Whatever

Who the hell uses “Mustn’t?” Nobody in the U.S., that’s for sure. But oh no, I have to teach it. It’s like when I learned in Spanish class in high school that “car” is “coche.” Nobody uses “coche,” especially in Mexico. What happened the first time I used “coche” with a Spanish speaker? They laughed at me. I found that instead they use “carro.” Likewise, it wouldn’t be responsible of me to allow them to use “mustn’t.” I mustn’t teach “mustn’t,” but I’m compelled to by the school.

Recently I’ve been prefacing my lessons with something to the tune of, “look, I have to teach this because it’s on the test.” The test is prepared by the school. “If you are speaking with a native English speaker from the U.S. – which is why all of you are here – do not use this grammar structure (or phrase or word or whatever). Instead, say … “

Yesterday I spent the entire day for each of my 5 classes pounding into their heads the difference between “I’d” and “I’ve” when talking about a past desire that ended in the past versus a past desire that continues on into today. Later I took a look at the test. It’s not on there. It’s bullshit anyway.

Over a week into the course and they’re still admitting new students. They’re out of books and will likely not get anymore for another month. The book was written in 1994 anyway. Regardless, these new students will likely draw a blank when confronted by a few sections of the test, the material of which had already been covered (and there’s no book for them to study on their own, or to furthermore reference back to a topic yet to be taught). I suspect that they’d admit a student all the way into the last week of class. I’m beginning to see that this and other schools in the area hold the peso in higher regard than student success.

I’ve begun looking for a place with Carolyn. Bev, the older one, is showing her age: Lots of suggestions about, well, everything we should and shouldn’t do. Uninformed decisions really. She’s also proven to be a pathological liar. Image a 50 something year old Canadian woman telling you that she was married to a 20 year old obese hockey player just a few months before she moved here to Mexico, after getting a divorce. She makes up the most bizarre and unimportant white lies simply for .. what? No reason at all. So strange. I can’t wait to get the hell away from her and whatever the hell disorder she suffers from.

.. this post is unedited. If there are errors, oh well.