Lost in Translation

I have a student that doesn’t speak English.  Not a bit.  Well – thats not true – he speaks more words in the few months he’s been here than some of my first graders that were born here.  But thats really not saying much.  So between his miming and the ten words that I remember from my 5 years of Spanish class (not including the phrases that I can’t repeat in front of him) we make quite a pair.

One day last week he was playing in the (dirty, filthy, disgusting, powdery) sandbox and suddenly he was in front of me hysterical crying.  After a lot of pointing and some snot and some pointing and some incomprehensible Spanish words and some snot I finally called in my translator.  I love her.

A:  He said he got hit by J.

Me:  Well does he think it was an accident or were they fighting?

A: ….

Me:  Ask him he thinks it coulda been an accident.

A:  …I don’t know how to say ‘accident’ in Spanish…

Me: (frustrated)  Mistake!

A: No, that’s English.

*sigh*

Tags: student laughs