New Faces, New Ideas

Hola, amigos, I'm Hannah from Speak Better Spanish. I'm here with two of our new teachers who have been offering online classes with Speak Better Spanish. So, we have Jacky and Michael. I wanted to take a chance and have them just introduce themselves briefly today so that if you're either new to Speak Better Spanish or you've been working with me for a while and you're wondering who these people are and what it might be like to work with them, you can get an idea of just, you know, who they are as a person, their experience, and if you feel like you vibe with them, then you're welcome to book a class with them, which you can do from the comments section below.

So, let me just pass it to Jacky, if you could just introduce yourself briefly in English and tell us a little bit about yourself and your teaching experience, please. Yeah, of course. So, my name is Jacky, I'm Hannah's best friend. I actually live in Mexico, in Monterrey, but I lived in the States for a really long time as well. So, you know, we can speak both in English and Spanish with you perfectly. I've been teaching for about six years and something that I like to do on the side is hiking as well.

So, where I live in Monterrey, it's full of mountains and beautiful scenery. So, that's where you'll see me at most of the time. Thank you, Jacky. And Michael, could you please introduce yourself and share a little bit about your teaching experience and maybe some fun facts about yourself? Of course. Hi, everyone. I'm Michael. I started teaching English actually in Chile about five years ago, and I went ahead and got my CELTA certificate, which is Cambridge's certificate for teaching foreign languages.

I've been speaking Spanish since I was probably around 11 or 12. I've also lived in Mexico and in Chile when I taught there in Colombia and in Puerto Rico and obviously here in the U.S. So, also, you know, very comfortable speaking in English or Spanish. And I think that was about it, right, Hannah? What about some fun facts about you, Michael? Oh, fun facts. Okay. I like, besides languages, well, I guess including languages, I like reading a lot. I like music a lot. I also like hiking in nature and especially if water is involved.

So, even though Monterrey is very beautiful, there's more about going up than getting into water. And yeah, I'm in Texas right now, so it's very hot and I only go outside if water is involved. That's funny. And also, what are you an expert in that you visited or did some learning about when you were here in Monterrey? Ah, yes. So, I am a mezcal or really any spirits. And I started off because I'm a whiskey fan. And then over the years in Mexico, I got introduced to mezcal in Oaxaca. And I've visited, oh, I don't know, at least a dozen distilleries, a lot of them very rural.

And also, I always love to talk about that. Thank you, Michael. And thank you, Jacky. And now I just wanted us to have a little bit of a dialogue in Spanish so that students could have an idea of what you guys might sound like, your speed, your accent, if they're able to understand you, that sort of thing. So, I'm just going to ask you guys a couple of informal questions in Spanish. Um, Jacky, ¿cuál es tu montaña favorita en Monterrey? Creo que Mitras, porque Mitras es muy grande, tiene muchas rutas, y no importa a cuál ruta vas, vas a tener una vista increíble.

Es cierto. De hecho, ahí nos conocimos hace, van a ser tres años, ¿verdad? Tres años, sí. En Mitras, uh, ahí en una ruta muy larga con muchas cuevas, escaleras colgantes, o hay muchas, muchas cosas. Increíble. Y ahí nos hicimos amigas. Exacto. Sí. Súper bien. Eh, a ver. Ok. Y Michael, ¿cuál es tu mezcal favorito y por qué? Oh, no. Yo, yo creo que no puedo contestar eso. O sea, tengo tantos favoritos. Eh, tal vez podemos decir que… No, es que depende. Sería como preguntar ¿cuál sería tu vino favorito?

Porque como cada tiene sus propias características buenas y cada, cada es tan único. Y a veces se me antoja uno porque tiene un sabor más de humo, o más de tierra, o más dulce, o más de fruta, o más vegetal. Eh, perdón. No, no, no puedo elegir. Ok, muy bien. Está bien. Y Jacky, de los estados en México que has visitado, ¿cuál estado es tu favorito y por qué? Ay, siempre San Luis Potosí. Porque a mí me gusta tener aventuras. Y en el agua también, como había mencionado Michael. Donde yo puedo ir a nadar y saltar por una cascada, aunque no sé nadar, pero con chaleco.

