On My Side

Chapter 7

Eunwoo tried not to make kissy faces at Paloma while she was working, but it took a lot of self-control. Without having planned it, Paloma ended up being a major fixture in his LA vacation. He had spent every day with her since the dating show, and now, she had given him the opportunity to go to her school to watch her teach.

She stood in front of eleven students in a fairly small classroom with no windows. It was dreary, but Paloma had done her best to brighten the space using a warm color palate for the posters and cloth accents around the room.

"Leo, if I see that paper football fly through the air one more time, it's going to become mine," Paloma threatened, causing the overactive teen to drop the offending article into his backpack.

"Now, I have a question for you all," she began. "How do you say por in English?"

The entire class responded back in unison, "For!"

"Good, so, how do you say para in English?" she asked.

The class went silent as they looked at each other hesitantly.

One girl raised her hand. She had thick, Mexican braids, the kind that come out from the head instead of folding in like French braids.

"Gabi," Paloma called on her.

"For?" Gabi replied cautiously.

"Right, but this isn't Jeopardy. So, let's not answer in the form of a question. Be confident in your answer," Paloma advised.

"For!" Gabi said again with conviction this time.

"Exactly! So, there are two words in Spanish that can both mean "for" in English. Now, they can mean a bunch of other things too like, for example, para can mean 'in order to' or 'according to'. Por can mean 'in exchange for' or 'by'. So, it's really confusing, isn't it? English has so many ways to express things that are so easily expressed by just two words in Spanish, por and para," Paloma explained. She began handing out a worksheet which caused a general outcry of dissent from the class.

"Tranquilos," Paloma said as they passed the papers around. "We'll do the first one together, okay?" she said, which seemed to calm the protestations.

"Okay, you can see that each of the sentences has a blank space that you have to fill with one of the words or phrases in the word banks at the top. There is a word bank for por and one for para. So, number 1 says, 'I gave you money --- blank --- the kids.' First of all, which word would you use in Spanish, por or para?" she asked the class.

At that point, an argument broke out among the students, as there seemed to be little consensus about the right word to use in Spanish. One incredibly tall young man shouted, "Por!" He was contradicted by a curvy girl with impossibly long acrylic fingernails.

"Es para, dumbass!" she argued. "Te di el dinero para los niños," she translated. "Por would be like if you gave money in exchange for the kids, like to buy the kids or something like that," she continued, indignant, for some reason, with the tall boy's incorrect answer.

"Okay, Brenda, you are correct, but we don't call each other 'dumbass' in this class," Paloma scolded.

"She's just mad because Samuel won't go out with her," Leo informed Paloma.

Brenda stood abruptly and ran toward Leo's desk, "¡Cállate o te callo!" she warned him to shut up before she shut his mouth for him as she raised her fist in the air.