316. From ZERO English to Teaching Success: Interview with Mariana Plesco from DLanguages

Welcome to the Influency Podcast. I'm Hadar, and this is episode number 316. And today we are going to hear a story of resilience, persistence, and inspiration as we listen to the story of Mariana from D Languages. Hey.

Hey, everyone.

Thank you so much for tuning in for another episode. Today we have a guest on the podcast, and her name is Mariana. Mariana is originally from Moldova, which means that she speaks Romanian as her first language. At the age of 16, Mariana moved with her family to Spain, where she had to learn not only Spanish, but also English. And that was the first time she tried to acquire both languages simultaneously. Her story is incredible. From struggling with understanding almost anyone around her to speaking three. No, actually four languages. She also speaks Russian, so Romanian, Russian, Spanish, and English. And now she teaches English in Spanish. And she does an incredible job in her business and with her students, teaching them how to speak with confidence and fluency. Mariana has such an interesting story, and a very funny one at that, and I cannot wait for you to hear our conversation. So let's dive into it.

Hi, Mariana.

Hello.

Hello.

How's it going? I'm good.

So happy to have you here.

Me too. Thank you. Thank you so much for just inviting me and. And showing interest in my story, because.

Your story is interesting, and I cannot wait for my audience to get to know you and hear your story, because I think it's so inspiring and energizing. So for those who don't know you, what do you say when people ask you to introduce yourself?

That's a good question. So, well, I started with my name, which is Mariana Pleshko. And, yeah, I'm originally from Moldova. Moldova is the tiny. I. I usually explain where Moldova is, because people do usually don't know. So it's Moldova. It's a tiny country in the Eastern Europe between Ukraine and Romania. I was born there and lived there until I was 16 years old, and then I moved to Spain. So I lived there for 15 years.

Yeah, 15 years. And just for people who don't know what language is spoken in Moldova.

That's right. So my mother tongue is Romanian. This is the language that we speak there. That's the official language of Moldova. And I also speak Russian because Russian is a ex Soviet. An ex Soviet country. So growing up, the TV was all in Russian, dubbed in Russian. So I learned Russian by watching tv. And yeah, so I speak Romanian, Russian, and then.

Wait, wait. So the two languages that you grew up in, basically, are actually not the languages that you use today to speak.

Live and teach not at all. Funny enough, those two languages, Russian and Romanian, are not similar at all. Like, they have nothing to do with each other. You know, the. The Alphabet, the spelling, the sounds are so different. So, yeah, Romanian is a Latin language, and Russian is, I don't know, like a Slavic. Slavic language. So, yeah, when I moved to Spain, I learned Spanish and English at the same time. So I. I speak Spanish and English, and these are two languages that I use right now, so Spanish, Romanian, and Russian. I barely use them. I speak, you know, sometimes with my family from Moscow, I use Russian. It's a little bit rusty, I must say. And I.

You're forgiven. It's okay.

Okay. Yeah, because it's. It's, you know, it's cool to know. I understand it 100 now. When it comes to speaking, I need a little bit of time to just remember the words. So I speak Romanian with my mom, but it's not a clean Romanian, you know, it's. It's like a mix between Romanian, Russian, Spanish, you know, it's absolutely crazy. People would not understand us, you know, so we. We have, like, our own language, you know?

I love it.

It's. It's great. That's the beauty of knowing so many languages, and you just mix them up. People that are, you know, affluent in many languages, I'm sure they do exactly the same thing.

They.

They know it.

Yeah. And I think that when they try to recollect a word from one language, then that, like, probably a word from a different language comes up.

For sure. For sure. And it's funny because when we see. With our family from Moldova, we use sometimes a word in Spanish and we don't even realize it, and they're like, what is that? You know, it's like, I don't know that word. I. Yeah, like. So it's like, okay, how do I say that? Because we keep using the same word in span, you know? Yeah. So.

So just to get it straight. So at the age of 16, you moved to Spain.

That's right.

And until that age, were you. Have you learned Spanish or English?

No, I did not learn Spanish at all. So when I moved to Spain, I did not speak Spanish at all. I was. My level was zero. And English, I. I learned English at school. You know, the basics. Grammar and the verb to be and, you know.

Yeah, ing. Exactly.

That's right. That's right. So the basics. So I was not really fluent. I was. I was not able to communicate my thoughts clearly in English, but I knew something. I. I was able to. To say something In English, you know, Spanish. I was not able to say anything.

