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Hey everybody, this is Tara speaking. So welcome back to another episode of Talk With Tara. So today I'm using this webcam on top of my laptop and also the microphone I usually use when I do live streaming classes. So I'm pretty sure today the audio quality is going to be great, but you win and you lose, right? So the
Today I want to talk about my Spanish learning journey and how that process really helps me become a better English teacher. I know it sounds really weird. Why? So, today I want to talk about
So I started learning Spanish in February 2022, that's last year. So, so far it has been one year and four months, something like that.
Yeah, there is this academy that is perfectly located just like within walking distance to my home, to my apartment. It takes me like three minutes to walk there basically. So it's just I chose this academy because of its location, because it just I can I can be sure that I will make it. I can make it because physically speaking, it's like it's too easy. It's too easy. It's three minutes away. Like how lazy is this?
you have to be to not go to that academy, right? So I go to that academy like two times per week, altogether three hours per week. But I have to say I don't really go to that academy like every week, like twice perfectly, like super diligently. No, because there were some times that when I got stuck with work, when I was overwhelmed, swamped with my work as a teacher,
and I wouldn't be able to make it or when I was super super sick I wouldn't be able to make it but more or less in general I tried to be responsible, diligent and try to go to that class like two times per week
But if you think about it, it's not a lot of time because it's only three hours per week. And I use English to teach. I use English to communicate. I use Chinese and English most of the time. I kind of surround myself with English speakers because my level of Spanish is not good enough for me to make...
like meaningful relationships with people. So yeah, I know I have been spoiling myself a little bit by surrounding myself with English speakers, like living this bubble. But I do have to learn Spanish because the city I'm living in right now, it is in the north of Spain. And if you go to places like Barcelona or Madrid, people speak English, like really pretty shady English, but they do. People like
servers and waiters and waitresses, they do speak English to some level. But I'm living in the north where people do not speak English almost nothing. So it's like a survival mode for me. Like if I don't know any Spanish, it's really hard to even just get bread here. Okay. So that's why I had to learn Spanish. There was this urgency for me to learn.
I feel like learning Spanish, this whole journey, this whole process really humbles me because even though I know my English is
not perfect. Still, I feel confident most of the time. Wherever I go, people are always impressed with my English. And I use English to work, I use English to socialize, I use English on a daily basis. So it's like, almost like my mother tongue for me. Like I even dream in English. So when I'm drunk, I still speak English perfectly. So that's my level of English. But
learning Spanish reminds me how I'm still like, I'm not perfect. I'm far away from perfect. And I just all the time feel frustrated, discouraged. I feel like a piece of shit all the time. Sorry for the language, but that's how I feel. I feel like a piece of shit all the time. And I
That makes me humble. That really pulls me back to the earth and makes me realize that I need to work hard. I need to really knuckle down. I really need to put my nose to the grindstone, however you call it, right? So I can actually relate to my students much, much more, much, much better. Like I...
When they come to me and they share with me their confusions, their frustrations, I can understand them so much better. Like I always have been able to understand them. Like I'm a very empathetic person. I can empathize with people easily. But now it just...
gives me this vision like I am with you because I am you. I feel your pain because I am suffering as well, you know? So I like that feeling. I feel so much closer to my students and I know what they need, you know? Because being a teacher, apart from providing knowledge and sharing skills, sometimes I need to do like almost like a psychological therapy
with my students like they will come to me normally at midnight when they are about to go to bed and that's when they they have this like depressive episode like oh my god oh my god time is ticking oh my god i don't have time for ielts i don't know what to do i'm nervous and i can't go to bed because if i go to bed i won't be able to study more and i'm just feeling so ashamed
with about myself so that's like at midnight is when my students did just go crazy and that's when they come to me and they talk to me and they are like tara i really need your support i really need your encouragement i'm feeling so bad about my ielts exam i'm doing so little for my ielts exam i'm doing a terrible job and i'll be like oh don't beat yourself up about it you know we all have this moment when we feel so
ashamed about ourselves, blah, blah, blah. I always have that capacity of talking with them and empathizing with them and calming them down. But now I just see this from a total different perspective. Like in the past, sometimes I did feel a little bit impatient because I
I felt that, come on, you're an adult. Like why you can't provide yourself with the support you need. You need, you are better than this. You should be stronger. You know, you need to pull yourself together. And now I realized that no matter what age you are, no matter how old you are, you are never 100% strong. You're never 100% sure about yourself. You always need your
People your anchor in life to support you you need your support system Whether it's your family or friends or your teacher you need you always need support I remember last year when I felt really really shitty about myself when I was really frustrated with my Spanish learning journey and there were times when I reached out to my teacher and she wouldn't really
say the things I wanted to hear, she would just say things like, oh, just keep trying. You will get there. Trust me, you will get there. But that wasn't enough for me. You know, I wanted someone to really embrace me, hug me, support me and tell me,
you're doing great i have faith in you you have this potential in you i see it just keep trying never give up i know i know it's really hard i feel you i i can feel your pain but just trust me and trust yourself keep trying the most important thing is not giving up i needed those words but my teacher never really gave me that and that makes me realize that i need to give my students
the reassurance that they really, really need, the encouragement that they really, really need.
So now when my students come to me asking for comfort, for reassurance, for encouragement, for support, I don't hold back. I pour my heart and soul. I will tell them, you got this, hanging there, you know. Compare yourself to who you were yesterday, not to who someone else is today. So yeah, learning Spanish definitely puts me into perspective of...
who I want to be, what kind of English teacher do I want to be like? It's definitely benefiting me from different, from many different ways. And I'm loving it. I'm loving this journey of learning Spanish.
And yes, maybe in the future episodes, I will talk to you more about my Spanish learning journey. And if you have any questions, please leave a comment and I can maybe answer those questions one by one in my future episodes. Okay, that's everything for today. I'll see you. I'll talk to you in my next episode. Bye.
