Latino guy that sat next to me would nap, watch One Piece, listen to music, and play games on his phone. He was Latino and OBVIOUSLY knew the language so the teacher wasn’t too harsh on him.

I’m looking forward to the higher level class. I might die from how hard it is, but at least I won’t be bored to death right?