What Am I In Spanish

Tamara Jennings Teaching Ideas While there is great value in learning a second language, it can also be quite time-consuming. It also requires a good amount of patience and determination. Thanks to technology, the bright side is that learning doesn’t always have to feel like work! Continue reading to find out ways to use media to your advantage in assisting students with enjoyable ways to gain their target language skills. I love Spanish, and when I set out to really learn the language in 2019, I started by taking two college-level courses. These classes gave me a wealth of information on vocabulary, rules, and conjugation, but I still had no idea how to really use Spanish. I felt those classes didn’t really do much to teach me much about how...  [Read more]

Sabrina Segal Alumni Experiences Language skills begin in the womb when a fetus's hearing first develops, they begin to listen to the language of their mother. Once the baby is born they recognize their mother tongue. Though, a baby is born with the ability to learn any language and multiple languages. When babies hear a word repeatedly their brain forms neural connections, which is a step towards their speech. The brain of a child is like a sponge. It retains so much information that by the time a child reaches 3 years of age, their brain has formed double the amount of connections that adults have. Young children learn language through simple exposure. It is possible to learn a language later on in life but the process is slower and more...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences I am from the United States and my native language is English. I am currently living in the Philippines, so I have been encountering language issues a lot lately. I have desperately been trying to learn Tagalog, and it is a major challenge. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Gabriel T. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. Along the way, I have had a lot of help from the native Filipinos that I live with and whom I now call my family. I have asked myself, "How did they learn English so well and what difficulties do they still have with English?" Because English has so many contradictions and strange nuances I have decided to do my...  [Read more]

Lulu Johnson Destinations TEFL Information Alumni Experiences The Fulbright program is a great way to travel abroad and work as an English language teacher in an exciting new country. It allows you to experience a new culture, meet lots of new people and discover something new about yourself. This article will go over what Fulbright is, their English teaching program, and how to apply to Fulbright in this blog post. My name is Lulu, and I am currently a Fulbright recipient in South Korea for the next year (2021). A little about me: I was originally born in China but was adopted into a USA family. I grew up knowing I wanted to become a doctor and went to college in the Midwest and majored in Nutritional...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas I would say the hardest part about becoming a Teacher is having the confidence to face your students in the classroom. I speak from experience because this was a challenge for me in the beginning when I taught Spanish as a foreign language. My students were primary and high school students, essentially just kids, but this intimidated me the most about my job. In time you will indeed and should become more confident teaching in the classroom, as the saying goes…” practice makes perfect”, right? However, there are some things a new teacher can do or be aware of to help increase their confidence in the classroom. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Genoveve C. Please note that this blog...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas First and foremost I'd like to address why phonetics issues very early piqued my interest in teaching English for foreigners. Ever since childhood, I was surrounded by people with substantial articulatory and auditory phonetic problems, not so much with the acoustic ones. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Asbiorn B. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. Firstly, those auditory problems were inherited biologically by people around me and couldn't be helped much before the very sophisticated miniature hearing aids just recently were introduced. However, some foreign students can't afford these rather expensive items and subsequently...  [Read more]

Julia Erbacher Alumni Experiences I am American. My hometown is Buffalo, New York. 26 I have an Associates of Science in Music and Bachelors of Arts in Spanish. I also have been TEFL certified and DELE certified with a C1 level of Spanish speaking from the Cervantes Institute. My first experience abroad I went to Peru, then Madrid, Spain, and finally back to Spain in another region of the country. I studied at the International Institute in Madrid through the University of Albany. In my hometown, I graduated from the University at Buffalo. I was looking for the next learning adventure in my life, as well as the desire to improve my Spanish speaking skills. That is why I made the decision to apply for the Conversation Auxiliar Program through the...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences For the past several years I have been working for a non-profit company that provides high-quality daycare and preschool education for financially disadvantaged children. The population we serve is diverse, but the majority of families in our particular centers are Latino. Although I am not employed in a classroom teaching position, I have a great deal of contact with the children and with their parents. Part of my responsibility is to conduct an intake interview with the parents to explain the policies of the school, and to do a health history of the child before he enters. These meetings take about forty minutes when the parent speaks English, and an hour or more if I need the help of a translator. This post...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas At a very early age, I was amazed by the sounds of English. I used to listen to songs in English while one of my parent’s friends was cleaning his car. He used to play them out loud and I wanted to know what the lyrics said. Several years later I had the chance to go to China to be part of a cultural exchange program to learn Chinese. My accepting interview was completely in English rather than Chinese or even my native language Spanish. All paperwork was done in either Spanish or Chinese depending on where I was. Either here in Latin-American or on the other side of the world, the medium of communication was English. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Andres G. Please note that this blog...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences English is my first language, however, I studied Spanish throughout high school growing up in the Midwest and eventually received a Master’s degree in Spanish Literature. I learned to speak Spanish very well after becoming a high school Spanish teacher for eight years and then a principal for elementary and secondary schools for 26 more years speaking Spanish to new immigrant students and parents the whole time. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Rex P. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. In reflecting on the title question I first asked myself how Spanish had influenced me over the years. The first obvious answer was that I...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences According to the Oxford Dictionary, motivation is 'the desire or willingness to do something.' On the one hand, most of the students who take a foreign language course should have the desire and enthusiasm to learn and develop their skills in that second language; for future career prospects, travel purposes, to study or live in a country whose local language is different from their mother tongue, etc. On the other hand, a few of them won’t have any interest at all and they will attend the lessons with neither intention nor motivation. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Ruben Garrido G. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT....  [Read more]