Me encanta. Eso para mí es muy divertido. Y aparte la comida, este, el sazón de San Luis Potosí. Ay, no. Es increíble. Me encanta. Es diferente a lo que hay aquí en Monterrey. Entonces, siempre voy a escoger San Luis Potosí. Oh, buen punto. Y tú, Michael, de los estados en México que conoces, ¿cuál es tu favorito y por qué? Bueno, también quería preguntar, Jacky, si conoces el Castillo Surrealista, allá en Xilitla, creo. ¡Apenas fui ayer! No manches, apenas, no, el domingo. Sí, apenas, ¿verdad? Y yo fui hace unos años al jardín de Edward James, ¿verdad?

¿De ese hablas? Sí, es muy bonito, ¿verdad? Que sí, Hannah, te puedes tomar fotos donde sea. Increíble. En el medio de la selva, wow. Es muy único. Sí, y tú, Michael, ¿sí lo conoces? Sí, sí, lo conozco hace unos años. Pasé como una semana en la Huasteca. ¡Ay, qué padre! Sí, está muy padre. De hecho, Jacky y yo hemos ido ya, creo que una vez fuimos de viaje ahí juntas, ¿verdad? El año pasado. Sí, pero a lo mejor vamos otra vez este año. Y ojalá, ahorita las aguas están muy elevadas, no es posible nadar ahorita por la tormenta, pero ya veremos al rato.

Sí, bueno, muy bien. Y regresando a la pregunta, Michael, ¿cuál es tu estado favorito que has visitado en México y por qué? Eso también es muy difícil, pero creo que voy a decir Oaxaca, por lo que he mencionado sobre el mezcal, pero también por toda la comida, la gastronomía ya es increíble. Las culturas son muy diversas. Allá hablan, yo quiero decir, por lo menos ocho idiomas allá, idiomas indígenas, y esa cultura todavía es muy presente. Y tiene, o sea, muchas diferencias si te vas al centro de la ciudad de Oaxaca o a la costa, que tiene unas vistas muy increíbles y unos lugares muy mágicos.

Wow, súper bien. Muchas gracias, Michael. Muchas gracias, Jacky. Bueno, un gusto presentarlos a los estudiantes. ¿Tienen algo que quieren decir a las personas que están viendo este video o en inglés o español? Well, I guess I could, just one thing that I want to mention, just because I know sometimes trying something new can be kind of scary and just know that I think we're a team that we're very flexible. So if there's a, you know, specific request or just any doubt that somebody might have, you can definitely reach out beforehand and kind of talk that over with us and we can work.

We can figure out what the best way to be would be to work with you. So there's always a way we can figure it out. Thank you, Jacky. And Michael, anything to add? No, I just want to agree with that. And it's also okay that, like, as learners, we all have different goals. I think sometimes, not sometimes, the biggest obstacle I've noticed of anyone learning another language is just not feeling comfortable or feeling afraid that they're going to make mistakes, or they think that it's just impossible.

You know, they hear, they hear someone who's speaking, it's like, oh, like you speak so well, or this or that, and they don't realize that it took 10, 20 years to get to that point. Or then there's people who speak perfectly, but have, who will never really get the accent and going from any language and it, it doesn't really matter. So it's just like whatever you are trying to learn, whatever, whatever your goals are, they're, they're all reachable. I've never met anyone who can't learn another language and we're all like on our own timeline for doing it.

But, and, and also because we all have different priorities and all that's okay. And we can definitely work with, you know, all of those different facets. Very well said. Well, thank you guys. Appreciate you taking the time today. If anyone is watching this video and would like to book a class with Michael, Jacky, or has any questions about working together that you can reach all the information, the links for scheduling, contact information in the comments section below. So just let us know if you guys have anything and we hope to see you in a future class.

Thanks everyone. Adiós. Bye everybody. Bye. There we go. Bye.