BIO
Eric Odynocki is an emerging writer of poetry and fiction from New York. He is a first generation American who grew up in a multicultural household: his mother is Mexican and his father was Ukrainian and Jewish. Eric holds a BA/MAT in Spanish Language and Literature from Stony Brook University and teaches Spanish in a New York public high school.
BIEN EDUCADO
Lesson 1: Translation
We stand in Renaissance Square, White Plains: Lisette, whose parents’ conversations at dinner echoed the salty waves of the Isla del Encanto; Pamela, whose mother’s recipes were recited in the sugar cane rounded vowels of Barbados; and I, who as a child ate chilaquiles for breakfast and gołąbki for dinner but asked to pass a napkin only in English.
We observe the businessmen in their suits conduct their daily pilgrimage to the Starbucks. They do not hold doors for their fellow patrons nor care if passersby hear snippets of their vulgar banter spewed in caffeine fumes.
Lisette says, “See, I think people are just not educated.”
Pamela counters, “But they all were probably frat boys at Harvard.”
My inner Spanish teacher cannot be restrained: “In Spanish, being educated is more than the years you spend at school.”
Lesson 2: Linguistics
Educated
the past participle of ‘educate’
from the Latin verb ‘educare’ or ‘educere’
itself comprised of ‘ex,’ out, and ‘ducere,’ to lead
to lead out
or
in other words
to guide
as in to guide a child
to raise
attaching a preposition to a root verb is nothing unique:
just think of your
upbringing
Lesson 3: Social Studies
When I was yearbook editor, the librarian advised,
“Eric, keep faculty and staff photos separate;
we have masters degrees.”
I snickered with the rest of the Internet when
the girl demanded of the train conductor,
“Do you know what schools I've been to?”
I saw my literature professor from Ecuador,
volumes in the crook of her arm,
greet the mop-wielding janitor, una dominicana,
with a kiss on her cheek.
Lesson 4: Eureka
at back to school night
I highlight the importance
of global competence
and how the study of other languages
unlocks success
in international business
so one is able to decipher
the shadows of emotion and history
that words cast
like bien educado
if you cannot say hello
even in your own language
to someone whose salary
is a few zeros short of yours
it does not matter
the quality of the paper
on which is branded
the abbreviation after your name
or the Alma Mater in Gothic emboss
your schooling should help you deduce
what the campesinos
who pick your coffee beans
would think of you