You know, and I'm assuming that in Spain, most people don't even speak English. Like back then, when you move.

Exactly, yeah.

Like, you needed Spanish to.

I needed Spanish. I needed Spanish. So you know what? The funny thing was that when I moved to Spain, literally the next day, my parents sent me to school, so I was not speaking Spanish. I went Spanish school.

Like, in Spanish?

Yeah, yeah. Everything was in Spanish. So it's like, you know, like going now to China and. And speak Chinese.

Figure it out.

Yeah, figure it out. So it was. It was the first day I. It was so stressful, you know, it's like, you know, when you try to teach a baby how to swim, you just, like, you know, throw it into the swimming pool.

Necessarily a good idea.

Not necessarily a good idea. Yes. I mean, I had no choice. Yeah. I literally learned Spanish, like, the basics in three months. So that was great.

How do you manage. Okay. As a teenager at the age of 16. So on one hand you feel like, okay, all this incredible change, like moving from one country to another, then you need to acquire the language you need. You want to make friends because you have to also be. You want to be socially accepted, for sure. What did you do? How did you manage to learn it so quickly?

So the advantage of. Of knowing Romanian. So Romanian and Spanish are Latin languages. So there were words. There are words that are very similar. So I was trying to understand. I was able to understand some things because they resonated with me, because Romanian was very similar. Like, for example, mesa, it's. It's table, and masa, it's. It's table in Romanian. So mesa, it's in Spanish, and masa, it's in, you know, in Romanian. So some words were very similar, and I was able to. To understand, put them together. It was more intuition, you know? So I was just basing my. My. My understanding on the intuition. Many times I'd fail, you know, Many times I was like, okay, no, I didn't understand that properly.

Properly.

Sometimes I'd make silly mistakes. People would laugh, but not because, you know, they would bully me or anything. It was just. It was. It was just honestly funny, you know? So, yeah, they found it funny. And. And this is how you learn. So I learned from my mistakes so quickly, you know, And I adopted this mentality of, okay, this is not my language. This is not my mother tongue. I am learning. It's okay to make mistakes. It's fine. Let's have fun with it, you know?

Yeah.

So it was stressful, Frustrating, super frustrating. Because you felt like you were. You're dumb. You're not able to express anything, and you have so many things to say, and you feel like you have a lock here, you know what I'm saying? And you're not able to.

To.

To say anything. You're not able to. And then. And then when someone asked you a question, the questions were like, oh, my God, please don't ask me any questions. Please don't. Don't ask me any questions. Because it's like, it's. You feel scared of not understanding the question and then looking ridiculous, you know, and then asking to repeat, you know, like, to repeat themselves is like, oh, my God, it's like asking for such a huge favor, you know, which is really not.

Like, this is definitely something that inhibits people. Now, as, you know, language partners or conversation partners, we know that if someone asks us to repeat ourselves, not a big deal, but. Okay. But when you are. We don't know how to ask for help, you know, So I think this is something that was. That having that experience, I'm sure that has taught you about your now students experience. Experience, which we'll get to.

Yeah.

I also want to mention, I think we're gonna get, like, gonna go through your story and go back and forth between, you know, the story and your teaching or your philosophy about teaching, because it seems like, okay, so you use the word intuition, which I love. I always talk about intuition when I talk about teaching because you gotta. At some point, it's not going to be clear, and you just have to trust the work that you've done or trust your knowledge or trust your understanding to be able to continue in a con. So I love that. I also think that a word that came to my mind was resourceful. It felt like you were very resourceful. You were just figuring things out and you made it work no matter what. Like, you could have said, I'm not going to school. I know stories of people who immigrated and their kids said, I'm not going to school because they were so afraid. So you could have said that, but you said, no, I'm gonna figure this out. I'm gonna make it work. And. And the fact that you kept going, whether if it was in school or in a conversation, made it possible for you to see that progress in such a short time. Of course, you were very immersed in it and the similarities in the language.

For sure. Yeah.

What did you take from that experience to what is now your teaching?

So where I'm coming From you don't have an option of not doing, you know, so that's the mentality. So when you don't give yourself an option of no, you know, no is not an option. You just have to do it, you know? So this is what I always tell my students. Just don't give yourself an option of not learning English, you know, you have to do it.

There is no alternative.

