¡Hola! I am Nuria and this is
Spanish Alter Ego
I know how you feel when you don’t understand a language or you don’t have confidence to talk, because it all happened to me too.
Spanish everywhere…
In 2017 I went to live in Australia, after having lived in Ireland and England some years earlier. This time, I really wanted to learn English by becoming fully integrated into the way of living and thinking of the country.
Surprisingly, I realised after a few months that I was surrounded by Spanish all around. I worked as a Spanish teacher in a language school, had Spanish friends and lived with Spanish-speaking housemates.
Practising English was almost impossible!
It soon became clear to me that my goal of learning the language and becoming fluent was not going to be fully accomplished.
I felt frustrated not only because all the Spanish around but not being able to learn English effectively again.
Looking for the Australian alter ego
Despite my efforts to organise Spanish-English language exchanges, study on my own or talk to locals, I needed more help.
I sometimes could not understand everything that people were saying to me or hold a full conversation in a group. I felt I had to do more. So, I sought extra help and found a local teacher who taught me a lot!
I improved my English and my confidence to speak and communicate, I learned many things about the culture that I would not have learned without her help.
I also did a lot of research on how to learn a language effectively and created my own method based on my own experience and mistakes while learning.
My life in Australia changed completely.
I gained confidence and fluency, I managed to find my Australian self and felt that I was making the most of the experience. Finally, I fulfilled my goals with English.
– For this reason, my purpose now is to help you develop “your Spanish self” and make the best of your Spanish adventure.-
My values:
1. 100% commitment to the work that is carried out. I respond to your needs and get involved in each case individually. In exchange, I also need your commitment so that everything flows properly.
2. Empathy to put ourselves in the shoes of another person and to understand them, along with cross-cultural empathy to be open enough to perceive the world from a culture that is not our own.
3. Self-confidence to achieve our goals and trust in the people who help us to make them possible.
4. Freedom of being and flexibility to adapt to new ways of thinking and doing, and thus, obtaining the resources to function in another culture and language.
5. Fairness with oneself and with others without being prematurely judgemental.
You may be interested to know that…
I hold a degree in Pedagogy (Bachelor of Education) from the University of Salamanca, I trained as a teacher of Spanish as a foreign language at the International House Barcelona School and I studied a master’s degree in Intervention in learning difficulties at the ISEP.
During the first years of my professional career I worked as a teacher and social educator in different schools and educational centres. Later, I also worked as a trainer of trainers and became head of an English academy for children.
In 2013, the economic crisis in Spain and my own personal crisis led me to my reinvention and to finding the way to a dream that I had had in mind for a long time: to become a language teacher.