Mexico City

In our previous interview, Stephanie Vargas spoke about her school and what it was like to be a teacher in Mexico City. During our last conversation, things were a bit different for her and the rest of the world. She discusses the sudden change in plan for her school with COVID-19 and what that looked like for teachers in Mexico. Whether or not you teach in Mexico or anywhere else in the world, this story is relatable. Stephanie and I quickly realized that the government could not prepare for what was to come with COVID-19. She talks more about the details of this rather strange year. For those readers who teach in Mexico, she talks about the challenges and gives advice.  

What has been the most important thing you learned while teaching so far?

“I have learned that working with people, especially teenagers, is difficult and rewarding at the same time. During these years I have felt disappointed and happy to be a teacher. However, seeing students do better is something I would not change.”

How have you done with accomplishing your goals this year? 

“My goals for this school year changed radically this time because I did not expect this quarantine to happen. Right now, I just want to make the content as understandable as possible. Though this generation is known to be good at technology, I’ve discovered that is not completely and inherently true. It has been a challenge to make sure they have every topic explained as clearly as possible.”

What has been the biggest challenge this year at your school?

“Definitely, the biggest challenge has been the transition from going to school in person to switching to virtual classes. Fortunately, I knew how to use scholar technology to some extent before quarantine happened. For me, changing the way I teach while also getting used to the school’s platforms has been my biggest challenge.”

What advice would you give on how to deal with this challenge? 

“I would like to have taken a course about ways to better prepare for online classes and teaching. Unfortunately, with the rapid spread of the virus, my school did not have time to prepare for that. I wound up looking online and watching some videos after doing some research. Just those videos alone have helped in shaping my virtual classes. I would say use the tools you have to find information and use it in your favor.”

Do you have advice for other teachers who want to teach for the first time? 

“If you want to try teaching, it is important to remember that theory and practice are completely different. This is especially so when it comes to interacting with other human beings and trying to pass some knowledge onto them. At the end of the day, it is a rewarding job. It can be fulfilling and frustrating at the same time. Do it yourself: you will know right away if this is for you. Do not give up when things do not come out the way you wanted. This happens more often than you could imagine. Part of the job is creatively finding solutions when things don’t go according to plan.”

How has teaching two different nationalities (Mexican and Chinese) helped you improve your teaching instruction?

“As the Chinese students are fully immersed in the Mexican culture, I do not find any difference in giving instructions. I have also instructed in languages students from both nationalities do not know (for example, instructions in English and Spanish). I use the same strategies, mimics, songs, translation, gestures, and help from other students.”

What was your most memorable moment at your school and in class this year (before COVID-19 and post COVID-19)? 

“I believe in getting along with my students: the ones that are my students now and the ones that were in previous years. When they talk to me and share a forgotten moment, I feel very happy. I had not realized how much I could impact their lives until last December when some wished me happy holidays and stopped by to talk to me.”

How have you been managing your time and teaching during the Coronavirus?

“At first I felt overwhelmed and didn’t know where to start. I thought we would have the chance to go back to school and I’d be able to talk to them and address some doubts. I wanted to save the topics I considered the most difficult for the moment we would meet again in person. Also, I did not know how to manage my time. I started working all day and some nights. I have learned that that process does not work for me. Now, I work at the hours I am supposed to be in front of the group, and a couple of hours at night to prepare for the following days.”

What has your school done to prepare for COVID-19?

“We did not really prepare for this pandemic. We use a platform to upload grades. Luckily, there was an option to take classes online, so we signed up for the platform’s online classroom host before the pandemic had ever reached Mexico. Initially, we never thought we were going to ever use the online teaching option. There was never a chance to learn how to use it for exclusively online classes. When online classes started, we had to learn to use the platform along the way.

We already had a website that kept track of grades, so we continued using that platform to give students content for the rest of the year. We also emailed students and parents, as well as had zoom meetings with other teachers.”

What do you think next year will look like? 

“What we know so far is that classes will not go back to normal until everything looks a little better. I can only imagine that we will have to wear face masks when we finally are able to go to school while also practicing social distancing.”

Will you be teaching Chinese students after school again? 

“I am not sure if I’ll be teaching Chinese students again. Most of my students will be going to high school next year. If I do have any Chinese students, they will be new students from lower grades. I will have to wait until next year to know for sure.”

How to Teach in Mexico Amid COVID-19

Stephanie taught the remaining semester of her classes online through her school’s portal. She is waiting to hear back from the government about whether she will be able to go back to class in August or begin teaching new classes online during fall. She will be submitting a follow-up piece with her thoughts about the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on the education system once she hears more about her upcoming schedule. Please be on the lookout for that upcoming article.

by Leesa Truesdell

It was a pleasure to catch up with Stephanie Vargas, a teacher in Mexico City, for her second interview. Stephanie’s first interview touches on her school and the population of students that she teaches. To clarify, her school has some Chinese students who attend classes there. They speak Chinese and do not speak Spanish. Stephanie’s school has started an after-school pull-out program to teach Spanish to the Chinese students as their second language. This program is a class of about seven Chinese students who need to practice speaking Mexico’s language, Spanish.

