La Ensenanza De Espanol En Jamaica

I’m a Cuban-Jamaican descendant Spanish lecturer working at Sam Sharpe Teachers’ College since 2008. I got two Masters’ degrees in Education at the University of Havana, Cuba. Also did two shortcourses in Computing and got a DELF B2 Diploma in French language at the French Alliance in Havana.
10 years of working experience as a teacher and four years working with Cubasi digital pressagency as a Spanish translator could well put me in good position for contract work abroad, I thought. it would not be difficult to get a job contract in the land of my paternal ancestors, I kept tellingmyself….too easy to be true.
In fact teaching Spanish in an English-speaking country is a big challenge for non-native speakers of English even if you are qualified to teach. More so when the peoplein the country you choose to migrate to speak their own mother tongue (Patois) and quite a few hardly use English language convinced as they are that Patois is more than enough to communicate withthe entire world.
The notion of these facts terrified me for a while and I wanted to swim back to the safe place I had left behind…….but then the picture of my paternal grandparents migrating in theopposite direction and striving to get a better life style for their children came into mind… kind of history repeating itself?……..just then I decided to challenge this.
my great fears were also toget to be accepted in a society so different from the one I was born and grew up in, the unemployment rate, where and who I should contact to get a job, what my remuneration would be to be able tosend home some money remittance after leaving something for myself …
To those who may be planning to migrate to Jamaica my advice is first, to enquire about a working visa. If you can get one, thendon’t hesitate to come. Although scary in many ways………living and working in Jamaica is worth a try. The ministry of education plans to turn Jamaica into the first Caribbean bilingual country and...