Hello! My name is Beatriz and if you are here it's because you want to get to know me a little before you book a class with me.
I am a very joyful person and when I do something, I do it with passion. This, I can guarantee, is very good for you, because it is impossible to resist my excitement of achievement every time we learn something.
We?
Indeed!
I walk all this way with you and I can't help but feel the same way you do.
Your feeling of conquest is my drug, and all my efforts seek to make you feel that you are moving forward, that you are conquering new goals.
Is there a better feeling than that?
Look,
let me tell you a story
I like running, it's the sport I do most, partly because it's the easiest, I'm not good at complicated things.
But another great benefit is how easy it is to measure progress, and there is always some.
All you need is:
- consistency: you have to make it part of your daily routine, training every day a little bit, it's much better than beating yourself up once a week. That only makes you suffer and the following week you are even more frustrated because despite the suffering you don't improve.
(just as a weekly class won't be enough if you don't expose yourself to the language every day, read, listen to material in Spanish, study and do exercises).
- persistence: there will be bad days, days when you find it hard to leave the house, you have to be patient and know that this is normal and that these days will pass, better days will come.
(there are days when you can't put a sentence together, when you seem to be getting worse instead of better, but that's only because you are learning to express more complex ideas than before and that is more difficult).
- listen to yourself: you have to listen to your body, many professionals run by "sensations", you have to know when you reach your limit and when you can give a little bit more.
(in the same way that language is not just words, you need to understand the context, the body language of other people).
- visualise: you have to set goals, training with a goal in mind is what keeps you motivated.
(Why do you want to learn Spanish? to travel with confidence? to get to know a culture better? to integrate into the new community where you are going to live? to get promoted in your job? to get a better job?)
IMAGINE DOING IT ALREADY
When I started running, I did it on my own,
watching some youtube videos,
reading articles, blogs,
following professionals in their networks who gave some pieces of advice...
I didn't know how to start and, seriously, not everyone can just put on their running shoes and go for a run.
You will most likely be back home in less than 15 minutes, red,
suffocated
and feeling like puking...
(happened to a friend)
It's a bit the same for language learning, not everyone is okay watching films in Spanish with subtitles:
- Either you see the images and imagine what they are talking about,
(que si no tiene un guion muy complicado puede valer sobre todo si vas cazando alguna palabra que conoces)
- or you're reading all the time and don't get what's happening.
(if it's an action film you're missing the best)
That's why I decided to put myself in the hands of a great professional:
On the first day my mind blew up,
I arrive at the track with all the excitement of the first day and I am told to warm up.
So here I go,
to run,
down the track,
my first day,
I, that when I run I have one pace, run
(my other pace is walking)
doy la primera vuelta a la pista (por dentro, por el césped, que no nos hagamos daño en las rodillas y así hacemos 100 metros menos por vuelta)
and was already suffocated.
My trainer comes to my side and says to me:
- Pichi, you're going too fast
¡¡¡BOOOOM!!!
¿¿¿EXCUSE ME???
IS THE EUROPEAN CHAMPION TELLING ME I'M GOING FAST?
IS THIS LADY WHO IS STILL SPAIN'S FASTEST MILE RUNNER TELLING ME I'M GOING TOO FAST??
So yes, it turns out that to warm up you have to run very, very slowly, as slowly as possible.
and once the body is ready
you can do quality training, more demanding
and this has to be combined with different types of training
strength training
speed training
endurance training
…
…
…
See where I'm going?
Doesn't it look simple?
Well, I hadn't seen it.
Now you understand why you need someone else
(if possible a professional)
who knows to listen to you, who understands what you want
see the mistakes you don't see
see what things you are good at and what things are a bit more challenging for you
and that with all this information, can help YOU
who can ask you challenging questions
but that you manage to answer,
who knows how to give you the tools that YOU you need to understand the grammar
and, of course, that can make you have fun and want to go further,
express more complex ideas
communicate whatever you want
to keep an interesting conversation going, in which you forget the purpose of the class, because you are so excited about the topic that you don't realise that you are talking in...
¿español?
But just a few months ago I couldn't even speak without translating!!!
and even translating I wasn't sure I was saying what I wanted to say.
That's what I like most about running
and about teaching Spanish
that suddenly, one day, you realise that you have achieved something that was impossible for you a short time before.
And then, of course, a few days later you're back to being the clumsiest person in the world.
This is life, it has its ups and downs.
We cannot always be at the peak.
That's why it's so exciting when you succeed
