TEFLees in Spain

It’s always great being able to get a good laugh out of work. Any of you teachers will know after a couple weeks on the grind that Spanish pronunciation and confused translations often lead to a good giggle or two. Take, for instance, my Monday evening student. He’s the marketing director of a mid-sized company, and I can tell by his apartment where our classes are held that they want to keep him in that position for a while.

So during one of our many conversations during class, we somehow got onto the subject of his family. I was following along, listening to his pronunciation and correcting him here and there, when he said something that made me do a double take.

“Yes,” he confessed, “Raul is my love-daddy.”

“Your what?” I asked in confusion, remembering that his wife and child were in the next room.

“He is my love daddy,” he repeated, with calm confidence.

“Um, I don’t, uh,” I stammered, searching for an answer. Hey, his personal life after all, is none of my business. What we do in class for that hour and a half only is my business – but who am I to judge? So he has a love daddy on the side – whatever. I guess that’s what they do in Spain. I mentioned a couple blogs back about learning from our differences…

Anyway, so I got my composure back, and decided to handle this in a mature and worldly wise way. “So, Raul is your love daddy,” I answered, not wanting to pry. “What’s another way to say that phrase?”

“I don’t know…He is the father…” he paused to think. “He is the father of my…” Oh, God, I thought, here it comes. “He is the father of my wife.”

“Ohhhhhh,” I replied, trying to maintain my poker face. “He’s your father in law.”

“Yes. My father in law,” he repeated.

“Of course.” He must have confused the words law and love, with a daddy thrown in there instead. I get it now.

“What did you think I meant?” he asked.

“I’m not sure,” I answered, fighting back a smile. “Anyway, let’s get back to those phrasal verbs, shall we?”