{"id":1233,"date":"2021-08-16T13:41:06","date_gmt":"2021-08-16T11:41:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/somethingpolyglot.com\/myblog\/?p=1233"},"modified":"2021-08-16T13:44:22","modified_gmt":"2021-08-16T11:44:22","slug":"kenny-goes-italki","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/somethingpolyglot.com\/myblog\/2021\/08\/16\/kenny-goes-italki\/","title":{"rendered":"My new language adventure: Kenny goes ITALKI"},"content":{"rendered":"
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My new language adventure: Kenny goes ITALKI<\/h2>
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How did this new adventure of mine start?<\/p>\n

How did I end up teaching 500 lessons to almost 100 different students in less than 3 months?<\/p>\n

I am an introvert. No, I award myself the title Mr. Introvert\u201983. I have no idea how some people don\u2019t start sweating when they meet new people. I start sweating when I know there is a POSSIBILITY<\/strong>, I MIGHT<\/strong> have to meet someone new sometime in the future and this is what goes on in my too busy mind:<\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div>

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What do I ask?<\/span><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

What do I tell?<\/span><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Will they find me instantly ridiculous?<\/span><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Or socially awkward?<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div>\n

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Just this instance a message from my Tandam app pops up on my phone:<\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div>\n

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\u201cBe the person at the party who can chat in another language!\u201d<\/span><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div>\n

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Well, I am that person that CAN chat in 10 other languages but doesn\u2019t DARE to. It\u2019s too much a jump out of my comfy comfort zone. Oh, it\u2019s so cosy in there! And it\u2019s not a language thingy: I won\u2019t even chat in my mother tongue to strangers.<\/p>\n

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<\/a>) and the support of the #langtwt community on Twitter I decided to try something out of that zone: online teaching.<\/p>\n

But it started a tad earlier.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

This is a safe as it could get.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div>\n

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Boom!<\/span><\/strong><\/em><\/h3>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div>\n
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That\u2019s how I image the explosion of my self-confidence sounded.<\/p>\n

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\u2019s how one of my Catalan teachers called it the other day): I teach 4 (5 according to ITALKI) languages and use a fifth (\u00a1Ola! \u00a1Siesta! \u00a1Paella! \u00a1Fiesta!) as source language with some of my students.<\/p>\n

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\u2026. simple nice people to have a chat with.<\/p>\n

And this is difficult to write, as I don\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n

As I say in this video, I kinda hope that another shy person reads this and thinks \u201cI can do this!\u201d and will book a lesson or even apply to become a teacher.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div>\n

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