After speaking with Stephanie, it was easier for me to understand how Spanish as a second language is taught to Chinese students who speak only Chinese. She teaches them three times a week and teaches English five days a week to Spanish learners. Stephanie explained that it has been more challenging to teach the Chinese population than the population that speaks the same language as she does, also known as L1. In this case, she teaches her Mexican students that speak her native language English as a second language.

What is a typical day at your school like? 

“Students have their first class at 7:40AM. Then, they have a 30-minute break at 11:00AM. Classes finish at 2:50PM.

Chinese students are taught Spanish three times a week after school for one hour.“

How many people do you work with? How many classes do you teach?

“I teach two classes. Both are English classes, but are at different levels: secondary school (middle school) and high school. The English team is around 10 teachers. There are so many other teachers who teach other subjects that I’ve never known how many there actually are.”

How are you forming working relationships with coworkers?

“To me, it is important to make a good impression and to help coworkers as much as possible. This creates a sense of community. Communities can help their members to have better opportunities for the future.”

What is your opinion of the use of target language? In general, should language teachers only use the language they are teaching? 

“I tend to speak the target language as much as possible. It is important to have interaction with the language, and the classroom has to be the place to practice it. However, I do not believe in taking just one side of things. Languages are our tools and, to me, one of the last resources I can use. If it helps to make everything clear and understood, why not use it?”

 How is the material being taught to students? Is there a specific method being used?

“There is not a specific method to follow. Teachers are free to use whichever method they think is best. Every group is different. What works with one group might not work with others.”

How do you prepare your lessons for each class? If you don’t plan lessons, how do you prepare for class?

“I do lesson plans for the week. Classes hardly ever go as planned every week. I adapt day after day. Sometimes students need to take more time to fully understand a topic. Sometimes they get it right away and we can move on sooner than expected. Whatever the case, I have a plan to follow, so I know what to do and where to go.”

How do you make class enjoyable for students?

“I try to talk about topics they like such as video games or social media. Other times, we play games related to grammar or the vocabulary of the unit. Some classes are easier than others. I cannot help having classes dedicated to explanations or reading a topic that is considered boring by them. It is part of being a teacher. There are days where your classes feel like the best you’ve ever done; others, it just feels like you are doing everything wrong.”

Do you work at a bilingual school? What does that mean to you? 

“No. As far as I understand, bilingual schools have some classes in the mother tongue, and some other classes in the target language. The school I work at only offers English as a subject.”

What shared goals or standards are your classroom teachers using to measure the performance of their students?

“The school has made the decision to teach and measure English differently from other subjects. Our groups are not divided by school year, but by the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages. The groups go from A1 to B2. This is because the intention is to have students with common knowledge on the language. Having said this, our goal is to have students improve their use of the language so they move forward on their level. Eventually, they will get to the highest level.“

What are your goals and dreams for your students?

“When people are young, they do not usually care about their future. Learning English is important for the youth of this country. That is why my goal is to have them speak English so they can have better job opportunities in the future.“

Looking back at our first Teach Abroad series interview, what has changed in your classroom since that time?

“Not much has really changed. At the beginning of the school year, there were new objectives to reach. What worked during this period of time can be kept for the future. If something did not work as planned, it will be discussed and changed before next year.”

What It Is Like to Be a Teacher in Mexico City

We will speak again with Stephanie about being a teacher in Mexico City in May 2020 to hear more about the rest of her school year. She would like to see her Chinese students become more communicative with their peers in their (L2) which is Spanish. Although her Spanish students communicate in English, she would like to see them communicate more often in their (L2) which is English. We will see how they do when we catch up with her later on this year.

by Leesa Truesdell

As a Spanish and English as a Second Language teacher in the United States, two questions frequently pop into my mind: 1) How do the school systems in the US compare to my (mostly) Central American ESL students’? and 2) How do teacher challenges with students vary between cultures?

As I’ve been pondering these questions, Leesa Truesdell (our director) introduced me to Stephanie Vargas, a Spanish as a Second Language and English as a Foreign Language teacher in Mexico City. Our careers are parallel to each other, just in bordering countries. To add even more to our similarities, we both lived in Tallahassee, Florida for a period of time while simultaneously attending two different universities! Isn’t it a small world after all?

I was curious to hear more about Stephanie and to see if her perspective could answer any of my questions. After all, good teachers are constantly changing their perspectives. Check out our questions and her answers below.

What do you like most about teaching EFL in Mexico City? 

“To me, overall, the most rewarding thing is to see my students progress. Without a doubt, I love seeing how they want to use what is taught in their daily lives.”

Who are the students that you teach?

“The students I teach can be divided into two groups.

1.  Teenagers: their ages range from 12 to 18 and they study either at the secondary or high school.
2. The Chinese community: these are teenagers that have lived from three to 10 years in Mexico and have had problems understanding the language, let alone their subjects at school. I teach them because they need to have better communication with their teachers.”