No alternative. In Spanish, we say C or C. Yes or yes. There's no option. So not going to school was not an option for me. Not. Not learning Spanish was not an option for me. And not learning English was also not an option for me, you know, because I didn't need to learn English living in Spain, it was just a passion and a dream of mine, you know, but I didn't give myself an option of not doing it.

So tell me more about that. How did you manage everything?

So, yeah, so Spanish was a necessity, really. I needed to survive. That's why I learned it. And I was very lucky because at school, one of my classmates was English. She was from England. So I was able to communicate with my broken English with her, at least at. At the beginning. And, and yeah, so because of her, I was able to practice my English learning Spanish at the same time.

Wow.

And. And then at home, I was just, you know, I, I, I basically listened to things in English, watched everything in English. It was like Spanish and English. So I worked a lot with movies, so I always loved movies. And I was watching those movies that I grew up with, you know, the, I don't know, like, Home Alone and those movies, I watched them in. In. In Russian.

Right.

So everything was dubbed in Russian. So since I already knew those movies, like, by heart and, you know, the dialogue by heart, I would watch the same movie in English and then the same movie in Spanish, you know, So I was like, oh, so this is. This is in Russian. Okay, so this is how you say it in Spanish. Ah. And this is how you say it in English. So good.

Yeah. Very smart.

Yeah. So you just, you work with things that you're familiar with, you know, or books that I. I'd read, for example, Harry Potter. Right. So I read the first book in, In Romanian. I was very familiar with that. I loved it. And then I'd read the same book in Spanish and then the same book in English. You know, I'm saying it's a lot of work, you know, you.

It's a lot of work.

You need.

It seemed like you were very passionate about it.

Exactly. It's. It's you have to put in the work, you know, it's not gonna happen overnight. It's not gonna happen. There's no magic, you know, pill. There's no magic in it. You just have to work. Exactly.

Yeah.

And so this is what I would do. So I am outside home, I, you know, surrounded by Spanish speaking people. At school I had to, to study the subject, the all the subjects in Spanish. But at home I created an English environment. Right. So if I was in the kitchen, in the background, I'd have something on, on the computer, you know, like a video or something, a movie, whatever. Spoken English, you know.

So my ear get used in loops probably. You repeated a lot of the same content?

Sure. Yes. Like the same thing. So, you know, not just like a, a video. Worked with it for a few minutes and then continued to the next one, you know. No, I worked with the same one. So yeah, the more I listen to it, the more things I, I was able to understand. And yeah, so it was like that. And then I would read in English, I would chat with people on Facebook. So I would join this random groups about topics I would, I was interested in. And I was interested in fitness and, you know, eating healthy and all that stuff. So I met a girl from Estonia who lived. She's. She's my friend now who, who lives in Ireland. So she speaks Russian and English. So I would chat with her in English. And then if there was something that I didn't know, I would ask her in Russian. So she would help me, you know, so it's just like, just like that.

So for someone listening to your story, and I'm trying to kind of like collect all the things that you said that you did. So here are a few things that you mentioned just to summarize. Up until this point. One of the things that helped you was to watch a movie, movie that you knew that was maybe previously dubbed in, in Russian in your case, for other people, especially in countries where TV is dubbed or movies are dubbed then in your first language, so you know the content and you know the dialogue. Then to watch it in your target language. In our case, probably English.

Yeah.

So that you're not struggling to understand the story, but you pay attention to the content and then to probably watch it over and over and over again and not just try to go through as many pieces of content or movies as possible, but to really focus on something that allows you to go deeper.

That's right. So that's why you have to work with something that you, you love. You know, a book that you absolutely love, a movie that you, you adore, that you don't mind watching it over and over again.

Yes. It has to be fun. This is also really critical. Yeah. And immerse yourself, right. Like you said, you surround yourself with English. It. In the background. So people who are not immersed in English, this could help because it, for sure.

Obviously I lived in Spain, Right. So I learned English in Spain and I haven't, I haven't been to any English speaking country up until 2019. And I've been, I've been. Thank you. I have been teaching English since 2011. Okay. So it was like I learned English living in Spain. And in Spain, you know, English is not their mother tongue. Right.

Yeah.

