How to learn Spanish in 10 days ~ Michaela

I have learned more Spanish from Coni (my host family's five-year-old daughter) than from anyone else with whom I interact here.  She is not afraid of making mistakes, nor is she concerned about proper social formalities.  Her no-nonsense pointing and repeating, offering examples, and bluntly chiding my incorrect guesses should be studied as a language instruction pedagogy.  No more Rosetta Stone or Duolingo.  Instead, we pair every person interested in learning a new language with a 5-year-old native speaker who will teach them.  Her attention span is perfectly aligned with my capacity for new words and phrases in a single lesson.  Her disappointment when I have forgotten words she has already taught me is just heartbreaking enough that I make sure to write down anything I might otherwise forget.  While everyone else coddles me and graciously overlooks my errors and mispronunciations, Coni does not hesitate to tell me I am wrong and to make me correct my mistakes.  She is (as are most kids) a naturally skilled educator, and I am luck she has chosen to share that talent with me.

As much as she has taught me since I have been here, it's only fair that I let her wear my "Teaching in Chile" jacket.