Carmen Ospino was a little girl in Barranquilla, Colombia, when her uncle brought her coins from his travels in Britain. Her curiosity about lands outside her Spanish-speaking world arose, and she soon learnt English and French well enough to spend a lifetime teaching them. In 1980, as a schoolteacher in Spain, Maria met Jose Perez at a beach party. His love for languages had stemmed from his love for travelling and he taught Spanish at the local school. The two fell in love, and have since travelled the world for three decades, teaching French and Spanish in schools and colleges on four continents. In 2010, the couple settled in Kochi. They now teach from their home-school near Cherai — ‘La Arcadia Institute of Languages’.
Maria and Jose first found India in 1984 when a colleague informed them of a school in Kodaikanal that had teaching vacancies. “It was this magical lure of teaching in a school up in the mountains that drew us. But we had just settled down in Spain at that point and couldn’t shift right then,” says Jose. The years, however, saw them uproot to Wales in the UK, move on to Atlanta in USA, then to Swaziland in Africa, mostly involved with the United World College movement. Finally, in 2004, the couple saw the exact same advertisement for Kodaikanal International School on the internet. “Twenty years after the first invitation, India seemed to be calling us again. So we came.”
The difficult climb through the incredible beauty of the Western Ghats into Kodaikanal signalled to Carmen that India would hold both good and bad for them. During their time in Kodaikanal, the couple took a train tour of South India with a quick stop at Cherai. “It was here that we both instinctively felt we wanted to settle down for good,” says Carmen. Before the idea came to fruition though, they had to complete their time in Kodaikanal, followed by five years teaching in Pune, until land and a home on the lean road to Ayyampilly, near Cherai, materialised.
In its four years of functioning ‘La Arcadia’ has seen people of varied backgrounds cross its path. Some learn Spanish and French for overseas business purposes; students studying abroad are often required to know a foreign language; others come before long travels and still others to understand a new culture through its language. Carmen and Jose have also been involved with workshops for second-language teachers across Kochi. Their approach to teaching has always been to “immerse the student in the language”. “It’s extremely important for the student to start thinking in the language,” says Jose. “When I say the Spanish word for cup, the student should see an actual cup in his mind, not the Malayalam or English word for cup. That’s how you start thinking in Spanish.”
Our default instinct to conquering foreign languages is to translate them, he explains. But that limits our ability to express in Spanish what can only be expressed in Spanish, in a uniquely Spanish way. “We teach Spanish in Spanish, and French in French so that the student slowly absorbs the language.”
Their syllabus comprises a basic course of about four months that introduces one to speaking, reading, and writing skills. “The advanced course goes deeper into the tenses, introduces more complex verbs and conjugations,” says Jose. Their methods use songs, films and music so that the culture of the language seeps in as much as its technicalities do.
From their experience of teaching students from hundreds of nationalities, the couple say learning Spanish and French with a Malayalam background has its pros and cons. “Malayalam tends to shorten full sentences into one word, which isn’t possible with French or Spanish, but the complex diction of Malayalam makes Spanish pronunciation easy for Keralites,” says Jose. The couple have had their fair share of difficulties picking up Malayalam. “When you teach children, they instinctively imbibe languages. With adults though, they must understand the rules of the language, which is why we teach children and adults in separate batches. We’ve found it difficult to find someone who can teach us Malayalam as a foreign language, the way it should be taught to adults,” says Jose. Even so, they know enough to get by — “kurachu, kurachu,” Jose says.
Teachers all the way
Besides teaching French and Spanish in Kochi, Maria and Jose hold weekly classes of spoken English for 30 children in and around Ayyampilly, free of cost. It started in 2010 with a handful of children who used to play around their open compound. Over the years, the numbers have grown and today, the couple teach two batches of children between six and 16 every Wednesday. So far they’ve also done two field trips with children to the Folklore Museum and the lighthouse. “It’s our way of trying to contribute to the community,” says Jose.
The couple also run a large thriving garden which they farm organically, along with a rain-water harvesting system, growing everything from vegetable to herbs and fruit trees, besides some ducks and hens. “We make our own chilli powder, turmeric and coffee and bake our own bread. The children help us often, teaching us about the medicinal values of plants and bringing us new saplings.” In the summer vacations the couple hope to hold events that could combine their love for teaching languages with their interest in the environment.
