I have always been a goal-oriented person. As a child, from around 9 to 13 years old, I was certain that I wanted to be a writer “when I grew up.” I wrote children’s fantasy books, letting my fertile imagination take flight by creating stories where animals spoke to humans and became the children’s best friends.  When I turned 13, I even wrote a short love story. These books were for my three sisters to read during the summers, and my mom has kept them to this day. They were handwritten, with the pages glued together, and I even illustrated them—though my drawing talent was never the highlight, a fact that remains true to this day.       At one point, I also thought I would start a business selling something. I began by selling limes from my parents’ farm because I was determined to earn money on my own.     I formally entered the workforce at the age of 16, working as a junior secretary at a language school. A piece of the puzzle was placed for me to choose my career more than a decade later.   Life as a countryside girl in Brazil can often

As an ESL teacher at the Spanish-American Institute in Manhattan I have had the privilege to teach students from more than 20 countries. It is a gift to be able to speak in Portuguese, French,  or  Spanish with them while making their learning process comprehension easier. As Mandela once said, “If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his language, that goes to his heart”.   As a non-native English teacher I sometimes  have doubts on the English language structure or pronunciation and even in my own language I can be challenged because languages are organic, dynamic, always changing, evolving  and in constant transformation just like our lives.     It is a life-long learning process to be a teacher. However, I understood what makes me a great  teacher. I mediate the learning process of a language with resources that can help them to go further in their own autonomous learning process.    My role as a teacher is much more than just  teaching  the language.  I appreciate their life stories, their culture, their beliefs  and I bring the cultural exchanges to their speaking practice and sharing