“Tienes un novio?”

The first question every young girl (and maybe even the boys too) wants to know about me is whether I am dating someone. Today, during English practice, I had been asking them questions for a while, and they said they wanted to ask me some questions. Bold, don’t you think? I welcomed the idea and asked what they wanted to know. Immediately, the girl next to me rapidly spouted off in Spanish “Tienes un novio?” and then covered her face with her hands and giggled. I told them I would answer the question if they could ask it in English.

I watched happily as the seven of them worked together to figure out the question. One girl knew “boyfriend.” One boy knew “have.” I had to tell them to start with “Do.”

Eventually it came out: “Do…you…have…a…boyfriend?” They may have been a little disappointed to receive a simple “no” after all that work, but I secretly enjoyed watching them rack their brains to figure out the English. Oh, these kids are so precious!