Spanish Class

Wednesday, September 30, 2009

I had my first Spanish class on Monday. The social worker we met with last week enrolled me in the class and told us that it would be a small group, less than 10 people.

She told us to be at her office at 5pm on monday and she would finish the paperwork and meet the teacher and have class until 6pm. We got there at 5pm on the dot, my husband of course told me that no one in spain starts on time so we could have taken our time and not gotten their right on time. We opened up the door to the lobby and my mouth dropped in surprise, staring back at me was 25 women, all muslim. They were all moroccan so they were all chatting to one another in arabic, i of course was the only one there who spoke english. I guess my idea of meeting someone who speaks english is on hold for now.

I told my husband to wait with me until the teacher explained what we were going to do. She had all the women sit at a small table in a small room fit for 10 people, let alone 25. My husband told her i only speak english and she said it should be fine and i would pick it up quickly. She told my husband to pick me up at 6pm.

What surprised me the most was that all the women spoke spanish! I was the only one who didnt speak spanish. I know a few words but not enough to have a 5 minute conversation. It turns out all of these women took classes here last year with a different teacher. The first thing the teacher did was pass out forms that needed to be filled out. I stared at the forms and tried to make out a few words such as name, nationality, etc. The rest i just put aside and explained in my broken spanish that my husband would fill out later.

The women seemed confused that i didnt speak spanish, arabic or french, all laguanges spoken in morocco. They found it strange that i am muslim and speak english. My husband explained later that these women are from small villages in morocco where they are not used to seeing muslims who are not arabic. They have not been exposed to muslims who speak different languages or from different countries than their own.

We spent the hour learning days of the week, months and some body parts. I already knew days of the weeks and months so it wasnt that bad. I missed class yesterday so today I will see what i missed. We will be meeting 4 days a week and the class will be split into two groups. Each class session wil last 1.5 hours.

Doing some research online i came across the Points System that All of Europe has embraced for visa applicants wanting to come to their country to work or live.
To get a visa with a sponsor i only need 1,400 dollars in my bank account, and thats not counting all the fees you have to pay. I would have to pay an additional 300 dollars to register with the social work registry that is required for all social workers and if that gets approved only then can i look for jobs and get a sponsor.

We will see, it seems Denmark is easier to get a work visa, pays more but you pay more in taxes.

First, i am going to fill out the forms for the GSCC registry in the UK (only for social workers) and wait for my application to be processed. They do evaluations on your health, degree, character and background. One thing that confuses me is it mentions that the applicant must have already worked 130 supervised hours-Field Work post-degree. But then there is a spot on the form that says hours of field work that i believe counts with the supervised hours. If thats the case i have more than the 130 hours. However if they just want 130 supervised hours thats more than 2 years of experience. In the field of social work you meet with your supervisor once week for one hour. To accumulate 130 hours you would need to work more than 2 years!

That would be a problem since i just graduated, meaning id have to go back to the US work for a few years then go to the UK. We will see..... Hopefully they count field work as part of the 130 hours because then i would qualify and could work right away!

If not, theres always Denmark!!!!