An American’s life in Spain

MARY REICHARD, HOST:

It’s Tuesday the 20th of May.

This is WORLD Radio and we are so glad you’ve joined us today. Good morning, I’m Mary Reichard.

NICK EICHER, HOST:And I’m Nick Eicher.

Coming next: When “home away from home” feels more away than home.

For twenty years, Spain has welcomed native English speakers into its classrooms. Ten of thousands of Americans among them.

REICHARD: Teaching in Spain sounds like a dream for some, but the reality isn’t always easy. As WORLD Associate Correspondent Elisa Palumbo explains, culture shock and red tape can turn the dream into a test of resilience.

ELISABETH CORLEY: Okay, today, we are going to be doing a warm up: writing …

ELISA PALUMBO: In a classroom outside Seville, Spain, Elisabeth Corley, works to keep her 25 students focused on their writing warm up. The 7th graders, dressed in private school uniforms, sit on blue, plastic chairs, their desks arranged in groups of two. It might not look that different from the American classrooms Corley grew up in. But it is.

CORLEY: The behavior in the classrooms is, I don't know, it was just kind of a shock for me, just how I would say that the classroom in Spain in general is just noisier and more casual, like, there's not, it's not as formal.

Corley first experienced one of those classrooms on a year-long study abroad trip in college. She loved it. She wanted to come back. That’s when she decided to be a language assistant. The Spanish education system also calls them language auxiliaries.

CORLEY: I also met another auxiliary who was doing the auxiliaries de conversacion program through the government. So I met her, talked to her, because she worked at that school as an auxiliary.

Over 49,000 Americans have come to Spain as language and culture ambassadors since 2005. Spain’s Ministry of Education wanted to expose students to the culture and language of English-speaking countries. The answer? Get native English speakers into its language classes.

CORLEY: You help a lot of times, like in science classes, and you teach, help teach the curriculum in English, or help with pronunciation, with their English pronunciation. Also, if you're with the older kids, sometimes it's like technology or like PE … Yeah, usually science.

For more than 15 years, high school English teacher Cristina Muñoz has relied on language assistants in her classroom. She teaches in Cáceres, Spain.

CRISTINA MUÑOZ: I really appreciate having a native speaker in the classroom. And they give a very important cultural insight from their perspective, being young, being native.

Many language auxiliaries look forward to their new life in Spain, but the process of starting a life abroad can come with a lot of challenges. Language assistants don’t have much say over who they work with or what town they live in. They can make a request, but where they get placed can still be random. And that may still be the easiest step in moving abroad. Elisabeth Corley again:

CORLEY: I think, I think studying abroad, or living abroad, or any of that type of stuff is just romanticized in general. And people think you're on like, a year long vacation, and you're like, No, this is like, never. This is actually really difficult.

Corley had to find an apartment, open a bank account, and get a Spanish phone number. She had 90 days to finalize her visa process. Nearly everything had to be done in Spanish.

CORLEY: I had to renew every single year a student visa, and it always would like expire in the summer, so then you would have to do all the paperwork in the summer. But until that was sorted you weren’t supposed to leave the country.

She also had to navigate a new school system.

CORLEY: And like, here in Spain, students like, call you by your first name, or just say teacher. And it's just, it's just very like, okay, just to talk out of turn basically, or kind of be talking, like, quietly while the teacher’s talking.

But as that first school year came to an end, Elisabeth wanted more time in Spain. So she reapplied and came back … 7 more times.

CORLEY: I actually didn't think I would stay in Spain when I was applying for programs to be an auxiliary. I thought like okay, I'll probably do this for two, three years. . .

She says God has used the seemingly endless paperwork and visa renewals to teach her to trust Him. She got involved in a local church filled with people from Spain, the U.S. and Latin America. It provided stable relationships in uncertain times.

CORLEY: And then I kept thinking, like, I don't know, like I feel like my time here isn't done, so I'd stay. And every year was like a big like, what if?

It also helped that she met a nice Spaniard named Adrián at church. He kept wanting to have long conversations with her. Then he asked her out. They dated…and got married. European residency put the days of visa renewal behind her, but Corley now faces a different problem: she’s not sure where she belongs.

CORLEY: While I've been living here, I've gone through an identity crisis of now like I don't feel, I'll never be Spanish, of course not. But I also don't feel like, when I go back to the U.S., that I'm a U.S. citizen? Well, no, I feel like I'm a U.S. citizen, but I don't feel like I fit into the culture anymore. So I'm like, Okay, what am I?

Whenever she goes back to the U.S., she experiences reverse culture shock. Sometimes it’s the politeness of strangers at grocery stores. Sometimes it’s the American idea of putting one’s whole identity into work. But walking away from the career-driven culture of the U.S. has helped Corley find her true identity.

CORLEY: And so God has really through these years that I've been abroad, brought me closer to him and made me realize that that like my security is in him and not a country or my blood family or my church in the U.S. like no, no, it's in him.

Elisabeth and Adrián don’t plan to live in Spain forever. At some point, Lord-willing, they hope to live in the U.S. as well. For now they both teach in Seville. They’re content, but ready to serve wherever they end up next.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Elisa Palumbo in Seville and Cáceres, Spain.

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