Arroyo Seco children learning English through music

ARROYO SECO, Jalisco, Mexico - The second day of our amiga Laura Warner's classes de Ingles for the village children went well today, with the addition of some American rap music.

Yup, American rap.

Hey! Whatever works!


The rap was just part of a multi-pronged lesson that included practice with phrases like: I have two brothers and three sisters, I like to dance and My favorite sport is soccer.

What was supposed to be an intimate class of 10 or 11 students mushroomed to 31 at one point, with children elbowing their way onto the palapa at The Pink Flamingo, their notebooks in hand.

Their sincerity at wanting to learn is heartbreaking.


Laura's class in Arroyo Seco


Using music as a teaching tool

We have two more days of classes and the children are excited, showing up at the gate promptly at 3 p.m. for the lessons. Laura asked for my dictionary today so she could look up the word in Spanish for 'overwhelmed' because she felt that after two days of teaching so many eager children in so short a time frame.

Still, many of the children linger after the lesson to fine tune parts of what they heard and get ready for the next day's words.

And in the morning, instead of practicing my Spanish as the 10-12-year-olds walk by going to school (as I was doing), now they have instructions from Laura to speak to me in Ingles. And I, of course, am supposed to respond to help them learn.

It's a big school right now, for all of us.


Student notebook

On an unrelated, yet related note, my doctor has declared me pneumonia-free but did put me on a new drug two days ago that has me on the mend very quickly. These pesky bronchitis-type infections can turn nasty in their tropical climate and my doc said she is not taking any chances.

I agree with that medical strategy.