I meet my teacher for the first time, we sit down to get acquainted and guess what, she totally does not know a single word of English. I don’t think she is pretending either because when she does ask me about a word her pronunciation is flat out weird, like from someone who has never had any correction. And she didn’t learn Spanish at home – at home they speak a local language.
The school runs a school for teaching their teachers how to teach Spanish which is a very good idea under the circumstance of not having a pool of native Spanish speakers from which to hire.
My teacher made a couple of mistakes in the grammar explanations, she asking me over and over if I understood, I replying over and over that yes I do understand what you are saying and what you are saying I believe is not correct, but it doesn’t matter, really, I was ready to give it up… but she wanted to teach me, she wanted me to agree, which I couldn’t (those who know me will find this a familiar story…).
One time not too deep into it she realized that she was wrong and apologized and regarding a different point, she finally went to ask another teacher and then came back and apologized. She’s sweet and funny, she’s working hard, and she wants it to go well for both of us, and I’m trying to be optimistic about tomorrow’s lesson.