This week I showed my older students clips from Valentine's Day. Probably about 70 students saw it and most reacted in very interesting, and similar ways.
First off apparently the best thing you can do for any student anywhere is give them a movie day. No matter the subject matter or language, if the lights go out they're quiet and happy.
Secondly no matter where you go, teenagers have hormones. Big old roaring ones. For those of you that have not seen Valentine's Day two of its stars are Ashton Kutcher and Jessica Alba. In the first scene of the movie the camera pans across a bed first revealing Ashton and then Jessica. Let me try and recreate the first five minutes of every class I had this week.
Me: Hi everyone. How are you today?
Class: mumble mumble murmur.
Me: This week is Valentine's Day. Who can tell me what Valentine's Day is about?
Class: mumble mumble love mumble.
Me: That's right, it's a celebration of love. So this week we're going to watch a movie-
Class: TOMA!!! VERDAD? PELI SI SI SI SI SI!
(note I did attempt to explain an activity about the movie during this outburst, but no one, not even me heard it.)
Roll Credits. Shot of Ashton
Females in the Class: OYE QUE GUAPO! Es Ashton Kutcher (mispronounced)!
(closest translation: OMG WHAT A HOTTIE! OMG IT'S ASHTON!)
Shot of Jessica Alba
Males in the Class: JODER!
(closest translations: OH SNAP! or DAMN GIRL!)
Side note: This is also evidence of the theory that people find the exotic attractive. While there are plenty of Americans that find Ashton and Jessica to be the epitome of hottness, none of them would say, when asked why do you think they're so attractive, "He/she is soooo American!"
There was also a clear belief in the innocence of love. If you haven't seen the movie there's a brief moment that shows two toddlers kissing. Of course any American woman would see that and gush all over the place. But here in Spain the response is the same. AWWWWWWWW!
Another similarity I found was unrequited love. Anyone that has seen his baby blues knows that Bradley Cooper is one fine piece of booty. Add to that a three piece suit and his character's irresistible charm and it's not surprise that all of my adolescent female students feel in love with him during the course of the movie. Only one heart breaking problem...
*******SPOILER ALERT*******
In Valentine's Day the big twist is that his character is gay. Cry with me and all of my Spanish alumnas now ladies. Seriously, I've never been asked por que?!? so many times in my life.
Speaking of gay, there is a line in the movie where Ashton Kutcher tells his best friend that her former boyfriend was obviously gay because he has a cat named Babs. This inevitably got a laugh from everyone of my students leading me to believe that Barbra Streisand has a huge following in Spain or that that word just elicits giggles from Spaniards.
Unsurprisingly another similarity I discovered was the males attachment to their own and their sympathy towards others testicles. And further more the females' delight in hearing about said testicles being pulverized.
In the movie, Jennifer Garner discovers that Patrick Dempsey, her boyfriend, is a married man (Why McDreamy why?) After finding out where Dempsey and his wife will be eating their Valentine's dinner, she shows up, pretends to be their waitress and describes the chef special to them: a stinking, lying pig. Prepared by cutting of the testicles, pulverizing them, mixing them with arugula, sage, feta cheese, and shoving them, for lack of a better word, back up the pig's ass. Now I'm not exactly sure what the Spanish word for testicles is, but I'm guessing it's a very similar word. I have never seen so many boys sit so still and scared while so many girls righteously laugh.
And now I'd like to leave you with the cutest salute to love I encountered this week.After watching the movie I asked a group of 13 year olds if they had any questions. One girl asked me if I was in love. I told her that currently, no I was not. So she asked her main teacher, Patricia, if she was in love. The teacher, whose about 59, said yes, she'd been in love with the same man for about 40 years. The students then proceeded to ask the teacher all about her husband, their family, and their life together. Then as the class was leaving, one of my students stopped and said to me, "Don't worry Kristen (mispronounced), one day you'll have a love like Patricia." Too. Cute.
K Learns Spanish: Lesson 13
corazón- heart
cita- date
bombones- chocolates, as in the awesome boxed chocolates that are filled with a variety of loveliness.
flech- arrow
esperar- to hope or to wait.
side note: it's almost poetic that in Spanish these two ideas are the same word.
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