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I Never Thought I’d Do This: 50 Teens, One Bus, and Barcelona

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Photo by Howei Wang on Unsplash If you had told me 10 years ago that I’d be travelling by bus across Europe with 50 Czech teenagers, I would have laughed. Or cried. Or both. At my school, teachers were invited every year to create and propose student trips. It wasn’t my first year there — actually, it was my fourth (or third, if you skip the Covid year) — so I decided to give it a try. I asked a couple of colleagues I really get along with to join me, and weeks later, we handed our proposal to the principal. Destination: Barcelona. I truly believe you are never fully prepared. You try, you mess it up or learn, and then you try again. That was me. I wasn’t prepared to take almost 50 teenagers by bus to Spain. But from the beginning, I knew I wasn’t doing this alone. My team — Martin, Maxwell, and me — wasn’t just a team. We were also friends, and soon-to-be travel buddies. The travel agency was picked, the trip was approved, and the response from students exceeded expectations — our bus...
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Teaching Spanish in Czechia: My Very First Class Ever

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It was 2011. I was walking toward a 13th-grade classroom—the final year of studies—at an international school in Ostrava. I remember feeling excited and nervous, wondering if I should speak with a Spanish accent or just be myself. I thought, “Just keep it clear. Don’t mess with the whole spectrum of Latin American accents and words,” which vary so much from country to country. It wasn’t my first year at the school. I had started my journey in the Czech Republic in 2010, working as a teacher assistant at a primary school—in a different building, surrounded by little kids. This time, I was about to face older students. Some of them were already adults. (Fun fact: the Czech system has 9 years of basic education, then 4 years of secondary school.) To make things even more interesting, these students had never had a Spanish lesson with a native speaker—not even a Latin American teacher. A Peruvian in Ostrava? No way! I walked in. The girls sat at the front, boys in the back. I think the...
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Let’s Sound More Spanish – Part 2

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 Photo by Kiril Krsteski on Unsplash Welcome to my second post about sounding more Spanish! If you’ve ever tried watching a Spanish movie with subtitles, you probably noticed that there are many words you won’t find in textbooks or regular lessons. In my experience, upper-intermediate students want to learn these phrases, but—let’s be honest—Spanish people use a lot of swear words! So, I’ll start with some normal phrases and end with a few spicy ones. Curro / Currar (job / to work) In Spanish movies, “curro” is a very common word. In Latin America, people use different words for “job.” For example, in Peru, we say “trabajo,” but in Argentina, people say “laburo.” All mean “job.” Echar la bronca (to tell someone off / give someone a hard time) You can combine this with “curro.” For example: Me han echado la bronca en el curro — Someone gave me a hard time at work. Gilipollas / Gilipollez (idiot / nonsense) ¡Qué gilipollez! — That’s nonsense. ¡Vaya gilipollas! — What an id...
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Let’s Sound More Spanish – Part 1

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Photo by Mitchell Nijman on Unsplash Watching a Spanish movie is a totally different experience than reading a textbook in class. Have you ever tried using subtitles and still felt confused? Don’t worry — today I’ll guide you through some of the most common everyday Spanish expressions. Let’s help you sound more like a native! Many of the phrases you’ll find here can give your conversations a real Spanish feel. But be careful — sometimes you can’t translate them directly into English or Czech without losing their natural meaning. If you’ve already learned body parts in Spanish, you probably know “cabeza” means head. But did you know you can also call it “el coco” ( coconut )? For example: 👉 No le des mucho al coco – Don’t overthink it! Now, how do you say you don’t understand something — like, at all? You could try: 👉 No me cabe en la cabeza – I don’t get it Or casually ask someone: 👉 ¿Pillas? – Do you get it? Sounds way more native, right? So far so good... ¿pillas? Let’s...
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Embarrassed or Pregnant? Spanish-English Mistakes That Make You Go "Ooh Aah!

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  Photo by Marco Gnaccarini on Unsplash Have you ever said you were “embarrassed”... and told someone you were pregnant instead? 😳 Welcome to the world of false friends — words that look similar in English and Spanish, but mean completely different things. These “friends” are tricky, but they also bring funny stories and great learning moments. Here are five classic ones I see all the time — and at the end, a small bonus from my life in the Czech Republic! 1. Embarazado = Pregnant 😬 Nope, embarazado doesn’t mean embarrassed — it means pregnant ! The word you want is avergonzado/a . Let’s practice: How did Hansel and Gretel’s dad feel after leaving his kids in the forest? And how about Rachel in Friends , when she was playing games with Ross’s heart? Right! Both were avergonzado/a . 2. Actualmente = Currently 🕒 Students often think actualmente means “actually.” But it really means currently . “Actually” is de hecho . Example: ¿Actualmente Pedro Pascal está saliendo con Je...
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Why Learn Spanish in 2025?

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Photo by Juan Moyano on Unsplash We are living in a world that is constantly evolving. Mindsets are changing, and our lifestyles are no longer what they were 20 years ago. People no longer need to commute to work every day. New generations are eager to work from anywhere — as long as they have a laptop. Generation Z and other new voices are reshaping the world we know. In this context, developing strong communication skills is more important than ever — not only in our mother tongue, but in other languages as well. Thanks to the internet and mass media, there’s no excuse not to learn at least one foreign language. In the Czech Republic, where I’ve been living since 2009, two foreign languages are mandatory throughout the school years. Still, once we return to work in winter — when the days are short — or face responsibilities at home or school, we often doubt whether we can pursue our dreams, like gaining proficiency in a language. Spanish is one of the top four most spoken languages i...
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My Language Journey: From Lima to Ostrava

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   Photo by Jakub Gojda on Unsplash Hello language lovers, and thank you for visiting my blog! In this first post, I’d like to share who I am, what I do, and why I decided to start blogging. My name is Margarita . I was born and raised in Lima, Peru . Ever since I was a child, I’ve been drawn to words and communication — even though I was a shy kid. I often found moments to talk to myself out loud and even tried keeping diaries. But what I loved most was sharing conversations with people close to me. At school, my favorite subject was Spanish. I was the one who cared about vocabulary and spelling in writing — the little details always mattered to me. As I grew up, I also became fascinated with English. I loved listening to singers like NKOTB , Bryan Adams , Cyndi Lauper , and Whitney Houston . I wasn’t sure what I wanted to be: a communicator, a linguist, a reporter, a writer, a tour guide… all of those possibilities excited me. I eventually chose to study journalism and earn...
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