Words on Work (Or a Lack Thereof)

At the Universidad de Cuenca, all students are required to take three semesters of English. 12,000 students times three semesters equals a lot of English classes. My tutores (advisors) designed my schedule hoping that I would be able to work with as many of those classes as possible. I have a blank schedule with my hours in the office, and professors can sign up on it for me to come to their classes. In theory this is not a bad idea, but most of the time no one signs up at all. In the beginning, when a few professors did sign up for me to come, I showed up to the class without knowing the level of the class or what I would be expected to do when I arrived. One of my tutores was sure that the reason for all of this was that the faculty didn’t know I was there or what I could do. She believed the solution was to introduce me and explain my position at the faculty meeting two weeks ago. Last week one teacher signed up for me to come to one class.

My tutores also believe it is important for the professors in the department, all non-native English speakers except for a few, to have an opportunity to use English outside of their classes. For that reason they also built two separate conversation hours for professors into my schedule. Oddly enough, my tutores never attend. In fact, hardly anyone attends if anyone attends at all. I have one regular, Marcelo. He lived in the States for ten years and has perfect English, maybe the best in the department along with the native speakers. Last week when no one else showed, he took me out and treated me to coffee. I think he comes just to be nice and it certainly is appreciated!