This year 2021-2022, I am living and working in Madrid, Spain as an English Language Assistant and Cultural Ambassador. I live in the city center of Madrid and I work in a suburb in the south of the city, called Navalcarnero. I teach in a public bilingual secondary school, also known as high school, for ages ranging from the youngest being 11 years old to the oldest 19 years old. In Spain, high school is the American equivalent of 7th-12th grade. I was so nervous to get this placement because of how close in age I am to some of the kids. However, I am very happy and thankful to have this placement and to be at this school.

I applied at the end of January of 2021 through NALCAP, the Spanish Ministry program. This is a free program and is one of the biggest ones. It is competitive in the sense that it is first come, first serve regarding the number of available spots in the program, and getting your first choice region. There are many other English teaching programs in Spain, in all of Europe, and the world. The guidelines on how to apply are on the NALCAP website. When the application opens, you select the top three regions you want to be placed in, so you can’t choose the exact city. For example, I chose Madrid as my number one choice, knowing that my school would be anywhere in the Comunidad de Madrid, not just in the city. Then you choose what age level you want to teach, ranging from the equivalent to preschool level to high school. I chose primary school as my top choice, but got my last choice: high school. 

My job as an “auxiliar de conversación”/ language assistant/ cultural ambassador, however you want to call it, is assisting in English/bilingual classes and exposing the students to a native speaker, and sharing American culture. With me, the students get a two for one: I share with them my Chinese American culture and perspective. In my classes, I’m either doing a presentation for a portion of the class of a topic the teacher tells me to do, doing speaking activities from the workbook with the students in pairs or just chatting with them to get them to practice in a “real world” example, or preparing the 4 ESO students for their Cambridge Language Exam.