What's it like to teach Spanish at Speakeasy? Our own Eva gives us a glimpse into the life of a Spanish teacher in Barcelona - "from the classroom":https://www.speakeasybcn.com/en/spanish-courses and beyond.
Teacher profile
Eva Perelló Reig is from a small village near the Ebro River in the south of Catalonia called La Torre de l’Espanyol. Eva decided to become a teacher because she says it’s such a wide-ranging profession.
“It allows you to learn every day thanks to the interactions you have with different groups, levels and colleagues. You feel fulfilled both personally and professionally.”
What Eva most likes about being a teacher is seeing the evolution and progress of her students – and how they not only learn from her but she from them too!
Teaching Spanish in Barcelona (and online)
In her classes, Eva enjoys activities that involve a lot of communication where the students can talk about the new ideas and concepts learned in the lesson that day.
Does she have any funny or interesting stories to tell?
“There are stories in class every day! At lower levels, it’s fun when students confuse the words and don’t say “Sagrada Familia” and say “Sangría Familia, instead. Also when they say “estoy caliente” for “I’m hot”, you have to explain that in Spanish, it doesn’t mean quite the same thing. These moments bring a lot of laughter to a class.”
She also recalls one day where the students were working on a Spanish-speaking activity to practice talking about family. When someone asked a student “¿Cuántos hermanos tienes?” – how many siblings do you have? – he replied, “I don’t know, a lot!”. He had gotten confused because in the US where they were from, brother can be used as friend, same as with Latin America. He thought that they were asking him about how many Spanish friends he had.
How the Coronavirus has affected teaching?
COVID-19 gave Eva the opportunity to get started as an online teacher. She had to learn to adapt the activities she usually uses in face-to-face classes to work in the online setting.
A day in the life
On a typical workday, Eva wakes up and turns on the radio to Cadena 100. She usually listens to the program Las Mañanas, a program that plays both Spanish and international music where listeners also call in to answer questions. She has a quiet breakfast, while listening and then sets up for her 30-minute walk to the school. In the afternoon, she enjoys her free time whether it’s studying, reading a book, with friends or at the gym, whatever she can do to relax. In the evening, she often has dinner with her friends and on days when she doesn’t, she’ll have dinner at home watching a series or a movie.
Eva’s hobbies
Eva likes to spend her free time in the company of friends – they always plan something together. Normally, they’ll meet at a bar or restaurant, but not with the new Coronavirus restrictions, they usually make plans at one of their homes. If she’s doing something on her own, Eva likes to go to the cinema or theatre or some kind of getaway that normally involves culture or gastronomy. She’s never without her travel notebook and a book to accompany her! Eva lives in l’Eixample Esquerra where she spends the most time. She says there are tons of restaurants, bars and cafés to visit in the afternoon, and plenty of bars to grab drinks in the evenings.
Posted in Life at Speakeasy
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