Teaching English has made us celebrities!

Who knew that volunteering to teach English in a small Argentinian town would turn us into local celebrities?!

In the bakery, in the meat shop, chatting with friends on the street – wherever we go in Larroque, either alone or with our host Estela, people ask where we’re from, how cold it is there, why we’re here, and how Estela found us.

Canada, very cold, teaching English, and HelpX are the short answers to those first questions.

Even Leo from the local TV station interviewed us, asking how we found Estela, what we think of our students, and “¿Qué opinas de Larroque? [What do you think of Larroque?].”

I had a cheat sheet of Spanish answers: “La gente es muy amigable! [The people are very friendly!]” But if my Spanish was better, I could have explained in more depth just why we’re loving it here. Estela translated some of our answers, but was too humble to translate all the kind words I had about her. She’s dynamic and fun and her enthusiasm is contagious, especially for her students, and that has made it easy for us to slip into this comfortable niche and savour life in a small town as we’re teaching English.

So far, we’ve had 23 different students, ranging from beginners to advanced, and we’ve enjoyed every one of them. They’re enthusiastic about learning English and asking us about Canada, although some of the kids look at us like we’ve just arrived from Mars! The three giggly seven-year-old girls ran us ragged, but they were so darn cute, we couldn’t help but laugh along with them.

We landed in this welcoming place after connecting with Estela through HelpX (short for ‘Help Exchange’), the same website we used to find the place we stayed in Panama. After exchanging emails, we took a bus from Buenos Aires to Gualeguaychu, where Estela picked us up and brought us to Larroque. We’re staying with her in exchange for teaching English about three or four hours a day. She’s a retired school vice-principal and English teacher. Now she teaches English to children and adults one-on-one or in small groups here in Larroque and the nearby town of Urdinarrain.

“My students love the chance to talk with native English speakers,” explained Estela. “Two hours with you is like two months of lessons….And it’s a good opportunity for me to improve my English.”

We’ve had three lessons with Raul, a retired storeowner who is learning English to keep his brain active. He’s a beginner and still speaks a lot in Spanish, which we must interpret. We learned that he loved to cook empanadas, so we taught him the English words for the verbs and ingredients and he described how he makes the traditional Argentinian filled pastry. (We made them later with Estela.)

We’ve also taught a bunch of 10-to-12-year-olds, half a dozen older high school students, and some other adults. I’m grateful for the online course I took a few years ago, becoming certified to teach English as a foreign and second language. Knowing how to plan and pace lessons is invaluable.

Students were interested in various topics. Andrea wants to travel one day, so she’s learning about checking in at the airport, going through customs and immigration, ordering in a restaurant, getting a taxi and checking in to a hotel.

Santiago was supposed to go to the United States for three weeks but his trip was cancelled due to coronavirus. He’s very frustrated, so we talked about other things with him, Malena and Caterina. They wanted to know about Canada’s economy, the high-tech industry, computers and beaver tails (the pastry versus the animal’s appendage).

Estela said people in Larroque don’t know much about Canada or the U.S. and assume none of us have traditional families. But through talking with us, they can learn about Canada and “they can see that you have a beautiful family,” she said. “I love to learn about other people’s lives and culture. It’s really exciting.”

Augosto, who spent a few weeks in California, and Pierina both have excellent English and just wanted a chance to practise with native English speakers. So did Ricardo, a retired naval engineer whose former in-laws were British. We’ve discussed Canada’s fur trade and settlement patterns, treatment of indigenous people by both countries, Canada’s health-care system, the monarchy, elections, football (soccer) ‘hoodlums,’ wheat exports, the Great Lakes, railways, and the War of 1812. Pierina Googled Canadian actors and musicians and we compared who we knew and liked among Michael Bublé, Celine Dion, Justin Bieber, Michael J. Fox, Rachel McAdams, Avril Lavine and Drake.

With the younger learners, we’ve talked about snow and cold in Canada, ice hockey versus field hockey (which they play here), and ice skating versus inline skating. We’ve played Simon Says and sung “Head and shoulders, knees and toes…” many times. We’ve folded paper into Fortune Tellers – a big hit with the young girls.

Along the way, we’ve learned lots about Argentina: how to make maté and its variations, how to play handball (popular with school kids), university is free, and the hot humid climate in the north versus cold windy Patagonia in the south. Many high school students go to Bariloche (a gorgeous town in the Andes foothills at the north end of Patagonia – like Banff, Alberta) as a graduation trip. And we compared photos of Canada’s poutine to papas fritas con cheddar, verdeo y panceta [French fries with cheddar, green onion and bacon].    

By teaching English, we’ve even learned things about Canada – I didn’t know that Michael Bublé is married to an Argentinian woman.

Estela said the town website manager and one of the two local radio stations also want to interview us. I’m not sure if those interviews will happen or not, but it’s fun to have been asked! Stay tuned for a link to our TV interview.

We had initially told Estela we’d come for a week, but we’re loving it so much we’re staying for two.