So it's, it doesn't matter where you are in the world right now. With technology, it's so much easier to immerse yourself in the, in the language. You just create your environment at home, you know, the English environment at home and learn. And you know what? Here in, in the United States, there are so many people that live here but don't speak English because they surround themselves with people that speak Spanish. In, in this case, you know, so yes, most of my students are from Latin America, are Spanish speakers. And yeah, they've been living here for 30 years, 20 years. And, and they don't speak English because they don't surround themselves with English speaking people, you know, so it doesn't matter if you live in a country where English is spoken.

I just had a student yesterday in one of my coaching sessions and this is exactly what he said. He said, I live in Florida, but it doesn't mean anything because most of my life I've lived in a, in a Spanish speaking community, which makes it challenging. So you got to find solutions to allow yourself to communicate. And it doesn't have to be physical. Like you can definitely find solutions online. And your story and many, many other stories of people who were able to achieve fluency despite the fact that they never visited an English speaking country or never had, you know, friends to speak with, you can find solutions. It's all about resourcefulness and you are the example for that. Like you find partners. So it's really good for people to see that it is possible.

Absolutely. And if there is nobody you can talk with, just talk with yourself. Because I was talking with myself all the time. You know, it's just, you have to, you know, that's another good tip.

Like talk to yourself. Can you tell us, can you tell us how you did it?

Yeah. So for example, I would Name the things that I. That I'd see or things that I was doing. So if I was cooking, you know, and I was peeling a potato, I would ask myself, how would I say peeling a potato in English or in Spanish? You know what I'm saying? Because it was at the same time. Right. So just question yourself. If you see a person walking the dog right outside your window, how would you say in English, walk the dog? You know, so, like, ask yourself in. In your mother tongue, how do I say this in English? How would I say that in English? Name the things that you see. Name the things that you are doing. Question yourself. Like, for example, if you're writing something in your schedule or your diary, how would I say that in English? You know, so this way, it's so much easier right now because you have translators, online translators. You can find the answer immediately. You know, you can check your. Your mistakes. You know, you can correct your mistakes. I always tell my students this. Say the sentence in span in English the way you think it's. It's correct. Right. Then type that sentence in Spanish in the translator. The translator will translate it into English. And then you check the sentence of the. You know, the translator and your sentence, and you can correct yourself, you know?

Yep.

So it's so much easier right now, too. It is to communicate, you know, to just speak in English by yourself.

Yeah. Okay. This is really, really good.

What else did you do?

Like, is there another tip or trick that you can teach us that you use to learn Spanish and English?

Yeah, what else? So in terms of pronunciation, the pronunciation is really important. And I would listen to songs and I would repeat them. Right. So I would sing along, not to learn words or to learn expressions or anything. Because, you know, the. The lyrics of the songs, in my. In my opinion, are so much different from the spoken English. So I never recommend my students to focus on the. On. On the tech, you know, the lyrics of the songs because it's. It's. Sometimes it's, you know, it's not the spoken version of. Of English.

Yeah, yeah.

But. But when you listen to songs and repeat, sing along, your pronunciation improves, you know, So I was improving my pronunciation like this. I would just listen to the song, and I was trying to copy the. The singer exactly the same way, the exact same tone. This is one way I was improving my pronunciation. Then another way I was just listening to audios and applying the shadowing technique. Shadowing technique is, for those people that don't know, is basically copying the native speaker. Exactly. Like, the tone, the Pauses. The. In the. The. The. Exactly. The pronunciation. Everything. Everything you hear, you just shadow. You just copy that person. So I would just work the same. Tongue twisters. I would just say tongue twisters in English and Spanish. Yeah, they're fun.

Okay, Amazing. So moving on. Moving along to the moment you said, I love English so much, I want to teach it. Or maybe it was just like a random decision that ended up changing your life. What was it like?

It was. It was a random. It was not even a decision. It was just like it popped in my life, popped into my life. And it's like, okay, I. I have to do it. So everything started when I moved to Madrid. So when I moved to Spain, I was living in a tiny village in the east of Spain. So I was living with my parents, and then I moved to. To Madrid when I was 18, and I convinced my parents to pay for my rent and my food until I. I found a job, and I was. I was studying, I was finishing my high school, and I was struggling.

Wait, wait, wait, wait. So you moved to Madrid on your own before you even finished high school?

