Living in Fusagasuga

Hey guys just a quick update of what it is like to live in this boutique little town.

Fusagasuga and I quote from the most academically accurate site ever made: Wikipedia states 'Fusagasuga is located some forty miles from the capital, Bogotá. With 134,523 inhabitants, Fusagasugá is the second most largest municipality in the department. It was founded in 1592 by Spanish priests'.  However I might add is it also a town where no one speaks English. I thought Mexico City was challenging. That was a walk in the park compared to this. I have now got my little hands on a copy of the Lonely Planet - the city did not make into the book - that tells me a few things.

Fusagasuga has everything and nothing all at once. It is hard to explain but that is how it feels. You can get everything you need but the city kind of runs out really quickly and just hits vast mountain ridges. The town does feel nice, has character and a sense of community. The churches are full on the weekend and people all know each other here. There are a few bars but it is not a party town so simple living is what I am getting. However within the small bars that I find myself engaged in, beers are cheap; about $1.50 AUS for a local smooth tasting Colombian lager which is great. My actual expenses to live here are pretty good. Rent is cheap about $120 AUS a month for a room in a house including all expenses and access to wifi and laundry services. It is a not a town where there is a lot of poverty but the people live on very low wages and very simply. I have to remind myself that as I take my IPhone6 out (or should I say Matt's phone out - thanks Matt) to take photos a phone of $1000 is 2-3 times the average monthly salaries here - so that gives me some real perspective. I will be earning $1.5 million paseos (when i finally get paid) - not huge amounts but if I live simply that will be more than enough money to live comfortably for a month. It translates to about $650 a month Australian.

I am living with a local family in a small attached house - great for learning Spanish, very challenging for basic communication. There is also an 28 year old architect that is living here in the other spare room and works in Fusa- however he travels to the capital every weekend to see his girlfriend. There are no Gringos here except for me and one other American dude in the program that I am in. He is also at my school. Decent dude with good ethical values. Those of you that are interested in the program and possibly joining me here one day in Colombia is the link: http://www.mineducacion.gov.co/1621/w3-propertyname-2863.html.  All you need a is a degree in any discipline and TEFL and you are good to go.

The people here are generally pretty friendly but I have been told there is a lot of petty street crime and the main town after 10pm  to be hanging out alone on the streets, alone, apparently is quite dangerous. People I am told quite often get robbed here for their phones and wallets, usually with a knife and sometimes a gun - need to play it safe and cool - but this could be exaggerated - not sure at this stage. More to investigate on this as time goes by.

The school that I am teaching at is awesome. It is a very basic school of about 750 students. Kids are great, teachers are very friendly and it has a great vibe. Also the students are really interested to learn English which is great. Having a lot of fun with them. They are full of life, wit and are cheeky as hell, great to be around and good positive vibes. Currently developing some teaching strategies that I will use next week. Teaching resources are basic. There is one texbook, a white board, battered chairs and tables and a dully fitout room. The kids however breathe energy into the classroom making it come alive.

Joined a local 'World Gym' here in Fusa which is great. I trained the whole time I was in Medellin (mostly when I was distracted by the countless bars, club and restaurants) and it is great to find another little gym that is old school and has everything you need all at once.


I must make it clear that there is some great positives being in this part of Colombia- you can get amazing food for about $3 dollars for a two course meal usually with a drink of some sort. Good coffee is hard to get and expensive here as everyone drinks 'tinto' which is some kind of instant coffee that is cheap and nasty - however you appreciate the good coffee when you get it much much more. I attempt to speak Spanish every day and am learning slowly, but steadily - I should have it under control perhaps at the end of the year - to really get the basics down. You really have no choice but to learn here which is great especially if it is supplemented with individual self directed learning.
Generally a pretty small, quite, interesting town that has a little charm about it. Still finding my feet here. Usually takes me about two weeks to properly get a feel for a town and feel really chilled about it. I will be here for nine months if all goes well. My contract ends in the middle of November. Fusa and I will have time to get to know each other.
I am pretty happy so far with how it has unravelled. Made some great friends along the way (in Medellin no tourists here at all - or none that I have seen so far) - see above. Surprised myself making friends with Americans haha - they were cool guys. The learning Spanish for five weeks was a great investment of time.

