Trevor Huxham

Continuing my series about culture shock in Spain (I’ve talked about supermarkets and Spanish homes so far), I’d like to talk about things that have surprised me or that are quite different from American elementary schools. I’ve worked at a big school down south and a tiny rural one up north now, so I hope that my observations are more than just one place’s idiosyncrasies. Teachers View this post on Instagram View from the elementary school I work at, one of a handful in this tiny rural village A post shared by Trevor Huxham (@trevorhuxham) on May 5, 2014 at 4:37am PDT When I first started working as a language assistant in Andalucía, I was shocked when the teachers would show up five minutes before school started and then leave as soon as the last class of the day was over. My mom teaches kindergarten and always arrives an hour early in the morning and leaves an hour after the day is over to lesson pla...

Since October 2013, I’ve been teaching English at a rural elementary school on the western coast of Galicia, northwest Spain. Although I’m writing this back home in Texas right now, I’ll be heading back in the fall to renew at the same school for another year, so I thought this summer intermission would be the best time to share with y’all a little bit about the whole reason I’ve been able to live and travel abroad for this past school year. Blue house The surrounding region Gratuitous photo of stray kitties Abanqueiro (pronounced “ah-vahn-KAY-EE-roe” [ˌa.βanˈkej.ɾo]) is a small farming parish that belongs to the broader municipality of Boiro , a city of about 20,000 people in one of the  Rías Baixas or “Lower Inlets” of the Atlantic Ocean that flow into the region’s western coasts. Like most of Galicia, Abanqueiro is green and lush, receiving a lot of rain in winter. But because the village is situated on a flat peninsula close to sea level, the weather here is gen...

It’s that stressful time of year again: the Spanish Ministry of Education has now begun assigning native English speakers from North America to work in public elementary and high schools across the country. First-timers anxiously (and impatiently) wait to hear back from the government to see where they will be spending the next eight months of their lives, and veteran language assistants have their fingers crossed, hoping to get placed in their preferred region. Placements are already rolling out this early in the spring, which inevitably means fellow teachers, expat friends, and family are asking, are you going to renew? View this post on Instagram The green Galician countryside, somewhere between Santiago de Compostela and Ourense. I'm off to León province to the east this weekend & looking forward to a change of pace (and weather!) // #green #galicia #spain #travel #vsco #vscocam A post shared by Trevor Hux...

Well, it’s been almost a year since I moved to Spain and worked for eight months as a language assistant, yet I still  have not written ( almost ) anything about the town where I worked, the town responsible for me being abroad in the first place! So in this post, I would like to share a little bit about Villanueva del Arzobispo, a village of a little under 9,000 people in the middle of Spanish olive oil country. Church of San Andrés The surrounding region Villanueva seen from above Like I said above, Villanueva del Arzobispo (that nine-syllable mouthful referred to hereafter as simply “Villanueva”) is located in the heart of Spain’s olive oil country. Pronounced “bee-yah-NWAY-vah dayl ahr-thoe-VEES-poe” [ˌbi.ʝaˈnwe.βa ðel ˌaɾ.θoˈβis.po], the city belongs to the province of Jaén, which alone produces a third of Spain’s annual olive oil total. Because of this, virtually all non-urban, non-mountainous land is devoted to endless olive groves that carpet the l...

This week I’ll be going into my third week in Spanish classrooms, but even in that short amount of time I’ve picked up on the words the kiddos use to get the attention of me or the teacher I’m helping. No Name by Patrick Spence on Flickr 1) profe Pronounced “PROE-fay” [ˈpɾo.fe], this is a shortening of the Spanish word profesor  or profesora , which looks like our word “professor” but means both university professor and teacher in any grade. 2) seño Pronounced “SAY-nyoe” [ˈse.ɲo], this is a shortening of the Spanish words  señorita  (“Miss”) or señora  (“Mrs.”). Two syllables are always easier to say than three or four! 3) maestro Pronounced “mah-AYS-troe” [maˈes.tɾo], this word (and the accompanying female form maestra ) means “teacher,” plain and simple. 4) teacher In Spain, they learn British English in schools, so they pronounce the word “teacher” as “TEE-chuh” [ˈti.tʃə]. Sometimes they do attempt the American pronunciation, but it comes out ...

Last week I talked about five good reasons you should study abroad—things like traveling, language learning, and résumé-boosting. I think some kind of international experience while in college can be extremely beneficial for a lot of people—I grew a lot personally and linguistically in the July I spent in Costa Rica. But I also think not everyone is cut out to spend a semester away from home. Kaley Hendrickson (who writes at her blog Y Mucho Más ) shared similar concerns about studying abroad two years ago, and I thought I would add my 0,02 €. Rain in San Pedro 1) It can be expensive Lots of parents often give their children studying abroad a fat sum of money to use as their allowance to pay for rent, books, food, and traveling. If you don’t happen to have this luxury, get ready to see your savings account disappear, or take out a loan. As Susan Heller has famously said, “When preparing to travel, lay out all your clothes and all your money. Then take half the clothes and ...

Since I’m going to be living abroad in Spain as a language assistant for most of the next school year, I thought I’d look back on my first experience doing so. In the month of July 2011, I studied abroad at the University of Costa Rica and took two classes: Conversation I and Introduction to Latin-American Literature. I stayed in town with a wonderful host family who fed me twice daily, and I traveled the country with, among others, six fellow students from my college. I think being immersed in a Spanish-speaking home and environment was equally as instructive as the classes themselves were. If you can find the time and resources to study abroad, I would say, “do it!” And here are some of the reasons I would recommend such an experience. La Casita, Universidad de Costa Rica 1) You can see the world Okay, we all know the real  reason we go on these study abroad trips is to travel. (Just kidding!) But in all seriousness, the act of taking classes in another country w...