Brooke and Penny, two Barclay seniors, are walking down a first floor hallway.
They are on their way to Spanish class.
Brooke: So they bought a wood stove and set it up practically in the middle of the living Room.
Penny: Really?
Brooke: Yep. It gets the place nice and warm, but you sort-of have to be careful not to bump into it.
As they enter through the doorway of the classroom, the . . . nature . . . of their conversation undergoes a transformation.
Brooke: He said that when you use a fireplace, sobre el por ciento niney del calor va el derecho la chimenea. (about ninety percent of the heat goes right up the chimney.)
Penny: Realmente? (Really?)
Brooke and Penny take seats at their desks. The desks are the sort that have the writing table attached to the right arm of the chair, but these desks also have swivels underneath, allowing the students to turn toward each other and form five or six clusters of pupils, where conversations, in Spanish, are now taking place.
Mr. Hendersen is typing away at his desk at the head of the classroom.
He is seemingly oblivious to the other activities going on in the room . . . until . . . the “talkfest” begins to lose some steam prematurely.
Mr. Hendersen: Usted las muchachas deberian parar toda esta conversacion, o usted va a estar en el problema GRANDE. (You girls had better stop all this talking, or you are going to be in BIG trouble.)
At this, there is an outburst of cackle-type laughter, and the conversations . . . now re-energized . . . continue unabated.
Eventually they get around to learning the day’s five new words. Mr. Hendersen not only explains, in Spanish, their usages, he also utilizes some video clips to help bring home their exact meanings.
Sitting on a table by the door of this classroom is a stack of papers. They are twenty-five copies of a story written in Spanish, a story that incorporates the five new words into the narrative. It is, as the students know, a funny story, and this makes it something they want to read. The back page has, again, the five new words . . . in addition to some blank lines . . . so the girls can practice writing and spelling them.
The class comes to an end, and each student grabs a copy of the story as she exits the classroom. Brooke and Penny are talking as they leave the room.
Brooke: Que sirven ellos para el almuerzo? Sabe usted? (What are they serving for lunch? Do you know?)
Penny: No! Pero realmente no tengo hambre, so I might just skip lunch and wait until dinner to eat. (Nope. But I’m not really hungry . . .)