Students of the Month:  Blanca and Ignacio Siegrist

Blanca and Ignacio were my first two students in Madrid, and they are still the highlight of my week. They always come to the table eager for class and ready to learn. Lately, Blanca has started suggesting at the end of every class that she could turn the clock back and we could continue for another hour! Since the time I started teaching them, their English has improved considerably. Blanca originally had trouble understanding spoken English, but her listening has improved to the point where she understands me easily, and can even follow movies and cartoons in English with just a small amount of guidance. We have moved ahead of her school studies and started working on the past tense, which she is picking up rapidly. Ignacio is currently having fun with imperatives and new verbs; useful for Simon Says, not to mention following classroom instructions! These are my sword-and-sorcery students: they love fantasy, and have learned a lot of vocabulary centered on castles, magic, and monsters. Blanca is a big fan of the Harry Potter books and movies, so I've made several games based on them, which we still play from time to time between her other lessons. Ignacio has become the monster expert at our vocabulary matching game that includes wings, scales, fangs, and claws. (For some reason, the “fangs” card is a big hit with both students!) Since they enjoy fantasy, lately we've been ending every class by watching a little bit of the American cartoon show “Gargoyles.” I am constantly impressed by how well they understand it without subtitles, and how fluently they can explain the plot to me in English!