Exactly. Before, yeah. Because when I moved to Spain, my Spanish was not good, so I lost one year because they. They basically put me into a lower grade. So I lost one year. And I had. So I was 18, but I didn't finish high school. And also I took a gap year. Yeah, I was on a. On a gap year as well. And, yeah, to learn Spanish and English to. To improve these two languages. So basically, I was a little bit behind. I was determined to. I was determined to. To finish high school. So I went to Madrid to finish high school and also just to start my life, you know, And I was. I was struggling because I couldn't find a job. So I was looking for a job. I was 18. Nobody was hiring. You have no experience. You know, the. The same crap. And I was living on €50amonth because the lady who. Who I was renting from increased the. The rent out of the blue. And. Yeah, so basically that Left me with €50amonth for food. So I was like, I was desperate, and I could not ask my parents for more money because they would have told me, come back. We don't have more money. You know, and going back for me was not an option because I did not like living in that village. It was too tiny. So one day I was on my way to the bank to, you know, to take up money for rent, and then my bank disappeared. It was just gone. Poof. You know, so I was like, okay, what is going on? It just. It was because they were, like, merging the banks in Madrid at that point, you know? Yeah. So suddenly my bank was gone. And instead of it, there was, like, a shoe store. I'm like, what the heck? Where's my bag? You know? And then I could not go to a different bank because they would charge me, you know, like, the fees. So I could not afford it. Exactly. I needed that bank specifically. So I was walking down the street, and I saw a girl smoking. I approached her and I asked. I asked her, can you please tell me where I can find this and this bank? And she says, like, I have no idea, but if you want, I can Google it for you. That was in 2011. And so Google was around, and so I was super happy. It's like, yes, of course. Please, you do me a great favor. So we went inside. She was a receptionist, and while she was looking, searching for that bank, I was looking around, and I saw different doors, many doors. On each door, there was a. A name of a scientist, like, Einstein, Newton. I was like, what is this place? So I turned around and asked her, can you please tell me what, what this is? And I was like, oh, it's an academy. I like, huh. So what do you teach here? Well, we teach different languages. We teach math. We teach history. You know, all these, like, subjects for school, like, support for students that, that need help. I'm like, okay, languages. I heard languages. So. So do you teach Russian? I was like, no, no, we don't teach Russian, but we do teach English. And we just had a marketing campaign, and we have a lot of students, and we're looking for 50 new teachers. English teachers.

My goodness.

I'm like, what? And she was like, do you speak English? And I was like, I had three seconds to answer that question. Is like, sure.

C or C, right?

Sure. I was starving. I, I, I needed. I needed a job, you know? So I was like, yeah, sure. Yes, I speak. So she's like, would you like to come to an interview? Wow. Like, yes, okay. I was like, yes, okay. And. And she was like, all right, great. So I would need this document, this information this year. So she gave me the information of the bank. She found the bank. I went to the bank, got my money, went home, paid the landlord, got the documents she needed, went back, left, left all those documents there. Gay gave the documents. And then a few days later, she called me and invited me to an interview. I was like, what am I doing? What am I doing? I don't speak English. Well, enough to. To, to teach it, you know, and, and I was like, okay, so they will probably test my English and they will find out that I'm almost cam and, and I don't really speak English. And then I was like, okay, well what can. What worse? What's the worst that can happen, right? And then I went, yeah. And then hadar. It was not an interview at all. You go there because it was such a shitty, you know, academy. They didn't care.

I just wanted you to know.

Yes, no, maybe they did not care if you spoke English or not. They believed you, you know what I'm saying? So it was great for me, not so good for the students, you know. And that was my window. Basically this is how I started teaching English. So the interview was basically, okay, so this is how we do it here. You go to students houses, you have to prepare the classes. And then you have a paper you sign here, you make the students sign it here. You write down how many hours you taught that day. And then at the end of the month, we're going to give you cat in your money in cash, you know, so there's not even a bank transfer or anything. So it was for you.

Couldn't, could not be better.

I'm like, oh my goodness, I cannot believe it, you know. So first class I went, I was super nervous. The first class was a complete disaster. Disaster because the student knew more English than me. So it was like, okay, I have to get my things together, you know, like, I get to, I have to prepare, like really prepared. So I started googling. I started investigating and researching, right, like how to prepare a class. And I was like, okay, I'm an actor, right? I have to act like an English teacher, get into the character. Like really, really, you know, okay, so that was literally my first acting job. And, and then I, I was going to, to school, right? So at school I was, I was studying English as well because that's one of the, the subjects that you have to, you have to, to study. So I was like, okay, I'm going to use my school book, right? So I'm going to use the, the text that I've already studied in class with my English teacher. I already know what it is about. I already know the answer to the, to the exercises related to the text. So I'm going to work with that. I've always had a good pronunciation, so that kind of saved me because you know, when you have a good pronunciation, you give the impression impression that your English is amazing even though it's not True. You know, so I was able to.

