The Arrival (Migrants)

The Arrival (by Shaun Tan) is a migrant story told as a series of wordless images that might seem to come from a long forgotten time. A man leaves his wife and child in an impoverished town, seeking better prospects in an unknown country on the other side of a vast ocean. He eventually finds himself in a bewildering city of foreign customs, peculiar animals, curious floating objects and strange languages. With nothing more than a suitcase and a handful of currency, the immigrant must find a place to live, food to eat and some kind of gainful employment. He is helped along the way by sympathetic strangers, each carrying their own unspoken history: stories of struggle and survival in a world of incomprehensible violence, upheaval and hope.

Daniel García Cancio’s students (Daniel is a Greek language teacher at IES Xesús Taboada Chivite) wrote texts in Spanish describing every single page in this amazing picture book and recorded them. Once  they had completed their task, I translated their texts into English and then I recorded my translation.

On top you have the result of our work: The Arrival (Migrants)-chapters I and II.

My students will have the chance to watch and listen to the six chapters this story is divided into ( here chapter three, this is chapter four, this is chapter five and here chapter six). Here you have the text in Spanish and the translation into English (blog created by Music teacher David Rguez. Rivada - several teachers and their pupils are working  on it) and this is a fill-in-the-gaps exercise.