"¡Quiero Ser Cocinero!"

           My English lesson yesterday was adorable. Eduardo wants to be an astronaut when he grows up, and Alejandro wants to be a chef (a five-year-old wanting to be a chef...cute in and of itself). So I decided to play off this idea and we focused part of the lesson on their future careers. For each boy I wrote on a blank sheet of paper, "When I grow up I want to be X" and later taught them vocabulary for their respective professions.
          Normally Alex is not all that into the lessons, because he'd rather be watching a movie (or cooking, apparently). But yesterday he was simply ecstatic. With huge eyes he exclaimed to me, "I'm going to open up a restaurant in the U.S.!!" Then, when he asked me how to say "croquetas" (a typical Spanish food) in English, I told him it was the same because we don't have that food where I'm from. He looked at me in shock, as if it was the biggest shame in the world that an American child might not ever get a chance to taste them, and shouted "Dioooooooooos!" (oh my goddddddd). Then he said, "I can bring croquetas with me when I move there!!!" In reality I think his business plan is a sound one, since opening another tapas bar in Granada almost surely means bankruptcy, whereas opening one in the U.S. means charging an arm and a leg for posh plates of tiny portions.
        It turns out that the lesson plan wasn't all that informative, since almost every single food that Alex likes only differs in pronunciation between the two languages, or has no direct translation (like croquetas). For example, he loves pasta (also pasta in Spanish), chocolate (same), and puré (pureé in English....or French?). Even his ultimate favorite, hamburgesa, is almost the exact same, since Spanish adopted the word. I guess when he opens his restaurant one day, he won't have any problem translating the items for the menu.

Croquetas--little fried balls of joy

         The next lesson, I had them fill in the blanks of some hypothetical questions, such as: "If I were rich, I would buy...." To the question "If I could live anywhere in the world, I would live...." Alejandro shouted, "IN A RESTAURANT!!" Not in a villa in the South of France, not in a spaceship like most little boys' dream, not even in a house made out of candy, but any ordinary restaurant. He's pretty easy to please. But should I be worried this kid is going to develop some serious eating obsessions?