El primer día de me internado académico

Today was the first day of my intercultural internship in one of the schools of Sevilla. The school is called "El colegio sagrado corazón de jesus" (Sacred Heart of Jesus Christ), a private, Catholic school with students ranging from 4 to 15 years old. I am assisting in two kindergarten classrooms with students from 4-5 years old, and so far I LOVE THEM. My job for the duration of this internship is basically to assist a professor during their English lessons. I will help students with reading, writing, speaking and pronunciation. So far the students understand very basic English; they understand numbers, colors, "please" and "thank you" and other simple phrases. I definitely noticed the difficulty in speaking to them because I have to carefully annunciate all of my words and speak very slowly so that they can understand. It's frustrating but is definitely worth it.


I will also be teaching them about American culture and traditional customs in the United States. I believe my internship program is attempting to bridge the gap between cultural differences by having us teach students about our culture at a young age. This way, they will grow up learning the English language as well as have a grasp of American culture.

The first moments in the classroom were absolutely hilarious. I was politely introduced by the professor to the students and they all looked shocked to see a blue-eyed, white American standing in front of them. They are all dark-skinned, brown-eyed Spaniards, so they are not used to seeing people that look like me. They all went around the room and told me (in English) their name and how old they are. Then they all stood up and sang me the "Hello to You" song that they just learned. It was adorable, for lack of a better word. Absolutely adorable. Later, as I walked around the classroom, one by one they all took out their pencil bags to show me. "¡Alison! ¡Mira, mira!" They were all so very proud of their pencil bags. I was smiling and laughing the whole time.

I am very excited to return to the school next week and continue interacting with these students. I believe I am really going to enjoy this internship because it's going to be a give and take process. I will teach these students how to speak basic English and about American culture, and they will teach me the Spanish culture from their perspectives; it will be interesting to see how 4 and 5 year old children understand and interpret their own country and culture. I am definitely going to learn from them just as much as they will learn from me :)