As an English teacher, I've been teaching in private individual classes and small groups for 5 years in Chile as a foreign language teacher. My Spanish is fluent and has been very useful to explain English concepts by using similar examples in Spanish. The use of Spanish in my classes results in greatly reducing the frustration of my students because they can quickly verify the concepts and meanings of words. I work almost exclusively with adult business professionals and help them through cultural conflicts and miscommunications when they are working in international companies. In business, we have found many cultural differences in the expectations and communication styles between Chilean work culture and European or North American culture.
My greatest accomplishments have been, bringing absolute beginner students to a conversational level of English, contributing to job promotions for my students by raising their confidence and giving specific vocabulary and techniques to improve their presence in meetings, helping people to prepare for international trips so that they can communicate their basic needs while traveling, and preparing students for international exams to study or move abroad.
What I'm focusing on learning now, are the IELTS and TOEFL exams to help my students pass with the scores they need. I also spend a significant amount of time during my week watching videos from TED in the fields of work related to my students to present them with ideas they can use in their career while also having them practice their listening and conversation skills. I have a passion for intercultural communication and management and study these areas to help my students towards earning promotions or to find a better job.