Table of Contents
Reasons for teaching Spanish
From time to time people ask me about my reasons for teaching Spanish.
They know that I am a translator and have no pressing reason to teach Spanish in addition to translating.
So, they feel curiosity to know why I give time to teaching Spanish.
I am pleased to discuss my motivations and joy in teaching Spanish.
Originally a teacher of Spanish in Spain
Originally, I was a teacher of Spanish in Spain and was qualified to teach 11 to 19 secondary school.
The truth is that first and foremost I was an educator.
That is to say teaching language seems almost innate in me, although there may well be no such thing as an innate teacher.
I like working with people and feel great satisfaction as I see them achieve their goals.
Now a teacher of Spanish in England
Shortly after graduating with an M.A. in translation and interpreting I moved to England.
Working in translation as my prime occupation would allow me greater freedom to organise my timetable and to support relatives.
I missed teaching dreadfully but realised that if I were to teach Spanish in a school that would impose an inflexible timetable.
The solution very clearly was to teach privately.
By doing this I can agree class times with my students and thus arrange my timetable.
Those are the practical reasons.
The joy of helping people speak Spanish
I realise that the above does rather give the impression that teaching is purely pragmatic.
No, actually that is not the case.
I do in fact derive great satisfaction from teaching Spanish.
Cultured people study Spanish
I am not sure if I will be unpopular for saying this but I find that cultured people study Spanish.
Firstly, I very carefully define what I mean by cultured.
Cultured does not wealthy or posh, although they may indeed be both.
What I guess I am trying to say is that I meet intelligent interesting people when I teach Spanish.