Teachers from Spain adjust to life, learning in the City Different

Accent the Positive

One of the 13 teachers from Spain planning to teach in the Santa Fe Public Schools this year went back home before school started, apparently homesick.

One doesn’t have a car or a driver’s license because he doesn’t know how to drive.

But Juan Carlos Mas is doing just fine.

“Do I need to tell you how glad I am to be here?” Mas asked Friday.

Mas is teaching bilingual sixth-grade at Larragoite Elementary School. His students number only 12 “thank goodness,” he said.

He just arrived in Albuquerque his first trip to the United States on Aug. 14, “but it seems years ago,” Mas said.

He loves Santa Fe, “but the only other place I’ve been is Albuquerque, so the comparison is not difficult,” Mas said.

He said the Spanish language is a bit different in Spain than New Mexico, especially the accent, “but we understand each other and we all use the ‘n,’ which unites us.”

The only major language problem so far caused a good laugh in his class.

In Spain, when saying the alphabet, the letter “J” is pronounced in a way that translates rather poorly in New Mexican Spanish vernacular jota.

“I didn’t know it was a bad word,” Mas said. “I’m not even sure what it means. We were saying the alphabet, A, B, C, D, E, and when I reached J” the class erupted.

“I will avoid it,” he said.

Mas said there are “quite a little differences” from the teaching style in Spain and in America.

“Here, the first importance is the pupil has to be happy,” he said. “In Spain, that’s not the first point. The first is to learn.”

He said he prefers the American view of education, which he’ll take back with him to Spain.

“I think there is something more important here to learn life,” he said.

Stranger in a stranger land

And then there’s Jose Antonio Alcalde, teaching Spanish and English to fourth-through sixth-graders at Pinon Elementary.

“I need help,” Alcalde said Friday. “Don’t ask me what kind of help. If I were in my country, I would know what help I need. I really don’t even know what I need.”

One thing is certain he needs a driver’s license, and after that, a car of some kind.

Alcalde comes from the islands of Mallorca off the east coast of Spain, where he has been teaching for eight years.

There, he said, “I ride a bus every day.”

“You don’t really need a car (in Spain),” he said. “I think here is going to be a different story.”

Although he said the school district has made efforts to help, he arrived in Albuquerque on Aug. 15 and had no idea what to do or where to start.

Luckily, he ran into another teacher from Spain.

“We drove around up and down the streets for a week,” Alcalde said. “We were looking for a place to live. It was hot. All the places were full.”

Yes, he said, as a matter of fact, he is stressed.

Alcalde said he doesn’t speak only for himself others are having an even harder time.

Mostly, he said he needs things like chairs for his room. He starts teaching Tuesday after a couple of weeks of getting situated. And he hopes he can find an after-school driver’s education class.

“I am just kind of lost,” he said. “But I am an optimist. Things will get better. I hope.”

A teaching bargain

Although the Santa Fe Public Schools still lack about five bilingual teachers, Assistant Superintendent Michael Nuanes said the 12 teachers from Spain have helped ease the public schools’ shortage.

And even better the district didn’t pay a cent to bring them to America.

The Spanish consulate paid for Nuanes to travel to Spain last year to interview candidates who wanted to come to America to teach.

Nuanes said the Spanish consulate paid for the plane tickets and work permits for the teachers who were offered jobs.

And the district isn’t paying them more than any other teacher would be paid, he said. Most of them have more than a bachelor’s degree, so they probably make between $ 25,000 and $ 30,000 a year.

School districts from across the United States were part of the teaching exchange program, Nuanes said. California alone sought 200 teachers. Albuquerque, Alamagordo and Deming schools also hired Spanish teachers.

Of the 12 Nuanes hired, one went home before school started.

“She had two of her children here and two in Spain,” Nuanes said. “I guess she got homesick.”

Nuanes said he was surprised when he went to Spain that most of the students learn three or four foreign languages even in elementary school.

“The teachers get trained (in Spain) to teach, but a lot of them get sent to London or other countries to learn languages and other methods of teaching,” Nuanes said. “So not only do we benefit from their skills here, but they are expected to take back our skills.”

In addition to Mas at Larragoite and Alcalde at Pinon, Capital High has four of the foreign teachers, two are at Santa Fe High, two at Ortiz Middle School, one at Cesar Chavez Elementary and one at DeVargas Middle School.

Their contracts are for one year, although they can opt to stay for several more, Nuanes said.



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