It's that time again...

[anolinde]

Dear Spanish Teacher Who Doesn't Actually Teach Spanish,

Hate to break it to you, but I signed up for this class to learn how to speak Spanish. I didn't sign up to learn about Latin culture. I didn't sign up for you to make us go to Spanish political websites. And I most definitely didn't sign up to listen to you brainwash us about how the United States is responsible for Guatemala's problems.

I realize we're at a liberal school, and everyone wants us to embrace other cultures and shit like that, but when I enroll in a Spanish class I expect to be learning Spanish, not Guatemalan politics. I don't think I could care less about the material we cover than I do now. The worst thing is, we're not even covering current politics, because everything we're reading about happened in the early nineties.

And not for anything, either, but stop slandering the United States. Okay, so, we give their government money to protect the land we own there. What do you expect us to do, roll over and let the poor people take it? How Robin Hood of you. Don't give us that bullshit about how the government should take the land of the rich and distribute it to the poor, because that's not fair to the people who actually bought the land in the first place. You're essentially promoting Communism, you realize that?

Unfortunately, the worst thing about your class is that I can't say anything against your bogus teaching, because then I come across as ignorant and anti-poor. Their situation is horrible, okay, I get the point. I feel bad for them, I do. But you know what? I'm sick of you ragging on Americans for not helping Guatemala and for daring to try and protect our interests there. Get. Over. It. We're too busy worrying about other things, like, you know, Iraq, and somewhere along the line maybe the poor people in our own country?

Finally, stop lauding Rigoberta Menchu like she's a heroine. She freaking lied about half of the atrocities that were committed upon her family, but it's excusable because she's the "voice of the people"? No. That's fucking wrong. She's a liar, and if she wanted to be the voice of the people she should have compiled a collection of memoirs. I'm sick of reading about her, especially when I should be learning how to speak Spanish, which is what I enrolled in this course to do!

Sincerely,

an incredibly pissed off anolinde

P.S. Oh, and by the way? If I hear the word "indigenas" (native) one more time, I'm going to scream. There is no such thing as a native South American. They all migrated from Africa, hello!

ETA: Just to clarify... my issue is not with the fact that my teacher is trying to make us aware of what's going on in Guatemala, but with the fact that she's spent every single class criticizing the United States for not helping the poor people and pretty much trying to brainwash us with guilt. I find it totally inappropriate and completely irrelevant to, you know, learning Spanish.

Comments

[http://users.livejournal.com/__dittany/]

Actually, I was Guatemala at a Model UN conference last year and the United States really is pretty guilty. Clearly, the government is not blameless, but the US exacerbated what was already a bad situation.
Also, even though Menchu isn't perfect, she's a helluva lot better than what they've had before. It's a step in the right direction.

And if you want to go the "they all migrated from Africa" deal, then you might as well call yourself an African-American.

[http://users.livejournal.com/__dittany/]

In the second sentence I meant the Guatemalan government.
But you're lucky- that's actually interesting. My French class is doing the French Revolution and it's heinously boring.

[anolinde.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I've never been too fond of the French Revolution myself... how long have you been covering it?

[anolinde.livejournal.com]

The United States obviously isn't guiltless, you're right, but my teacher is implying that we're totally responsible for what's going on over there, and I'm sorry, but we're not. (Especially since the situation was already bad before we got involved.)

Although African-American generally denotes black people, and I clearly don't fit that description, sure, maybe, why not? My point is, it's ridiculous to be politically correct and distinguish between "native" South Americans and the South Americans who descended from, say, Spaniards, because the native people come from Africans just like the Spaniards. =/

[http://users.livejournal.com/__dittany/]

The whole indigenous vs. whatever thing is a problem though, because the non-natives are generally a lot more wealthy than the indigenous people and they have a lot more say- a lot of natives think that's really unfair, so there are issues.
It's the central thing in Guatemala. When I was Guatemala at that MUN conference we got ot go to the Guatemalan mission and the representative talked about rights of idigenous people for a really long time.

[anolinde.livejournal.com]

Nope, there was no indicator that she'd be spending this much time talking about Guatemala. In fact, there are specific classes at our school devoted to Spanish culture - for example, there's a film class where you watch Spanish movies and write papers about them. However, the core Spanish classes (Spanish 2, Spanish 3, and Spanish 4, generally for freshman, sophomores, and juniors respectively) are supposed to be for learning the language itself, not the culture.