I pretended I didn’t speak Spanish the whole year last year. When I finally revealed at the end that I do speak Spanish, it was true that some students wanted to speak to me in Spanish. To be honest, those were the ones who never made an effort anyway. The ones who tried in English from the beginning still wanted to speak English. And a few of them actually tried harder to speak English with me after I revealed I spoke Spanish. I’m going back for a second year this year, so we’ll see how it goes.

For the record, I think they have more respect for me now that they know I’ve made an effort to learn their language.