Las Lillas School Attracts Multi-Lingual Students for Spanish Classes
I never know who’s going to attend my Spanish classes at Las Lillas School in Singapore, which is an affiliate of Instituto Cervantes. The students flit in and out according to their schedules since the set up is very flexible. One of the most interesting groupings turned out to be on 02 December 2009 because I had a classmate who’s from Brazil.
Since he knew Portuguese, a language akin to Spanish, I had to ask, “Por qué estudias Español (Why are you studying Spanish)?”
This required an answer that narrated a simplified version of how South America was basically divided into half during the conquistador days and how one part spoke Spanish while the other half spoke Portuguese.
Moreover, I realized that my opinion that a person who spoke Portuguese will have a very easy time learning Spanish is only true to a certain extent. One of the more challenging aspects for him, my Brazilian classmate noted, is his pronunciation. I commented that Portuguese seems to be more rounded than Spanish, thus, making it more “malambing,” an anathema for the explosive sounds of the Spanish language.
Plus, since he also knows Italian, he invariably speaks in a mixture of Italian, Portuguese and Spanish during class. Another classmate also gets confused because she has studied French, mixing both languages when she replies.
Their backgrounds make it difficult for me to understand when they’re talking, making me admire our teacher, Sra. Elena, for getting through the accents and mixture of languages.
In Instituto Cervantes Manila, majority of the students know English and Filipino. I’ve had a French classmate who knew English, and a Chinese classmate who is acquainted with both English and French
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