Linda Dunsmore Alumni Experiences As a native English speaker, my first major foreign language experience began in 8th grade, where I had the option of studying either Spanish or French. I chose Spanish, as I’d always been drawn to the language and Latin American culture, and hoped to one day live in a Spanish speaking country. I studied the language throughout high school, but in the years afterward, it wasn’t much of a priority and wasn’t something I used on a regular basis. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Lauren M. In high school, our language classes were mainly structured around learning grammar and following the textbook. From time to time, we would listen to and translate songs in Spanish, or watch a movie in...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences Most people consider English to be a global language because it is the one language that is spoken and understood by the majority of the population in almost every region of the world. What is a global language? While there is no official definition, it refers to a language that is learned and spoken internationally by native and second language speakers (Mastin, 2011). There are approximately 360 million native English speakers and almost twice as many speaking it as a second language, making English one of the topmost spoken languages in the world (Klappenbach, 2019). English is undoubtedly in just about every sector whether it is in education, medicine, business, technology, tourism, communication, and so...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Learning a new language can be nerve-wracking, especially for young learners who experience a great deal of peer pressure and fear of sounding unintelligent in front of their classmates. This fear is something adults learning a new language experience as well. I have personally experienced it as a native English speaker learning Spanish. Therefore, praise from the teacher they view as an expert in the language they’re learning is vital to the learning process in many ways. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Alexandra W. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. I believe praising students is very important. It is essential, however,...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences “Why do I have to take a TEFL course?” I asked this question when my daughter suggested to me to enroll in this course. Having decided to say goodbye to my current job as an international homeroom teacher, I am now embarking on a new journey of applying abroad for a teaching position at an international school. Thanks to the Americans who defeated our Spanish colonizers way back the 19th century, they brought their educational system to the Philippines. Ever since I started school, I have been taught the American way using the English language as the medium of instruction. However, even if I am learned in English, I have to get a TEFL course to prove my competence in the English language. So here we are....  [Read more]

Linda Dunsmore Alumni Experiences When one begins to study a new language, they can often find themselves to be a bit overwhelmed. Language acquisition is not an easy task, and it comes with many challenges and difficulties attached. Although, as ESL teachers, we are trained to look out for common errors and given the best teaching ideas and methodologies to use in the classroom, it can sometimes feel as though something is missing. Teachers who have studied a foreign language and have had experience using the language possess that missing piece, and their foreign language experience makes them better teachers. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Gabrielle N. These ESL teachers were once in their students’ shoes; they, too,...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas I think of myself as having been fortunate enough to have had the opportunity to learn other languages at a young age. I was taught French in primary school and at home, I learned or acquired Spanish. At school, I remember my language teacher being very textbook-oriented and she focused and followed the book to the “T”. I picked up easily on the grammar because I had already learned Spanish at home and I was also very keen to learn foreign languages, especially French. The grammar didn’t seem difficult or boring to me at all because I had already been exposed to the language at a very early age. However, many students didn’t feel the same way I did and had difficulty with the subject and therefore,...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences In the following essay, I have chosen to explain my late-in-life interest in becoming certified as an EFL teacher, based on my background with foreign language experience, which began at an early age. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Manuel GK. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. I was what some would call an early bloomer. As a baby, my mother read to me at night until I fell asleep. By the age of 2, I could speak in simple but uninterrupted sentences with proper syntax. By a few months after my third birthday, I was able to read the same children's’ books that my mother used to read for me and speak more complex sentences...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas During my lifetime the world has achieved a level of globalization that, fifty years ago, would have been hard to believe. The part that the English language has played in the development of globalization is pivotal. As an international airline employee who has conducted business throughout the world, I can personally attest to its current importance. English is the de facto language of many international corporations, industries, international non-governmental organizations, and scientific institutions. The English language was not always destined to play such a pivotal role in world affairs. Throughout history, other languages such as Latin, Chinese (Mandarin/Cantonese), Spanish, French German and Russian (to...  [Read more]

Jon ITTT Alumni Experiences Difficulty with pronunciation is likely something that every EFL teacher will face at one point or another in their career. Every language in the world has different ways of pronouncing different words/ letters. In addition to this, most speakers of other languages have heavy accents that can make pronouncing English words very difficult. This can be a challenge when teaching English as a foreign language. It can be especially challenging because not all learners around the world will face the same problems. Students in Vietnam will likely have different pronunciation problems than students in Kenya and students in Brazil will likely have different pronunciation problems than students in Morocco. For this essay, I will...  [Read more]

