Cambridge Dictionary of American Idioms. Copyright @ Cambridge University Press. 2006- to change a situation so that someone's position is the opposite of what it
was.- to change a situation so that someone's position is the opposite of what it
"These are small balls of ice that fall from the sky like rain," I explain while holding up a picture of hail. As review from yesterday's lesson on various weather terms, my kindergarten students are attentively listening in hopes of being the first to guess the word that I am describing. A look of recognition gleams in a boy's eyes as he suddenly lurches forward with his hand raised high above his head waving it back and forth in an attempt to catch my attention.
"I know, I know!!" His excitement gets the best of him, as he blurts out, "EYEBALLS!" Everyone turns and looks at him with looks of wonder. As I begin to see two little girls look at each other with sparkling eyes while quickly covering their giggling mouths, I attempt to divert attention before they cascade into a fit of giggles. Somehow a connection had been made in this little boy's mind between eyeballs and one of the words I used to describe hail. And, as many language learners do, he approximated the gist of what I was saying and took his best guess based on the words that he understood the most. However, in this case, his estimation had fallen a little short and had proven a little humerous in this particular context.
Learning a new language requires the courage to express oneself, all the while knowing that you are bound to make a mistake at one point or another. You just hope that the mistake is in the midst of people who are filled with grace and understanding at the genuine attempt that you are making at communication.
After teaching kindergarten students to be willing to take risks and speak and respond in a language that is foreign to them, I am willingly throwing myself into a world of foreign customs, culture, and language. Only now, I will not be the teacher. I will be the student frantically racking my brain for that word that I know I learned. In less than three weeks, I will be boarding a plane on my very own to venture to a small town in Costa Rica where I will be living with a host family who has graciously opened their home and their lives to me. I will spend hours, days, and weeks immersed in a language that I once studied in high school. This has been a dream of mine for a long time...to be immersed in a different culture, language, and people while seeing the overarching sovereignty of a God at work who supercedes any and all differences.
As I prepare for this trip, my roommate has been victim to my posting labels around the apartment in attempts to learn new Spanish verbs, phrases, and words. In hopes to recover the Spanish that I had in high school, I have been attending Spanish services, practicing my Spanish with friends, and talking to myself in Spanish while in the car. I continue to hear my own voice echoing in my head as I try to reconcile what I know a good language learner looks like with my own tentative and perfectionistic language learning habits.
I hope that you enjoy reading about my experiences in Costa Rica this summer. Maybe by the end of my time there, I'll be writing this blog in fluent Spanish (don't worry mom, I'll put an English version on here too). Please pray that in these next couple of weeks, I am able to tie up loose ends and details here in the States, continue to learn as much as I can of the language and culture prior to leaving, and focus on trusting God completely in all areas of my life.