Yeah.

Get by.

Yeah. And I, I think this is such a good point first, because. Yes, this is why I think a lot of people want pronunciation because they know that. They know that because when they listen to others, this is what they feel. But at the same time, and I'm sure you have felt that this is where it could create the imposter syndrome or kind of like trigger it, because you know that people expect of you to be at a certain level and then they would, they might question for.

Sure every single mistake that you make. And.

Yeah, so as a non native speaker, you're constantly wrapped up with those thoughts about how you're perceived, what you are doing, how you're doing it, how you're performing. I think this is something that a lot of people experience, a lot of non native speaking teachers experience. And that was how. How many years ago? That was.

That was 12 years ago.

12 years ago. A long time ago.

A long time ago. Yeah. Yeah, a long time ago. So it's, it's. So the pronunciation is important because, you know, it gives you that Right. Prestige. Right. It gives you the image of sounding good. But yeah, it's definitely. I, I had the imposter syndrome for a time. You know, sometimes I make mistakes. This is the reality is that this is not my mother tongue. You know, I speak it well, I think well enough to teach it right now. And, and just because you speak a language, it doesn't matter that you know, you know how to teach it. I speak Spanish, Russian and Romanian and I have no idea how to teach those languages. Like, yeah, it's, it's. There's no way I can teach them. I know how to speak them, you know, but I don't know how to explain to you how to use a certain tense. I don't know what's the difference between one word and the other, you know?

Yeah, yeah. So, so important to know how to facilitate. Being a native speaker doesn't automatically make you a good teacher.

Absolutely not.

Yeah. And one more thing, and I think you know, and I read somewhere in, in an article that was published recently. We'll also link to it. It's on your Instagram account. And you said that 50 of your teaching is teaching English and 50 is helping your students build confidence. Can you speak more about that and how your past has created that belief in you or philosophy? Teaching philosophy for sure.

So as years went by and I gained more experience and more knowledge, because when I really learned English, it was by teaching, because I had to prepare those classes, right? So I had to, I had to really memorize everything that I didn't know. I really had to. Like, I, I spent hours and hours preparing for classes to teach them later, you know, and, and repeat, right? So repetition. So I would use the same class with one student and then with the another student, with the other student and another, and another. So, so repetition was the key. And then what I found out was that many students had a really good level, but their confidence sucked. They were not confident, you know, so that's how I found out that 50% of my work as a teacher was to. To make them confident, to, to help them believe in themselves, believe that the knowledge that they have, the English that they have right now, the level that they have right now is enough to communicate, you know, to get rid of the fears. Because there's fear, you know, and fear of making mistakes. It's like, oh my God, it has to be perfect. It's like, no, native speakers make mistakes all the time. Like, there's people, there's so many people. There is, is not correct, you know, but it's used all the time and it's okay.

And here's the thing. Like, yes, native speakers make mistakes all the time. But also, if you do make a mistake, so what? Like, what's the worst thing that could happen? Going back to that question you asked, what would that mean? Would that really make you less intelligent, less proficient, less. Less competent? No, it just makes you a non.

Native speaker speaking human. Human.

Exactly.

You know, it's just that it doesn't, it doesn't mean anything really. You know, we make mistakes constantly. And I think we have to have fun with that. Just have fun with it.

Take ourselves too seriously. Yeah, and. And I agree. And I think that unless you, unless you give yourself that permission to make mistakes, you will not be able to feel free because you'll constantly monitor yourself. You'll be on the outside checking that every single word you say is perfect. Like I could, you know, I make mistakes all the time when I speak freely because I don't monitor my speech. And I'm okay with that because I value that energy that comes out and expressing my thoughts and feelings and emotions and connecting with a person and being.

At the moment and being in the.

Moment, being attentive, listening, not thinking about myself, but thinking about you right now as we're speaking. And I know that's the mistakes is the price that I pay for being here with you. And I'm sure, like, this is what I try to Teach my students as well, that they have to change their mindset, and I know that you do that as well. They have to change their mindset to be able to make that shift. Because when you give yourself permission, you find freedom. So can you talk to me more about that as well and how you communicate that to your students?

