“Right from the very first session, I realized how special it is to share your culture with others.”
Estefanía (24) used to teach French in her home country, Mexico, but since September 2021 she has been living in Belgium. Earlier this year, she hosted our very first Online Language Café in her native Spanish as a test run. She shares why she was so eager to become one of our first café coaches.
At the start of 2023, we announced our upcoming Online Language Cafés. What made you want to lead one of the test sessions?
Estefanía: “I love working with languages and helping people—it’s so rewarding. I immediately believed in the idea and saw how much of a boost it could give to language learners. I also realized the OLC would give participants the chance to learn more about the countries where the language is spoken. And right from that very first session, I could feel how nice it is to share your culture with others. It was really touching to see people’s interest. I got to talk about my home country, Mexico, and they asked me lots of fun questions in return.”
So you were the very first to give it a try. Can you tell us a bit more about that first OLC session?
Estefanía: “In January 2023, I organized the very first Spanish test session for Linguapolis. Ten participants with a basic level of Spanish joined in. We talked, among other things, about traditional Mexican celebrations. For example, I showed a video about ‘Día de los Muertos’ (‘Day of the Dead’), and afterwards we discussed what everyone had seen and heard in the video.”
Did everything go smoothly from the start?
Estefanía: “At first, the participants were a little shy and not completely confident in their speaking skills. But pretty quickly they started talking on their own and even took the initiative to share what they knew about my culture. I think they were surprised at how well they could already communicate. It isn’t always easy to find opportunities to practice speaking outside of class, so this was a valuable and challenging experience for them. Even though it was just a test session, the atmosphere quickly became very relaxed and positive.”
You used videos and texts to support your sessions. Did preparing them take a lot of time?
Estefanía: “Not at all. Linguapolis provided plenty of inspiring materials and tools, so I didn’t have to start from scratch. With the information I got, I quickly knew how to shape the content of my sessions. I could also rely on the experience of Maxime, who not only supports the café coaches but also teaches Dutch to non-native speakers. Thanks to her, I could make a realistic plan and learned some useful tips for encouraging interaction. Out of enthusiasm, I did spend some extra time preparing, but it’s so worth it when the participants are motivated and the session runs smoothly.”
Do you have any tips for future café coaches?
Estefanía: “Definitely make a plan in advance, and always prepare an extra activity! If the session goes faster than you expect, you’ll have a plan B to fall back on. And if you don’t end up needing it, you can always save it for the next session. Another tip is to pay attention to the quieter participants. Some people are naturally more talkative than others, so it’s your job to make sure everyone gets a chance to speak. You can, for example, call someone by name and ask them a direct question.”
You’ve now led several test sessions. Will you also be a café coach when we officially launch in November?
Estefanía: “Absolutely! Even though I already had experience as a language teacher, it was still new for me to teach my own mother tongue. Before, I taught French to more advanced learners, so this showed me the importance of slowing down when speaking my own language. I also discovered which topics work well with beginners. These experiences are a great addition to my CV. And it also shows I’m eager to keep learning myself, since language teaching is constantly evolving. Being part of that evolution… how wonderful is that?”
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“I love working with languages and helping people, it’s so rewarding. I immediately believed in the idea and saw how much of a boost it could give to language learners.”
— Estefanía, Spanish café coach
