In the autumn of 2024, I began working as an English language assistant at IES San Clemente. Although I was familiar with Spain, having completed an Erasmus in Murcia and travelled through many regions, Galicia was a completely new part of the country for me – one with its own language, traditions and rhythm of life. I was drawn not only by the opportunity to teach parts of my language and culture, but also by the chance to experience daily life in a region that can feel like a world apart from the rest of Spain.

While I had studied languages at university, stepping into a classroom to teach my own was a challenge that took time to adapt to. Having had no prior teaching experience, during my first couple of months, I was unsure of how to support students speaking skills and create activities that could encourage them and facilitate their confidence and engagement in the classroom. Through some trial and error, I got accustomed to what activities they enjoyed more, focusing more on myths and legends, British monarchs and murder mysteries as opposed to the various ways of pronouncing “ough” words (though, thought, through, tough… sorry again for that!).

I also ran an English Club to help students prepare for their exams, and it was great to see how their confidence grew, especially in speaking. What surprised me was that even though I was teaching them, I learnt so much from them about Spanish. Seeing how they wrote and expressed themselves in English gave me a better understanding of Spanish, which made it feel like a two-way learning process.

The conversation practices I had with both students and teachers were an insightful way to find out about aspects of Galician culture and to explore various perspectives on topics such as language learning, AI, cultural differences and attitudes towards certain debate topics. Learning that bullfighting isn’t a popular sport in all of Spain was a real eye-opener for me.

I am especially grateful to have had to opportunity to continue studying languages at the institute. Having French classes with Loli, Italian classes with Marcos and Roberta and even organising a language exchange with Fabricio outside of school to learn a bit of Portuguese has been an incredible experience that I will cherish forever.

My time at IES San Clemente has been nothing short of wonderful. I’d like to thank the entire team for welcoming me so warmly and for offering such a constantly supportive environment. Thank you to Esteban and Eva for their encouragement and guidance in organising classes, and a special thanks to Xoana, who was a rock all throughout the year and who made my time here so pleasant. This experience has made me all the more excited for future endeavours in teaching across cultures.

All the best to everyone,

Laura Beaumont