As Harvard’s introductory language classes approach midterms, many students are becoming increasingly skilled at expressing uncomfortable truths about themselves.
In Señora Cadastra’s section of Spanish Ab, students are wrapping up the “Family” chapter of the Bienvenidos textbook. “Mi madre es alta, rubia y muy deprimida (My mother is tall, blonde, and very depressed),” shares Amber Wells, 2017. Sra. Cadastra quickly intervenes with a grammatical correction. “Muy bien, Andrea (Wells's Spanish name)!” but remember, “we use ‘estar’ to describe emotions, because they can change!” “No, profesora,” responds Wells confidently. “I used ‘ser’ because my mother has been depressed for many years now.” Wells is only one of many students mastering the nuances of language.
Last week, grad student Mark Goldman demonstrated his ability to distinguish between the imperfect and preterit tenses while describing his crumbling personal life. “Ella me engañaba (she cheated on me)” said Goldman in his presentation last Friday. After wavering between the two tenses, Goldman chose the imperfect to indicate that his fiancé’s infidelities occurred periodically over the span of their relationship, rather than in a single moment of weakness.
Although some students continue to make silly mistakes using false cognates, their more advanced classmates find this to be a blessing in disguise. Such was the case a month ago, when June Savage, 2016, revealed that she couldn’t participate in the class’s salsa lesson because she was “muy embarazada.” At the time, many of her classmates laughed, thinking she had accidentally used a phrase meaning “very pregnant” to describe her feelings of embarrassment. After her subsequent two-week absence and dramatic weight loss, classmates congratulated her both on her new family member and on her fuerte command of Spanish.
It is clear that in Señora Cadastra's class, no burden is too heavy, no story too wretched to share with the near-strangers one shares an hour with each morning. We can only hope that other classes will soon follow her model. In Cadastra's own words, "No hay preguntas tontas! Sólo hay respuestas raras!" (There are no silly questions, only weird responses.)
