Peter Soto thought it was joke when he received an e-mail from the Fulbright Program accepting him as an exchange teacher for its program.
“My Hotmail was set up to send some messages as spam. I found the message in the spam box, so I thought it was a mistake. They gave me a phone call and said, ‘No, no, you’ve been accepted! Congratulations!'”
Soto is currently teaching Spanish at Mission Bay High School (MBHS) as an exchange teacher from Chile, taking the place of MBHS teacher Annie Santana, who is also a Fulbright winner.
Before arriving at MBHS, Soto taught English to kindergarten through 12th grade student at Colegio Insular on the small island Robinson Crusoe. The island has “one school, one gym, a small hospital, one doctor, one nurse and one dentist” for the island’s total population of 600, Soto said. “Being there is like living 80 years ago. It’s old fashioned. We have electricity, Internet, computers, but I have students who have never seen a subway or a train.”
Santana currently holds Soto’s position at the school is teaching English for one year.
Soto’s experience teaching at MBHS can be summed up in three words: “Something totally different.” At Colegio Insular there are 17 teachers for 125 students. The students would stay in one classroom from 8 a.m. to 5:15 p.m. while the teachers rotate from one class to another every hour, according to Soto. At MBHS he teaches one subject in the same classroom throughout the entire day.
Because Robinson Crusoe is such a small community, even though the classroom setting is similar to that at MBHS, furnished with printers, Internet, 10 computers, “we don’t use a Web site to post grades. We just have the old grading books,” Soto said. “Some of my students at Colegio go to school on a horse, and they leave the horse outside the classroom. But here students come in a car, some come in a Mustang.”
He describes his students at MBHS as a very diverse group. “Some of them are really open-minded, some of them are really social, [others] are really quiet. I never had students from different parts of the U.S. or the world.”
One thing Soto misses about Colegio Insular is the close relationships developed among his students and colleagues and the warmth shared by others.
“Every Friday all the teachers and students play soccer together. If someone has a birthday, everyone is invited.”
All the teachers gather in the lounge to eat breakfast and lunch together, but Soto said that since he has his own classroom, he rarely sees or interacts with other teachers.
In addition, Soto describes the inhabitants of Robinson Crusoe as very sentimental.
“They’re very emotional. When they see you, they don’t just say ‘Hi,’ or ‘How are you?’ But they need to give you a hug or hold your hand.”
Soto discovered the opportunity to teach English at Colegio Insular while working at the computer lab at Universidad de Playa Ancha, where he earned his degree in English and Education. Soto said he wanted to study English when he was 14 and visiting his father who was living in Florida in order to escape the reign of Chile’s former dictator Augusto Pinochet.
Being immersed in an English-speaking state, Soto felt so frustrated that he was not able to communicate with other people. “[When] people tried to talk to me, I couldn’t understand anything. Some people asked my name but I wasn’t able to answer that. I love music, so when I listened to music [in English] I couldn’t understand a word.”
While at Colegio Insular, Soto just happened to stumble upon the opportunity sponsored by the Fulbright Program to teach in a different country as an exchange teacher while looking at a Web site. Soto recalls the application process as demanding, with seven tests to assess one’s ability to read and listen in English as well as command of the English grammar. The final step of the application was an interview, which consisted of five Fulbright committee members evaluating one’s teaching abilities and educational background. Soto is one of seven teachers from Chile to participate in the Fulbright Program.
Soto said will return to Robinson Crusoe in July.