Pavos reales! No... they're turkeys!

22 Nov 2011

Pilgrims... Native Americans... Feast... Turkey... Football... Black Friday...

Try explaining the first Thanksgiving to a group of kids who have never heard of Thanksgiving and who have no equivalent holiday in their own culture. Add in a foreign language...

And you have a holiday that sounds pretty weird. But actually fits in with Spanish stereotypes of how Americans eat.

This morning, I began teaching my students about the American tradition of Thanksgiving--El día de acción de gracias. None of them had ever heard of Thanksgiving before because their teachers tend to focus more on the British (or British/American) traditions.

So I got a clean slate--which is both a good thing and a bad thing.

It was great because they didn't have any stereotypes or misinformation about the holiday. Unfortunately, we were not able to get through as much as I wanted because it took longer to explain the story of Thanksgiving than I thought. Mostly because one of my classrooms doesn't have a projector so I had to tell the story using cartoon drawings...

Sometimes they got a little confused. They thought that the turkey picture I put on the board was a pavo real (a peacock) and I had to explain that it was a pavo that you eat. They also got a kick out of the word "pie." They kept pronouncing it the Spanish way--pie--which means "foot." I told them that pie was much more delicious than feet. 

Then, we did the traditional hand turkeys--which the kids loved especially the older ones who don't get to do a lot of drawing and coloring! Before we started this project, we brainstormed on things that we were thankful for.

I got a variety of responses. The typical: my family, my friends, food, my house... The superficial: my TV, my computer... The touching: Spain, my grandma, my grandpa.

Of course, everyone had a lot of questions afterwards...

"Bobbi, are you going back to America for Thanksgiving?" Unfortunately, no. But, I'm lucky enough to get to celebrate with some Americans in Alicante.

"Bobbi, how many kilos of food do people eat?" Sorry, in American, we don't measure in kilos so I have absolutely no idea how much we eat on Thanksgiving.

"Why didn't the Pilgrims just go back to England when they got sick?" Unfortunately, they couldn't because it took months to cross the ocean.

"Why does the President pardon a turkey? Where does it go? Do they eat it next year?" He pardons the turkey because it's tradition. The turkey goes to some sort of turkey paradise and is lucky enough to not get eaten.