In several of my classes last year, we debated about what we wanted or expected our generation to be called in the future. It turns out that in Spain, the elders have already chosen a name for us: the Ni-Ni’s (Ni estudiar, ni trabajar). Basically, we don’t study and we don’t work.
While I can see how this idea (sadly) somewhat applies to teenagers and children in the United States, I’m totally clueless as to why my Spanish grandmother would consider her granddaughter and other students at Colegio Infantes to be Ni-Ni’s.
When school gets out at three, everyone returns home promptly to eat the biggest meal of the day called comida. Around 4:30 or five, children begin to study. And by studying, I mean that they open their textbooks and memorize the information until it’s drilled into their minds.
Laura, my exchange student, typically cracks open her biology textbook at five and studies until nearly nine at night. The family then eats la cena (dinner, for you non-Spanish speakers) at this time, and then she continues studying from 10 until 12 or 12:30 at night.
Laura spends five or six solid hours studying a night, memorizing complex math equations and chemistry formulas. And yet she’s still considered to be a Ni-Ni?
Abuela (grandmother) asked me if we are Ni-Ni’s in the U.S., and I had no idea how to answer that question. By her definition of the word, we probably are. I personally do not have the time or the patience to sit still and read a textbook for five hours at a time.
My Spanish grandfather then asked me if I was smart—another question that made me feel stupid because I couldn’t answer it. Our schools’ standards just don’t compare. My friend and fellow junior classmate Ellen Barker showed her exchange student Elena her math homework one night, and Elena actually laughed in her face. We’re a year older than our exchange students, and yet our work—which I find to be quite challenging sometimes—is “way easier” than their work. So when Abuelo (grandfather) offered to help me study for my math test, I saved myself the embarrassment by telling him I was already prepared for it.
Midnight—at home, I’m typically already fast asleep, but in Spain, Laura is still pushing herself to study a few more pages of notes. Every night of my trip, like clockwork, Abuela would walk into the room and yell, “Laurita! A la cama!” In other words, “Laura, go to bed!” But Laura would fight to stay up a few extra minutes just so she could do some more homework.
That’s what really confused me. Abuela wants Laura to study, study, study, but when is she supposed to? Apparently, on the weekends.
Laura is almost always forbidden to go out on weekdays (except to go running), but she is allowed to meet up with her friends on Friday and Saturday nights for a few hours. But before she leaves, her abuela and madre (mother) lecture her about the fate of the Ni-Ni generation and how we’re wasting precious studying time. Every time I heard this lecture, I wanted to roll my eyes. If teenagers like Laura are the ones the elders are concerned about, our generation will turn out just fine.
Jenny Hottle can be reached for comment at [email protected]