What do you like most about teaching these students (Spanish language vs English language students)? 

“What I like the most is the opportunity to share cultures, whether Chinese, American, or Mexican, with others and to find differences and similarities among them. At the end of the day, we all are humans and it is interesting to have different points of view about life.”

What did you find to be the most challenging part of teaching both groups of students?

“While language can be a bridge that connects cultures, it can also be a barrier. Students are used to having explanations in their mother tongue. This can be useful at times and obstacles during others. Because of their ages, it is complicated to show them that there are lots of different ways to perceive life as they know it. Most of them do not have the opportunity to travel abroad – Chinese students usually travel back and forth from China – and they do not have the chance to speak with people from other countries. This means that they will not have a real need to learn the target language.

For the Chinese community, it is sometimes difficult to interact with their Spanish-speaking classmates. This leads them to only interact with their fellow Chinese classmates. Therefore, they have not learned to communicate with others in Spanish. They believe they do not need to learn.”

What do both sets of students have in common? What is the difference?

“They are both groups of teenagers. They like to listen to similar music and play sports and video games. Usually, their only interests are finding a significant other, their personality, and other people that care about the same things. Teenagers have similar interests regardless of where they come from.

One of the most interesting things they have told me that they’ve noticed of each other’s cultures is that Chinese students think Mexican students could be more hardworking. They say that compared to China, school is not as strict.”

Where are you currently working?

“I’m working at Colegio de San Ignacio de Loyola Vizcaínas. Spanish immigrants founded this private school 250 years ago. It is located in downtown Mexico City and the students that go there are usually the children of merchants. I work at a secondary school and high school, but the school provides education from daycare to high school. This means the students’ ages range from two to 18 years old.”

What are the challenges that your students encounter?

“Motivation is a challenge that I, without a doubt, encounter. It is hard to motivate teenage students.”

What advice would you give to someone who works with people from other cultural backgrounds?

“Do some research. Most people like to share their cultures. If they see you try to understand and know something about them, they will complement that some more. Moreover, listening is a great way to show you are interested in what they have to say which will make them find a way to communicate with you.”

What is one example of something you have done differently or some way you have changed as a result of your experiences?

“I used to only teach language: grammar, punctuation, tenses, etc. That has little to no impact on most students. What I have changed with time is the inclusion of cultures. In particular, I try to encourage them to speak to foreign people.”

Explain the motivations of each group of students for learning a second language. 

“To me, it is hard to say if all students are motivated the first time they study a foreign language, especially if it’s required. It is because English is just another subject like Math and Geography. There are some students that do not have true motivation other than getting their final grade. However, those who have motivation try to speak English outside the classroom. They mainly speak the language with Americans that play online video games with them.”

What made you want to be a foreign and second language teacher?

“10 years ago, I considered myself to be good at learning English. The school I was attending gives language courses on Saturdays and most of my teachers were young. I thought that I could do that for a living. The real motivation started when I got my first job. There, I could see how I could help people to learn something that would affect their lives positively. In Mexico, speaking English gives you great job opportunities. I believe that I can contribute to my country and my students if they have better opportunities for a good life than previous generations.”

What languages are commonly studied in Mexico City? 

“Mostly English in basic education. In some universities it is mandatory to speak and read English at an intermediate level. Once you prove you are fluent in English, people usually learn French.”

What are your future goals?

“As far as my professional goals go, I want to work where people are intrinsically motivated to learn what I have to teach. Little by little, I’d like to leave behind those students who take English just because they have to. I know there are people who want to learn because it is important for them and teaching motivated students is much more rewarding.

My personal goals are to travel to other countries, and hopefully study abroad for a master’s degree. I would like to develop some material to study Spanish as a second language for kids and teenagers. I have noticed that it is hard to find books to learn Spanish as a kid, especially Latin American Spanish.”

What is professional development like in Mexico for teachers in your field? (How do you grow as a teacher? What resources do you have?) 

“If you have a bachelor’s degree, you can work at universities, schools, and pretty much everywhere you want. It is very common to find language teachers that only speak the language. However, it is hard to find jobs that provide you professional growth.

I am part of the first group, and I first started working at a small language school. As I finished my studies and gained more experience, I was fortunately able to work at schools and universities.”

If someone wanted to teach foreign languages in Mexico City, where could they find a job?

“I believe it is easy to get a job teaching languages. If you wanted to try, you could find a job at any language school. Although easy to attain, the jobs do not pay well. Finding a job at a university, a school, or at a language center that belongs to a university will require you to have a bachelor’s degree.”

Wrap Up

While I’ve got more to learn about the US versus Central American educational systems, I clearly see the answer to my first question: some challenges I have in the classroom will be common for every language teacher regardless of country or language taught. Clearly, some of these will depend on the situation, but every teacher fights motivation battles with their students. We all desire to make our subject relevant and solve pedagogy issues related to age. I comfort myself on my hard teaching ways with this knowledge in mind.

by Caroline Hazelton