David Villodres I Málaga, (EFE).- Nesh, the Irish teacher established in Malaga who has gone viral on TikTok teaching the Spanish language to foreigners, assures that the best way to learn a new language is to live it “day by day” and He says that in Spain there is a bad level of English “because he has never needed it, because the series and movies are dubbed”, and that would have to change.
This 27-year-old girl shares videos on her social networks in which she teaches foreigners funny Andalusian expressions such as “pó”, “amoavé” or “novea” -her favorite- so that they feel more “integrated” in Malaga. Several of her recordings already exceed one million views on TikTok.
Nesh is a web of cultures and customs: she is from Ireland, but of Filipino origin, she now resides on the Costa del Sol and speaks five languages: Tagalog, English, Spanish, French and Italian. He says he feels “a bit from everywhere”, although he acknowledges to EFE having found his “place” in Malaga.
“When I go abroad I feel more from Malaga than anything else because I use expressions like ‘to be noisy’, ‘mijilla’ or ‘pechá’, which I’ve only heard here”, she adds with a laugh.
The young Irish woman is convinced that Spanish is a much more “deep and sentimental” language and that is why she writes her diary in this language, because it allows her to express herself in a “more precise” way.
Teach languages on TikTok
This content creator opened her first TikTok account in 2021, realizing that children and adolescents were “on their phones all day” and that the best way to approach them to teach them languages was to enter their platforms.
Last year he also launched “The Live and Speak Challenge”, a digital course to learn languages in a “simple and alternative” way: “What I ask of my students is that they live and speak the language they study, because that is the only way to improve.
In recent weeks, as a result of her viral videos, she has received many more requests for her digital course, although she admits that she cannot attend to all of them and that she feels “somewhat overwhelmed”.
At the moment, he does not plan to open a physical academy because “there are many difficulties”, although he would like to hold an event in a venue from time to time or collaborate with other schools.
In love with the Costa del Sol
Nesh first visited the Costa del Sol in 2016, when she was studying Modern Languages at the University of Dublin. She stayed as an “au pair” with a family from Benalmádena, with whom she felt “at home” and fell in love with the culture of Malaga, its people and its food: “If I had money, I would have already bought a house here” .
When he returned to Ireland, all he had in mind was going back to Malaga. He didn’t make it, but he did get an Erasmus in Ciudad Real, where he discovered his love of teaching through an amusing anecdote: “I didn’t know where to ask for a butane canister and I went to a language school because I still didn’t speak Spanish well. There they helped me and offered me a job as an English teacher, because they noticed that she was a native ”.
“I love the Andalusians, how they express themselves and how they act because they have no filter. They have a lot of art and are much more social ”, he says about the land that has welcomed him.
However, he admits that he is not used to some aspects of Andalusian culture, such as the tone of voice or the expressions of time: “You say ‘tonight’ when you refer to the past, or you say ‘now I’m going’ and you don’t do it right away ”.
This teacher recommends teaching languages focusing on the student’s self-knowledge and their relationship with the country’s culture, “not only the language -she says-, but also with its people, its culture, its gastronomy. “Learning is a multidisciplinary process,” she explains.
He says that in Spain English is not taught well because people “know a lot of grammar, but then they don’t dare to speak it for fear of making a mistake.” And that mentality, he assures him, must be changed. EFE