I guess in closing I must admit that this part of the travels holistically is and remains very challenging. I can assure you I am always out of my comfort zone. I am always learning, meeting people, adapting, failing at something, tasting something and always feeling uncomfortable - but this is what I thrive on. I have realised that when you make mistakes and feel uncomfortable the only person that cares is you and it is better to just let that go and take a deep breath, relax and smile. It is an internal battle with yourself and with your own ego. I also feel like I have a lot to learn and a lot of growing as a person to do. Letting go of fear in small and big situations is important. Letting go of expectations of how something should be or comparing is also just as important. The school is really important to me, as ultimately that is why I am here, to learn but to contribute and do something positive for the community while I can develop my career. So here it is in bullet point form. Hope all of you are well. I have just scratched the surface of what I want to achieve here. I will keep plugging away. Let our dreams never evade us.

Goodbye Medellin

Goodbye Medellin.

I leave this city feeling full and fulfilled. I have spent the last five weeks in this beautiful city. It is a place filled with rich smells, domineering deep blue mountains, vast sprawls of orange bricks, fashion, food, bars and just about everything else that you could care to experience from this amazing city. I came here without expectations but this city has impressed me in so many ways. What stands out as always, is the people that you meet and their thoughts and ideas that burn fiercely with passion. 

The experience at the Spanish school was amazing. I have met some really cool freethinking people that have fuelled my passion for travel and to inspired me to live my greatest purpose. Five weeks and 90 hours of learning at the Spanish school now complete. I was probably their slowest learner but I have learned what I could at the pace that I go with the memory that I have. I pack my bags and look around with almost a sweet melancholy. I breathe the air of this place for the last time in god knows how long as I set of too the city that is Bogota yet again. I am about to start the true test as I begin my teacher training on Monday to finally embark on the quest that has been in my heart for so long. The true test of character begins. The learning Spanish experience has been really challenging, frustrating as hell at times, daunting, rewarding, excited and left me feeling calm and empty all at once. I love how this experience has made me feel the positives and negatives which is living! Just wanted to touch base with all my friends back at home. Hope you guys are all well. Once I start teaching than you can be proud of me, until then I am just a dreamer; just chasing the dream.

So you think you can learn Spanish in the classroom?

So you think you can learn Spanish hey? Well here is what I experienced trying to learn this slippery romance language for the last 5 tantalising weeks.

Hi my name is Steve. I am a 34 year old Australian and like most Australians I can barely speak English. In January I accepted a job in Colombia to teach high school students English for a 9 months. The job did not require me to know any Spanish. In contrast my new employer had specifically requested that all foreign teachers must teach the Colombian students in English. Apparently the immersion method is considered to be the most fruitful in current theories of pedagogy. However before I started work I had five weeks up my sleeve to prepare for the real Colombia so I enrolled myself in a Spanish school to learn this evasive language. Here I am an Australian in Colombia I was about to learn Spanish in Spanish.Strap me in and lets go!

Out of literally dozens of places in Latin America to learn Spanish I chose to learn in Medellin Colombia for a few simple reasons. The city is beautiful, Medellin has been constructed on the base of a mountainous range which has spectacular 360 degree views. The city is always beautiful to look and and the presence of these deep blue jagged mountains make you feel somewhat surreal. Secondly the weather here is amazing - always warm, never to hot and never cold - apparently there is no winter or summer being so close to the equator. Thirdly I have read that in the times of Pablo Escobar (1980's to early 1990's) this city was one of the most dangerous places in the world and basically considered a 'no go' zone. There is two positives that spawn from this negativity. The first being obviously the place has incredible and very violent history that is fascinating for foreigners to experience and explore. A history that the locals are not to keen to talk about and that of course must be respected. The 'history' as I might call it is still very fresh and a lot of families have lost people to the 'dark time' of this era. Almost everyone knows someone that was killed in the conflict from the narcos and the Colombian government and from what I have been told and read the violence was prolific and horrific. Although from the point of view from a westerner exploring the history is undoubtedly interesting to understand, read about and visit. I think culturally travelers need to be aware of the deep scar tissue that the country carries. I really feel that this issue should be explored with caution. I would suggest that if you were a traveler here be careful and aware about who you talk to about this issues as they can easily cause discomfort. There is a museum called the Museum of Violence which does explore these issues here in Medellin however a few of the locals would be much happier if the whole Pablo Escobar thing was soon forgotten and buried forever.