Linda Dunsmore Alumni Experiences What does it mean to volunteer? According to the Oxford Dictionary: "A volunteer is a person who freely offers to take part in an enterprise or undertake a task", according to me, volunteering is a life-changing experience where you are able to help others. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Zayra R. I volunteered for the first time 7 years ago and I remember to be very excited and a little nervous, not knowing what to expect. The moment I arrived at the shelter house for abandoned girls, I knew right away that I had to give my best every day. During that week, we fixed the garden, planted flowers and vegetables and I also helped building rooms and decorating them. I taught basic English to...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas A teacher’s personal qualities play a huge role in the success of their students! One of the best things I learned from this course was what makes a good teacher, and what a good teacher needs to be aware of when teaching EFL. Depending on whom you ask or what website you look at, you will get different thoughts and opinions on the qualities an English teacher needs to have. In this essay I am going to talk about the personal traits I believe are the most important and why. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Sarah R. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. The central quality of an English teacher is that they care about their...  [Read more]

  Our course takes place in the city of La Antigua, a thriving former capital popular with both tourist and locals alike. La Antigua is famous for its well preserved Spanish colonial buildings and fascinating ruins and has been designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The city is situated 1,500 metres (5,000 feet) above sea level in the central highlands of Guatemala. This location makes La Antigua the perfect place for exploring the wider area, with the Pacific coast, Tikal and Lake Atitlan just a few hours away. During your course you will receive high quality instruction from our experienced teacher trainers following rigorous academic standards. On graduation you will receive an internationally recognised tefl certificate and our lifetime employment assistance. La Antigua has...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences More and more persons enjoy traveling and even make it their lifetime hobby! More young couples and families are hungry to discover new cultures and love meeting like-minded people. Sometimes mature individuals, who find themselves in different circumstances, either by choice or not, are looking for a change and wish to learn a new skill that would give them something worthwhile to do on their travels. These are only just a few reasons why someone would want to complete a TEFL course. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Genoveve C. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. For me personally, completing a TEFL course will give me the...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences To finish the TEFL course, I would like to write on a topic that worries many EFL high school teachers in Spain: the lack of motivation, improvement, and participation of their students in the classroom. This is a topic that was widely discussed during my MA in Foreign Language Teaching. For this reason, I would like to take this opportunity to do some further research on this since I believe it's a topic of ultimate importance to all EFL teachers working in Spain. I will discuss how to solve this issue through the use of IT created to facilitate school exchanges. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Ana Maria Serra C. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences Is English the most and widely language ever used in the history of this world? Yes. It does mean that it’s the only one spoken though. There are many other important languages in the world, but when it comes to business, English is the most spoken of them all. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Hector R. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. Beginning with the Mayans, later on, the Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans all knew the mechanics to create a bond with other societies. Trading goods and services in early civilizations have been the motor to move markets from one country to another with rapid success. Going back thousands of...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences Over the past two years, as part of an international community, I’ve had the pleasure of meeting people from all over the world. We share the common experience of learning an L2. I’ve spoken to nearly 100 people now, and what I’ve learned about learning L2 is, well, it’s hard. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Janis U. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. Most people I’ve “interviewed” have either learned an L2 over many years or are still in the process of learning it. Of those that have learned an L2, they tend to be more fluent than accurate and most have learned L2 out of necessity within 1-3 years. I consider...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences Parents have a definite role in the education of their children, especially if the language of the family is different from the target language of the children. Because of the closeness that should exist between parent and child, the first teachers in all areas of life should be the parent. However, due to the situations created in our society, this is not often the case. When one thinks of modern society, the difficulties that parents encounter in the role of the teacher can be seen. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Norris J. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. Imagine the situation in which both parents have to work each...  [Read more]

Mark Crocker Alumni Experiences Teaching Ideas The difference between formal and informal grammar is very apparent both in everyday life and during ones time as a teacher of English as a foreign language. These differences, I believe, play an important part in why many language learners find it so difficult to understand and become fluent. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Daniel B. As a native English speaker and an ongoing learner of Spanish I find myself struggling with these differences as well. Much of the English grammar we learn in school in America is grammar that the person knows they are likely to use very sparingly. This is why most students fail to truly pay attention in their literature...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences English has undergone many changes since its roots in early Europe. It started out as a Germanic language, and standard word order along with some vocabulary still show German roots in the modern English of today. It went on over the years to incorporate numerous words and suffixes from French during the time that England was invaded and occupied by the Normans in the 11th Century. Its most recent and well-known adoption was from Latin, whose language patterns and vocabulary dominate English. Even today, the language is constantly growing and adapting as it takes on new words from Spanish due to the large Latin American immigrant population in the United States and their great cultural influence over the last...  [Read more]