Faces of Na’atik: Spanish and Maya Teachers Part Two
At the start of the year we introduced some of our in-person Spanish and Maya teachers in this blog post. Today we would like to introduce more members of our growing team. All of our Spanish and Maya teachers are native speakers, university-trained, professional and love their jobs. Some team members deliver a mixture of in-person and online classes, while others are focused only on online classes.
More Na’atik Spanish teachers
Evelyn is from Chetumal, the capital city of the state of Quintana Roo, which is located around 150km (93 miles) to the south of Felipe Carrillo Puerto, close to the Belizean border. She studied English Language at the Universidad Autónoma de Quintana Roo, which is a well-regarded public university. She originally intended to teach English professionally, however she decided to try something outside of her comfort zone and joined the Na’atik Spanish teaching team in 2021. She says that teaching Spanish has been like finding a previously unknown part of herself, and now considers teaching others the language to be her passion. Her teaching philosophy is focused on ensuring she is able to understand and adapt to the needs of her students and which teaching methods will make them most comfortable and successful in gaining fluency. Her favorite part about teaching Spanish is being able to share the unique elements of Mexican culture and language with her students, and seeing them enjoy learning about them. She would also like to experience other cultures herself, particularly those of Korean and Japan, and hopes to be able to go on her own cultural tour one day.
Like Evelyn, Abinadab also hails from Chetumal, and studied at the Universidad Autónoma de Quintana Roo, where he specialized in translation studies. He joined the Na’atik team at the beginning of 2020. He chose to become a teacher after spending time living and working in Cancún and Playa del Carmen and finding himself constantly intrigued by the foreign language spoken by visitors. He realized that he was fascinated by the relationship between culture and language and wanted to explore this through teaching. His classroom philosophy is to try to instil confidence in students, so that they believe in their own language skills and capacity to learn more. His favorite part of his lessons is the exchange of culture between both student and teacher. He hopes to be able to experience other cultures in person in the future, and as well as visiting Asia would like to spend some time living in Canada.
José is from Na’atik’s hometown of Felipe Carrillo Puerto and studied English Language at the Universidad de Quintana Roo. He began teaching with Na’atik as his first job back in 2016. He chose to become a teacher because seeing students gain the ability to communicate and express themselves in a new language is both satisfying and exciting. He believes it is important to make the learning process fun for his students, but also ensure that they are not only gaining the raw language skills, but also the different perspectives that come with a new way of expressing and interpreting ourselves. He himself would like to learn Italian and visit the country to understand more about both the language and the culture.
Osmar is also from Felipe Carrillo Puerto and studied English Language at the University of Quintana Roo. He has been teaching Spanish at Na’atik since 2017, and now focuses on online classes. He became a teacher because he enjoys sharing his language and culture. He believes it is important to center the language aspirations of his students in order to build a connection with them and ensure content is both relevant and stimulating. His favorite part of being a teacher is the way that he is also able to learn from every class, and the sharing of culture. If he could travel anywhere in the world he would choose to visit Iceland, so that he could see the beautiful landscape in person.
One more Na’atik Maya teacher
Mildred is from Dzúla, a Maya community near Felipe Carrillo Puerto, and has lived in Carrillo for around 30 years. She has studied both International Relations and English Language at the Universidad de Quintana Roo and at the Universidad Da Vinci. She joined the Na’atik team in 2022 and became a teacher because she wanted the opportunity to share her language and culture with other people. She believes that everyone has the ability to learn a foreign language, and sees the teacher’s role as being to provide motivation and fostering a desire to truly understand the culture the language is rooted in. She enjoys learning together with her students and believes each one is interesting and unique. In common with many of our teachers she would like to visit Japan, as she would like to learn more about such a different culture.
Thank you to all our Spanish and Maya teachers for all their hard work and dedication to Na’atik. Their teaching enhances our immersion and online experiences making them well worth the time and energy of our students.
To find out more about studying at Na’atik visit our Spanish and Maya immersion pages or our Online program page. Our team are happy to answer any questions and can be contacted on say@naatikmexico.org