Yeah, absolutely. So it's. I always encourage them to make mistakes and. And have. And be happy to make those mistakes, because that's. That's the way to learn. That is really the only way to learn. How else are you gonna learn? Yeah, you know, it's. It's trial and error, you know, and this is how everything works, you know, like, we were not born experts in anything, so we needed to. To. To make mistakes in order to learn. So I always try to make them feel comfortable and. And give them the most positive and happy energy. I want them to. I. I'm. I'm always trying, and my. My objective is always to make them feel. Feel good and feel comfortable with me. You know, you have to feel safe. Safe and not judge judgment. Judgmental, you know, Like, I. I never judge them, and if they make a mistake, I correct. I was correct, and I explain why. And there's like, it's a fine. You know, and I always tell them, you'll probably make the same mistake several times before you. You actually register it, and it's okay. Don't worry about it.

That is the process, that it's.

Right.

Impossible for it to happen any other way, so.

Exactly. Yeah, exactly. But it's. Everything in life is like this, you know, but whatever reason with languages, we're so obsessed of not making mistakes, you know, because. I don't know, I guess it's a belief that we got it from somewhere, you know, I guess from schools or something. I don't know.

Probably. But perfection in general and not being, you know, making mistakes in general. I think this is a cultural norm that is. That is ingrained in us in a lot of cultures. Not all cultures, but definitely for sure culture. So you teach English in Spanish.

Really?

That's right. So it's funny, huh? Because none of these languages are my mother tongues.

Exactly. So how does it feel to teach English in Spanish? Is it just because what you. Why. Why did you choose to do it? And why your entire business and your Instagram account and the content that you create is in Spanish and English? Tell me about that.

Yeah, because I started it in Spain, so I. I started teaching English to Spanish people. Right. So this is that. That's how everything started and right now my brain function like this. Like, I was. I'm not able to teach English in English or I'm not able to teach English in Russian or in Romania. Like, it doesn't work like this. Yeah. And it's funny because I tried. I tried to help my. Yeah, my cousin's son with English. I. He had an exam and he needed my help. And he speaks Russian, and I was trying to explain to him some, like, basic things like present simple and present continuous, you know, And I was trying to explain to him in Russian, and it was absolutely impossible. Hadar. So interesting how that works because my brain is used to explaining English in Spanish.

Yeah.

This is how I had.

I had an interview in Hebrew for like a. For the news. And I was on the news and. And I was like, I should stop saying yes to those interviews because talking about my work in English, like, I know how to do it in English. I don't know how to do it in my first language. I don't have the vocabulary. It's not that accessible. And I use my first language all the time. So it's not like it's rusty or anything. It's just that when you are focused on specific content, it's hard to shift and feel as comfortable in another language, even if it's your first language. So I totally get it.

It's crazy how it's like you associate, so. So you associate this topic with a certain language. Yeah, you know, like. Like kids. Like if. If kids grew up in a bilingual home, right. The mother speaks one language and the father another. So kids associate. Okay, mother Spanish, father English, and they will change immediately. You know, if the mother speaks to them in Spanish, they will immediately switch to Spanish.

Yeah.

And they will not mix it.

You know, it's amazing.

It's the same. Yeah. That's why I teach English in Spanish, because I started teaching English while I was living in Spain and. Yeah. So. So my brain basically associate associates English teaching English with Spanish.

Okay, that's. That's great. What are the advantages for people to learn the language in their first language? I think there are plenty of advantages. So, like, what do you. Why do you believe that. That it's important for people at least to get started learning English in their first language?

In their first language. You mean, like, so Spanish speakers, A Spanish speaker to learn English?

To learn English in Spanish?

Yeah, like a lot of nation.

So I'll give you some background. You know, in my community, there are a lot of teachers, and they sometimes, if they want to start a Business. They don't know if they should be creating content in their first language, teaching English or in English teaching English. And they feel they have this belief that it's very limiting or they would feel very limited creating in their first language. So I would love for you to speak about the advantages in teaching English in another language.

