How did this new adventure of mine start?

How did I end up teaching 500 lessons to almost 100 different students in less than 3 months?

I am an introvert. No, I award myself the title Mr. Introvert’83. I have no idea how some people don’t start sweating when they meet new people. I start sweating when I know there is a POSSIBILITY, I MIGHT have to meet someone new sometime in the future and this is what goes on in my too busy mind:

Just this instance a message from my Tandam app pops up on my phone:

Well, I am that person that CAN chat in 10 other languages but doesn’t DARE to. It’s too much a jump out of my comfy comfort zone. Oh, it’s so cosy in there! And it’s not a language thingy: I won’t even chat in my mother tongue to strangers.

Thanks to my supportive husband, an American friend who lives here in Spain, an Instagram profile that keeps me grounded every day (check out @oli.eslcosmos) and the support of the #langtwt community on Twitter I decided to try something out of that zone: online teaching.

But it started a tad earlier.

At the beginning of 2021, my passion for languages won the battle against my shyness and anxiousness and I booked an ITALKI lesson in a language I am already fluent in with someone I follow on Twitter.

This is a safe as it could get.

That’s how I image the explosion of my self-confidence sounded.

It led to my taking the next big step: applying to become a teacher on that same platform, which now allows me to live my polyglot dream (that’s how one of my Catalan teachers called it the other day): I teach 4 (5 according to ITALKI) languages and use a fifth (¡Ola! ¡Siesta! ¡Paella! ¡Fiesta!) as source language with some of my students.

The Twitter language community #langtwt already gave me the feeling back that there are a lot of nice people out there (I kinda had lost it while I was diligently following current affairs) and my lessons confirm: people who learn/speak other languages are friendly, supportive, motivated…. simple nice people to have a chat with.

And this is difficult to write, as I don’t want to sound too boastful. Though the positive reviews are wonderful of course, the greatest result is that I really feel that I am good at this. This is my habitat. This is where I can use my skills to help others while at the same time silently hoping my passion for languages is contagious.

As I say in this video, I kinda hope that another shy person reads this and thinks “I can do this!” and will book a lesson or even apply to become a teacher.

‼️ If you are not yet using ITALKI you can get $10 ITALKI credits after your first purchase by clicking on this link: https://go.italki.com/somethingpolyglot

You will receive it 48 hours after you’ve bought your first lesson.

ℹ️ Do reach out 🙋 if you have any questions related to lessons or teaching on ITALKI. I’ll be happy to help.