Totally friki

Not much of an update on my end. It's been pretty normal here. Normal is great! I've been enjoying my classes, and I'm starting to get into the swing of teaching (with the help of my friends who actually know how to teach. Thanks!) I have noticed an interesting cultural difference. Nerd, or friki, is actually quite a negative term here. While I'm sure the frikis themselves don't think of it that way, as far as everyone else is concerned, it's a not a great thing to be. I think in the United States, in the last ten years or so, nerd has become synonymous with smart or unusual, but is not usually negative. Especially in the way movies like Thor, Superman, Batman, Lord of the Rings, Star Trek, etc., have mainstreamed the culture. Here, that has not happened, and so when I tell people that I like Doctor Who and Portal, I get a lot of blank stares. I polled all my classes after telling them I like scifi, and I got no positive responses. I also asked if anyone likes Star Trek, Star Wars, anything like that, and the response I got was "They're too young to like that stuff". What? You're never too young to be introduced to Star Wars. Crazy talk. But I finally found my nerd students. There are four, all boys. They were the only ones to recognize my companion cube (from the video game Portal) Halloween costume. And we had a conversation today about Portal, Zelda, and video games in general, after class today. I forgot how nice it is to talk nerdy! The other interesting thing about the 'frikis' is that they're better students. I kid you not, their English is leaps and bounds ahead of my other students. Not only that, but they participate more in class than most of my students. Sometimes all I get from other students (especially in this class) is a wall of silent stares. Now, I know nerd has usually been associated with smart, but I think it's more than that. These kids play video games in English. I know this, because one of my students quoted Portal 2 to me, specifically "Space. Space, space. Space!" (if you've played it you know what I mean.) So they are listening to English, and not just listening but interacting through the video game, and they're learning! Qué guay! That's not to say that all video games are in English, most of the popular Playstation and Xbox games are translated (CoD and GTA most especially), but those that aren't seem to make a great learning tool. Maybe that's something English teachers should look in to? Especially with games like Portal. I don't think there are any real objections to playing a game like that. It's clever, fun, and not violent or full of curse words. Not only that, but now I'm cool to these four students. In a culture that's a little hard for me to connect to (especially some women. maybe I'll write a post about that later) I think I've found the sub culture I would most likely belong to. Also, these kids would for sure be band kids if they lived in the States. A couple other things, as long as I'm writing. Next weekend I will, God willing (and if they pay me for September... ridiculous that they haven't) I will be going to Fatima! If not, I'll go in a couple weeks, but I should be going on Friday with a friend. If you would like me to bring your intentions to Fatima, at the same place our lady appeared, let me know on Facebook or here or in email. Here's a link explaining what Fatima is and why it's so freaking awesome. I'll have plenty of pictures and videos to post when I get back.