Due to the recent fierce violence and political turmoil within Medellin's history this city has been untouched by the outside world and until the last 10 years. The result has created a city remaining raw and extremely authentic and only really recently has been tainted by globalisation from the western world. English is spoken by less than 5% of the population which forces the learner of Spanish (like me) to be constantly engaged with real people that speak no English - hence more practice and Spanish learning.

So, I had five weeks up my sleeve to lean Spanish before my new employer placed me in a relatively small region called Fusagasuga where it was pretty obvious absolutely simply no one was going to speak English.  The lessons were extensive four hours a day of small group classes also taught in Spanish and although I was not expecting to be fluent I was hoping to have mastered the basics of survival Spanish to take me from Gringo traveler to veteran traveler status. My observations in the class room are as follows:

So week 1; The teacher was a lovely Colombian girl with a red rinse through her hair and a lovely full, engaging smile. Although she can understand all English she does not speak a word of it to us. She is a true hippy of the earth, energetic, filed with passion and she is both nurturing and sweet in the classroom. I really like her energy and her teaching style. She uses a lot of positive reinforcement and she does not slow down her speech for us. With her keen eye and her nurturing, that week we master some basic phrases, learn how to conjugate verbs in the present tense and learn some very basic grammar. We also learn to ask questions, we pronounce the alphabet and I learn the Spanish word for homework. Fuck homework what a drab. Vocab, grammar, speaking, listening, it all blurs together like ride on a Ferris wheel but you sit back and enjoy the colours.
 

Week one is over and we have a new teacher and unlike our first teacher she can explain difficult grammar in clear, articulate English. The pattern repeats day after day. The teaching and lesson plans are well thought out and is engaging. This teacher uses a variety of activities, my high school teachers would be proud of how teaching has evolved from the blackboard to a full array of technology and interactive games. She still uses the white board as her primary weapon although she skilfully incorporates YouTube, card games and role playing activities. All the lesson elicits Spanish dribbles to be uttered out of our feeble little lips but I am starting to observe the painful truth. One factor is king. Memory. Now some people have a fantastic memory, they can link things subconsciously, they have a sharp clear mind and they absorb it without even trying. How I despise those people. My memory is pretty ordinary. If I want to remember something I usually have to work for it.

Anyways the process is pretty straight forward. Week 3 I have my first mental breakdown. The teacher is explaining some concepts in Spanish. I do not understand a word of it. Basically I lose my patience and I want to flip a table. Thinking about it hindsight later I realise there was a few contributing factors to this and I will outline a few basic tips that now I know that would have helped me progress somewhat. As they say, hindsight is 20 / 20 and it is part of the process but here is what I would have told myself before I started to give me the upper hand to go in prepared.

1) Go in with plenty of patience: Learning another language is a huge task. It can be daunting although confidence issues aside, the sheer amount of words, hundreds of not thousands of conjugations that you have to learn is b beyond ridiculous, not to mention the grammar and pronunciation will melt anyone’s mind so remember to be patient and learn what you can. 

2) Lower your expectations: Lower what you expect to get out of Spanish lessons but simultaneously put as much effort in as possible. So I am not saying do not try or do not have clear goals but lower your need to get a certain outcome at a certain date. It will come when it comes, implement your strategies, study your ass off but there is only so much the brain can learn and when it clicks it clicks. Once you get a hold of all the things that you can change accept the parts that you cannot. Learning a language is not something that you can control, it is different for everyone and we all learn at differently paces and we all learn differently. Do not consider suicide because you are not able to describe the process of spiritual enlightenment to your teacher in week 2. Do not throw away your goals but accept your individual rate of learning and be aware of the process keeping in mind that your mind will do it's best. 