So I guess it all depends on how popular your mother tongue is because in, in the case of Spanish, it's very popular. So like half of the world speaks Spanish, right? So, so it's, it's definitely advantageous now. I guess it all depends on how comfortable you are teaching English in your mother tongue or teaching English in English, you know, it all depends on. I, I never thought of teaching English in another language or in English for example, because it was never an option for me. But I guess it depends on how comfortable you are with the language, you know. So if you're comfortable teaching English in English, go ahead and do it, you know, because what matters, I think people shouldn't focus on how many views they get and how popular those videos are gonna are gonna be. They should focus on teaching, you know, right. To focus on. On good content, on, on educational content. Content that will actually help people. Should focus on helping people rather than, than the views the likes and, and going viral.

Absolutely. And, and I definitely think, think that for people who are less experienced in hearing English or listening to English, there is a huge advantage when it's facilitate to them when, when they have an easier entry into English. Because a lot of times people who don't have a lot of experience listening to English, they may not understand, let's say a video or content or a lesson that is fully in English.

Yeah yeah, it's it's. So it depends on the level of, of the person, you know. So if you, if you're just starting out, you will not be able to understand a class in, in English. So that's the advantage of teaching, you know. So maybe your audience is people that, who's, who's just starting out with English.

Yeah yeah. Mariana, this was such a, such an incredible conversation and you have such a, an interesting story. What are your best, best piece of advice when it comes to learning to self learners? People who want to learn English on their own.

I think they have to just use the language as much, as much as possible. Just get out out there, you know, just go outside and, and start speaking in English. Stop learning those grammar rules. Stop, you know, learning the theory. I was give this analogy. How did we learn? All of us, most of us, how did we learn to bike? Taking the bike and riding it, right? Yeah. This is how probably we fell so many times, got bruised knees, scratched knees. Right. And, and this is how we learn. But once we learn it, we will never forget. So English is very similar. Just grab it and write it.

You know, you can't visualize yourself riding your bike and then being able to do it the next day world for the most part. Yeah. So I absolutely agree.

Just do it, you know, just do it, speak it, read it, write it, you know, use the language. If you don't use it, you lose it. Right.

And don't wait for it to be better to use it because that's another thing that I see, you know, by the time when I learn how to use the perfect tense, no, it will.

Probably never happen, you know, and, and in theory, you probably know. So I have, like many of my students have this, the theory, they, they know the theory so well, the knowledge. Right. They know the rules, how to use the certain tenses, but they don't know how to, to actually use it in, in the spoken word English, you know, so it doesn't matter if you know how to, you know the, on paper you know how to use it, but in reality you, you don't. It's useless really. So just go out there, speak English with, with different people. It doesn't matter if they are native or not non native, just speak it. Anyone who speaks English, speak English.

Just speak. Exactly. Just do it.

Yeah, absolutely.

Okay, so before we go, one last question. You recently moved to LA from Spain. So where do you see yourself one year from today?

Where do I see myself? So I'm actually living a dream right now, living my, my dream. I am going to an acting school right now. It's a very nice and prestigious acting school and I see myself continuing teaching English and also working as an actor. That's what I, I want to do. That's why I'm here in, in Los Angeles. So my dream is to make movies in English for my students to learn from. Exactly. To shadow and. Yeah. So basically that make movies, keep teaching English because you know, for me English is not just a language, is much more than that. And I know for many people it's really important to know it's, it's life changing, changing to know this language. And I want, I want to help people to get their dreams to, to. Yeah. To, to feel happy. Because when you speak this language, especially when you're living here in the United States or in any other English speaking country and you need this language, you feel happy when you speak it. You feel part of the society because when you don't, you feel like an outcast, you know?

Yeah.

So I want to. I want to help people get their goals and get and be happy, basically.

I love that. Well, I'm sure that you're going to achieve this goal in one year or sooner, and I wish you all the best. Thank you so much for this beautiful conversation. I really appreciate it. I appreciate you. And how can people find you?

People can find me on Instagram, so it's @d languages and also on YouTube. It's the same name at the languages. And these are basically two. Yeah, two platforms that I use the most. I'm also on Tick Tock, the same name, and on Facebook, but I use Instagram and YouTube the most.

Fantastic. So we're gonna link to these platforms in the, in the description below.

So, people, thank you so much.

Thank you so much.

So nice. It was, it was. I loved it. It was a. A great interview and I love your energy. Your energy is great. Same here.

I feel like we are very similar. We broadcast on the same frequency, which.

Makes it absolutely easy and, and wonderful to. To communicate and talk. Yeah, absolutely.

Thank you. It's been a pleasure.

Thank you. Hello, Sam.