EXCHANGE TEACHER ALUMNI Yecid Ortega
| Home Country: | Colombia |
| Host School: | Language Stars – Chicago, Illinois |
| Years of Participation: | 2003 to 2006 |
Hello everybody, my name is Yecid Ortega, I am from Colombia and now I am returning home after my three year experience in the US. I worked in Chicago for a school called Language Stars that teaches different languages (Spanish, French, Italian, German and Mandarin) to children. This has been a marvelous experience and here I am writing my thoughts about it.
The Amity Experience
The best thing here is that I got to know people from other cultures, languages, religions and thoughts. I learned how to respect, understand and admire different people. This gave me a lot of input to think about my own culture and country. Now I appreciate the value of my culture and my people. I opened my mind to different things and now I know a little bit of everything and I will be willing to share these things with my colleagues and friends in Colombia.
I had the opportunity to travel around America and Canada , I went to San Francisco, New York , Los Angeles, Miami, Orlando, Boston, Toronto, Montreal and some other little towns throughout the country. I learned a lot about the American culture, language and family. I found a new family and friends over here, people who care about you and who can help you whenever you need it. I think I am going to miss them.
One of my best memories and something I will not forget is teaching my language to children. For example when little Alice came to me when we finished the class, I said “adios” and she would stand up and sit by me to say good bye, she almost never said a word but I was happy when she said “gracias, Yecid” (thank you Yecid) for the first time. When little Tomas came to me and said, “Senor, you are silly”. When little Emily said, Yecid, “I love you”. When little Annika cried when I left the room and always asked for me when she was at home and she sang the songs that I had taught her in Spanish in the kitchen.
A Cup of Coffee
Here is a funny anecdote that happened when I first arrived in the US. The very first week I went to Starbuck’s coffee, I asked for a cup of coffee and they asked me for the size (in my country there are no sizes, just a cup) Venti, Tall, or Grande, and I said to my self, “I do not want Grande, I want medium”, so the person said, “Grande”, and I said, “I do not want it Grande, I wanted medium”, and he insisted. He then asked me what kind of milk, and I said, “Any kind of milk” (in my country we just have Milk, that is it) so he said, “whole milk, half and half, 2%, soy milk, reduced fat etc… (Oh jeez!) That was too much for me. After a long time I noticed that they named the sizes and the types of milk and finally I got my Grande latte, my favorite drink in the winter time. In summer time guess what, Caramel Light Frappuccino, GRANDE! After a long time you get used to the language and how things are here, you learn and live.Returning Home
Now that I am going back to my country my goals will be sharing what I learned by setting up workshops and conferences about American culture and the method for teaching languages. I will also explore in detail my own country, so when I come back to America I will have more knowledge to share.
There is no doubt that coming to America for the first time is a challenge. I did not know the roads very well, I got lost several times, but I soon learned and now my friends (Americans too) call me to ask how to get to any place they want to go, they call me cid-quest (like map quest). I also had trouble with the language at the beginning, because the shock is both cultural and linguistic.
Finally, there have been so many experiences good and bad that will be in my mind for my whole life and I will always thank, Amity, Language Stars and my friends in America.
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