3) Experience both group and private lessons: I really found this to be the best method to learning Spanish. It has helped me progress a great deal as for my first few weeks I had group lessons and for my last couple of weeks I changed to private lessons. Obviously there are some advantages in both bu the private teacher can speed the lesson up for you, slow down and really focus and get gritty when necessary. The private teacher can hone in on your weak spots so that you can get superior quality, individualised learning. Also the teacher will be able to discover your learning style and use activities that best suit your way of absorbing information and ensure a better learning experience. This is in contrast to group lessons which you can mentally check out from, the class is taught to groups of 3- 10 and has to accommodate multiple students and the lesson plan may cover content that is either to easy or too difficult for you.

4)   Have fun with it: This one is pretty straight forward but is really important. Studies have shown that students have a higher rate of learning in a positive learning environment and simply can learn more when they are relaxed and happy. Furthermore, the classroom should be a fun and engaging experience for the teacher and for the students. Linking positive experiences in the classroom with not only associate positive emotions and superior quality learning but it will also ensure that you will continue to enjoy the discovery process of the language and continually engage, contribute and participate. This seems to be the recipe to really immerse yourself in the content and continue the process of learning both in and out of the classroom.  

5) Study when and as much you can outside of the classroom: Obviously the more that you study out of the classroom using an abundance of resources than the more you can get out of your learning. I try and use literally anything, podcasts, YouTube, websites, textbooks, streaming the radio, voice recordings. If you can think of it, then it is probably worth trying to implement. Furthermore, the more variety you can implement the better as you can create your own additional diverse learning experiences that will enhance your learning and allow the content of today’s lesson to gel in your mind. 

6) Lastly TALK to native speakers as much as possible: on the street, at bars, in restaurants, I don't care just talk. Let your fears and inhibitions go, and just go for it. It is the time that you get to put your Spanish to the test  and allow you to even practice using the language on the spot. It also allows you to hear more native speakers talk at the pace that they talk which is really important Bro tip: sometimes if I do not understand what locals are saying although instead of halting the conversation I just throw a response back at them. It really is hit and miss but it is better (in my opinion) to keep talking instead of halting the conversation and letting it dry up with 'no entiendo'. You get what you get out of it and for me its great to run with it. Remember that I am providing a strategy for beginner Spanish learners. For advanced learners it is totally different as you can explain what you want to ask specifically and the native speaker can provide an answer in Spanish and you will get it explained in Spanish. I am not good enough to do that so this tip is to start using the language as much as possible and let go of the fear! Failure is part of the process. You are going to fail so much in the process of learning a language that it will teach you to be humble and let your ego go. Then you can just push, persevere and persist which I really think it is the key to success in my opinion with anything. 

Anyways I wrote this just to clear some stuff in my own mind. Learning Spanish in the classroom has been a really challenging experience and I write these thoughts in my little blog to reflect on my own experiences of what it was like to spend 5 weeks in a Spanish school learning English. So you might ask did I achieve my goal? Well in truth I am far from being amazing. I have learned a lot of words, some really important concepts and grammar and I now have the building blocks to continue to keep learning and better my Spanish. Can I hold fluent conversations? Considering that they put me in almost the beginning week no I can not. But I can ask for a bunch of stuff, I can get my point across about a range of different things and I a great deal of Spanish is slowly sinking in. I really think that I made more progress in 5 weeks here than I would have made in 6months if I was doing this at home solo.

For anyone that is thinking of learning another language I really feel that it is the key to being able to experience a country and culture at a deeper level. The more of the language that you learn the more you can verbally engage with people of the land, understand their individual experiences and hear their stories their pains and their triumphs. It creates a connection to another human without barriers as with words we can understand the hearts and mind of our fellow human beings. This connection allows the bonds of our humanity to grow and give us an understanding of a culture and how they view and experience the world. It almost feels like a secret door way into another universe. A must for any traveler that really wants to be connected with the land, people and culture. Good luck to any fellow travelers that are learning another language. The tools are out there!