A New Spanish Teaching Strategy

I learned a lot my first year teaching Spanish.  The kids would often ask me what words meant that I didn’t know.  They would act offended every time I told them that I didn’t know the meaning of a word and to look it up in their Spanish/English dictionary.  “But you’re the Spaaaaaaanish teacher,” they would whine.  “This is a Spaaaaaanish word.  Don’t you speak Spaaaaaanish?” they would challenge me.  I got really tired of defending myself.

So the first day of my second year teaching, (after the method from the year before flopped) I came up with a new strategy.  I would wait until the class was silent and all eyes were on me and then I would say, “Frangipani.  Someone please tell me what frangipani means.”

Silence.

“Whaaaaat?  Can’t any of you tell me what frangipani means?”

Silence.

“Don’t you kids speak Eeeeeenglish?” I would drawl.  “Frangipani is in the Eeeenglish dictionary!”  After I had gone on in this manner for a little while, I would explain that just like they do not know every word in the English language, I do not know every word in the Spanish language.

So whenever a student would ask me for the meaning of a word that I didn’t know and begin their incredulous accusations, I would just cock my head, point my finger at them and say, “Frangipani!”