Name of Volunteer Speaker
Cian |
Nationality
Irish |
Name of town/city where school is located.
Sant Sadurní d’Anoia |
Experience in school including tasks, classes, relationship with students/teachers.
Mainly taking Kids for general conversation followed by speaking about pictures or stories in front of them. Working in groups on presentations in primary and ESO. Playing board games with kids only in English. This worked well and kids are very competitive and loved these games. One week I was the physical education teacher. Teaching them how to play Gaelic football which is a sport from my country. This actually worked really well and a lot better than I expected. Always joined in with kids playing sports at lunch time and they all wanted to talk to me. Had a great relationship with all teachers and staff. Even with the language barrier. |
Experience living with your Host Family. Have they made you feel welcome, relationship, activities, etc…
Couldn’t have asked for anything more from my host family. Treated me very well Had a great relationship with everyone and they let me be free whenever I wanted to travel somewhere and helped me find the way to get there. Always cooked very good food which made me feel like I was back at home. Brought me away on weekends to do activities in places or to fun places like PortAventura and an aquatic park. |
Your general experience whilst on the program from prior expectations to your current experience
I’ve enjoyed it a lot. I’ve had every Friday off which has been very good as I can go and do more. But my favourite thing has been the school. The kids are very fun and I feel like I came across likeable to them in my first week which gave me a platform to build a great relationship with them. The life in the town has been different to mine back home. In terms of size and with the language of course. But I have built great relationships with people. I have started to play Futsal over here for the first time in my life and I have loved it and have really enjoyed it and built great relationships from this. And I will start to play again at home. I have built a good routine here and the best thing about it is that I genuinely look forward to going to school. |
Changes/Improvements in both personal and professional development
I have definitely grown a lot since coming here. From the anxious boy when I first started being very nervous walking around the town feeling like everyone was looking at me. I settled in very quickly and got to know people. I now feel very comfortable as if I’ve been here for years. In terms of professional development then yes, I have developed a lot also. I am starting a masters in Secondary school teaching in August back in Ireland and the main thing I was worried about in this experience was if I finished and thought to myself ‘What am I signing myself up for. Thankfully that is not the case and now I am really looking forward to getting started in this profession. From the first day when I gave my presentation, I thought this actually isn’t as nerve wracking as I thought it would be. Now I would recommend this experience to anyone wanting teaching experience as it is a bit of a soft landing while also throwing yourself outside of your comfort zone. |
Advice for the any new/future Voluntary Speakers placed in your town/city (best places to visit, things to do, activities with host family, favorite restaurant, bar, etc.…)
The town is very nice. Quiet and not too many big things happening but there is a party week coming up. If you are sporty, I would recommend joining a team as I loved my experience playing futsal here and it was a great way to meet new people. The location is brilliant and you can get one train from here straight to Barcelona in about 40 minutes. Also great to get anywhere in Catalunya as well. I would recommend visiting PortAventura or other waterparks as well as a weekend in Barcelona and Girona. In my town I would recommend the cava winery tour it’s very interesting and cava is very nice. I’m even bringing some home for my parents. There are many nice bars and restaurants in this town as well. |
Advice for new/future Voluntary Speakers placed in your school?
Make a good impression in your first week. Be very friendly with the kids and teachers and they will also be friendly. Try and go out of your way to make a good relationship with all the kids as it will make your experience more enjoyable. Embrace that there is a language barrier with a lot of teachers and don’t feel awkward about it. If you can learn some words in Catalan then do. They get very excited when they hear you try. Embrace that the kids are not speaking in their first language as well. Especially with the younger ones where all they do is shout at you in Catalan. Just try and play games and be as fun as possible with them. |
Advice for new/future Voluntary Speakers in relation to living with your host family or Spanish families in general.
Just be yourself and everything will be ok. If a family is ok with welcoming a stranger from a different country into their house, then it is very likely that they are welcoming people. Respect the house and do the basics like washing up and keeping the place clean. Be interesting as well. Your host family will be really interested in your life country, life plans and culture. Offer to help with everything you can. Sometimes you might feel awkward if they are always paying for your dinners or things like that but that’s ok, maybe surprise them with something. Be as interested as you can about their town culture and lives. They will enjoy your company as much as you enjoy theirs. |
Share some of the best moments in your school, host family and in general whilst participating on the program.
My best memories include Sant Joachima school anniversary where we all had a sports day and ate nice food and played games all day. I really loved showing the kids Irish football from back home and then teaching them how to play it. These were my favourite days from the school but just being with the kids everyday was really the highlight. I enjoyed trips away on the weekends as well. I had friends come to Barcelona from Ireland and we had great times. It was really nice to meet up with the other Voluntary Speakers in Barcelona and Girona to get to know each other and enjoy a weekend together. My favourite memories with the family were definitely PortAventura where despite the big crowds we had a great day. They showed me the human towers in Villa Franca which was something that I’ve never even heard of. I even got involved in the human tower!! Also, the day we spent at the water park was incredible as water parks are my favourite thing to do. |
Any regrets joining? Would you recommend the program to others? and what would you say to someone thinking about teaching English abroad for the first time and thinking about joining this program?
I have absolutely no regrets about joining. The experience has been incredible and I’ve definitely become a better person because of it. I would recommend it to anyone that wants to gain teaching experience or to want to see if they enjoy working and living abroad. I would recommend to just do it. The pros outweigh the cons and it is an incredible way to get out there in this world and explore and gain experience. |