A journey as a teacher of Spanish as a Foreign Language. <

A journey as a teacher of Spanish as a Foreign Language.

When you study a languages degree, as in my case, one of the options that you consider is working abroad. What could be better than immersing yourself fully in the culture that you have spent years studying?

However, you arrive in your country of destination and you begin a complete cultural immersion.

And, at the beginning you do not realise, but the first time whe, you are speaking with your friends and relations who stayed behind, you forget this word that you  previously used to use almost on a daily basis, you notice how this language that always used to stay with you started to escape through your pores.

You therefore find yourself at a crossroads: recove your roots or resign yourself to loosing them little by little? And if there were an intermediary solution? And if you were able to continue using your own language and, at the same time, learning about the new culture in which you find yourself? There is where, in my opinion, the teaching of Spanish to foreigners fits in, an experience in which, although you are in front of a group of students, not only are you teaching but you are also, above all, learning.In this way you begin an enriching linguistic and cultural exchange  in which you have to be able to transmit an interest in the culture in which you were brought up in and which will always form a part of you to your students, despite the number of kilometres you are from your birth place.

Nevertheless, when you decide to  embark on the path of teaching Spanish as a Foreign Language,  you will look for information on teaching methods, possibilities to bring your language and your culture into the classroom, etc., you will find yourself with an amount of information that can be difficult to process without receiving help.

Some people say that to teach your own language you do not need special training since you already know the language. What more could you need? But they are wrong because looking for the best way to explain such complex ideas as the difference between ser/estar or the fact that the personal OD( personal Direct Object) takes the preposition "a" and that these explanations are attractive forthe students, avoiding the frustration when the pronunciation of the ´ letter r´ is found difficult, etc., it is a complex process that requires, not only strength on the part of the teacher, but also a training which allows you to select the most appropriate activities for each type of student. And this is one of the reasons why I decided to carry out this Teaching Spanish As A Foreign Language teacher course: learning the basic ideas in order to be able to transmit the difficult aspects of Spanish and of Spanish culture in the best way possible and stimulating the students interest by deepening that knowledge, trying, to convert the teaching and learning of a language into a captivating journey once and for all.