08 November 2012

Italian primary school experiences :: {five}




A recent conversation about school with my dear child:

Me: So, what’s your favorite subject these days?

Young One:  We have a new subject, a subject where we do a lot of designing. It’s called grammatica, and I love it. I even have a new quaderno (notebook) for it.

Me: So, are you studying verbs, nouns? I once taught grammar...

Young One: (interrupting with frustration) VERBS? No! That's Italiano. I am designing spaces and things. I am using a riga (ruler) and designing things with centimetri. (She means "drawing.")

Me: Rulers, eh? Do you think perhaps you are studying geometria? We call it geometry in English.

Young One: No. I told you, geografia. You don’t know anything, Mom.  When you bought that piece of furniture over there (gestures to the living room), you measured the space and then told the man exactly the size. That’s what this subject will teach me to do, to buy the right furniture for my house. THAT is geografia. You just don’t know.

Geografia, geometria o grammatica?
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And this is how we interact on matters related to school most days. Yes, I am an experienced and educated teacher. Eight year olds think nothing of credentials. Since I have the tiniest doubt rooted in the fact that I am living outside of my comfort zone together with the fact that a couple of weeks ago she was indeed walking around the house defining geo and grafia (correctly and a foreign language, I might add), I let it go.  I’m waiting for the day that the new notebook makes its way home, when I will promptly set her straight. I think.
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To her credit, she did allow me to help her with the task of creating an outline for a story, and I was able to teach her the difference between a personal narrative and a story with a conflict. I think. Waiting on that notebook, too.
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She really does speak to me mostly in English but always with a bit of Italian vocabulary; I've learned that she usually does this when she doesn't know or is unsure of the English word to use. Usually it's related to school.

10 comments:

  1. this made me smile. I remember the elementary school years when the teacher was always right (rather, what they thought they understood the teacher to say was right, even when it plainly didn't make any sense), and mom couldn't correct it. overall, when you're a student it's a good sign to have that kind of devotion for your teacher! :)

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    1. I agree...the devotion is a good thing bc the opposite would be a complete disaster.
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  2. i am giggling...but only because we have similar conversations here. :)

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    1. I can only imagine that at some point some young student is equally devoted to us in conversations with his / her parents.
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  3. funny one :) When I was a kid I used to to the same thing when talking, mix Italian with Polish (couse I was raised in Poland) ;)

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    1. Ciao, Marco. Nice to meet you here.
      She mixes it up quite a bit these days.
      d

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  4. Subtract the Italian, I had the same kind of conversations with my daughter when she was elementary school age. Mind you, once she reached middle school and high school they changed again. Middle school conversations were much more sullen and one-worded on her part. In high school she started talking again but it was frequently about how much she hated the place and wanted to get out of there. Hmmm, I seem to remember feeling exactly the same way when I was in high school. Nothing changes it seems.

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    1. I hope to goodness that my girl does not share my experiences of middle school. I consider it the absolute worst time of my life! I understand the sullen, one-word answers all too much.
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  5. Hahaha, it's the typical stage in which a child has decided that they can prove their parents wrong at anything, with the added complication of another language. And if she doesn't know the word in English, how can you be absolutely sure where she's going wrong? I find that happens to me too though. If I learned the significance of a word in Italian, I'm not always sure how to express it in English, i.e. "Boh" and "Mi stufa"

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  6. Today she told me she saw a kid with a huge sandwich at snack time and that her mouth just got full of "bava" as she ate her apple. Poor kid.
    I love the way she mixes it up, even when she does things like use "design" when she means "draw" but makes the translation from "designare." I don't correct her :)

    D

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