I'm on a train. Have I mentioend how much I adore trains? They're basically magical machines that give you a quick glimpse at the world as you go fliying past. And as if just being on any ol' train isn't enough, I'm on one in India, in an airconditioned car nowehre near as chuci as the one in Darjeeling Limited, but with four Indian men and one woman who don't seem to speak much English. One of the men is actually about 22 years old and his ring tones are absurd ballads from the US. I have cracked up each time his phone has rung. The lack of English is totally fine--I'll happily take a break from people asking me my name, age, sibling count, and if its ok to take my photo.
I got to the station early on what may have been the bumpiest ride of my life in the back of a motorcycle rickshaw (aka Tuc-tuc). As I sat in the shade at the station with my huge travel backpack behind me, my feet draped over (and through the strap of) a smaller pack, I read, trying to ignore the masses of people staring at me as I did so. I was doing a pretty good job ignoring them until one kid who was maybe about 20 years old or so approached me, stapled pack of papers in hand. Yes, I said, that is an English test. Yes, he smiled, shoving the papers on top of my book. The joys of no one understanding what I'm saying means I can say whatever I want. I gave him a lecture about how he won't learn it if I do it and handed the stack of papers back to him. We went back and forth like this until I as able to convey to him that if he filled out the test, I'd check it for him. OK, OK, he smiled. My reading went on basically uninterrupted for another 15 minutes. The kid came back, beaming, and gave me the stack again. I began looking it over, reading the questions out loud as I went. Thirty seconds passed. I looked up, literally 15 teenage boy/young men surrounded me, with one girl at my side. A few minutes later, the group had grown to 25. All I could think was, I wish my English classes in Paraguay had been met with this kind of enthusiasm...
I got to the station early on what may have been the bumpiest ride of my life in the back of a motorcycle rickshaw (aka Tuc-tuc). As I sat in the shade at the station with my huge travel backpack behind me, my feet draped over (and through the strap of) a smaller pack, I read, trying to ignore the masses of people staring at me as I did so. I was doing a pretty good job ignoring them until one kid who was maybe about 20 years old or so approached me, stapled pack of papers in hand. Yes, I said, that is an English test. Yes, he smiled, shoving the papers on top of my book. The joys of no one understanding what I'm saying means I can say whatever I want. I gave him a lecture about how he won't learn it if I do it and handed the stack of papers back to him. We went back and forth like this until I as able to convey to him that if he filled out the test, I'd check it for him. OK, OK, he smiled. My reading went on basically uninterrupted for another 15 minutes. The kid came back, beaming, and gave me the stack again. I began looking it over, reading the questions out loud as I went. Thirty seconds passed. I looked up, literally 15 teenage boy/young men surrounded me, with one girl at my side. A few minutes later, the group had grown to 25. All I could think was, I wish my English classes in Paraguay had been met with this kind of enthusiasm...
No comments:
Post a Comment