María Speaks English... And So You Can!

There is no ‘one-size-fits-all’ to learn English. Some students say they benefit from books and grammar exercises, some learn long lists of vocabulary off by heart, while others prefer a classroom setting with other learners. However, learning in a natural way compliments all these methods. After all, genuinely feeling that the subject matters to you is the best way to bond with the language, and with others across the world who use it to communicate.

social media phenomenon

Learning a second language requires the human factor and technology can be a tool to help bring us together and form lasting and rewarding connections with each other. It was in realising this that María G. Duran, a twenty-six-year-old experienced English teacher from Málaga became an online phenomenon, rising to become one of the most successful English teachers for the Spanish-speaking world. Best known as @mariaspeaksenglish she has built up an impressive community on social media, with close to 800.000 followers on TikTok and more than 400.000 on Instagram.

truquitos

María’s short and informative videos are both practical and fun. They include useful tips that she calls “truquitos” to improve conversational English that include key phrases and popular expressions that won’t make you sound like a handbook. As she explains, she fell in love with the language through music, and from a young age was determined to understand the lyrics of American and British music groups and artists like Cat Stevens, Fleetwood Mac, Marvin Gaye and Elton John that her mum used to play at home. She continued learning through her favourite TV sitcoms. To find out more, we spoke to María. As she explains, passion is key:

María G. Durán (Transatlantic accent): English has always been my passion, it has always been like my best friend. I remember when I was little, I practically created a kind of like a linguistic bubble, surrounding myself every single day 24/7 with English. That’s basically how I learned. And I learned English thanks to Disney Channel, for sure. I would watch Hannah Montana and Wizards of Waverly Place, you know, the usual stuff that my generation is used to. I would  watch it every day in English, for sure.  Now, up to today I think the perfect series for me to learn English would be Friends. Of course, who would not wanna watch Friends?! Friends has to be the series to learn English. So I always recommend it because it’s very easy to just understand the characters, they each have a very strong personality, so you can get used to the way they speak, the way they act, the way they pronounce things and everything. So I think it’s such a good practice for you, for your accent, and for your English skills in general.  

THE DIGITAL WAY

For all its controversies, technology has become part of life, says María. While it was natural that it became her launching pad, she says you have to see it as a means to communicate and not an end in itself.

María G. Durán: I started on YouTube at age eleven, and it was my hobby. I would do that every single weekend. The perfect plan for me [was] to just sit down at my desk and translate every single song and translate every single thing that I would come across with. Like I would love to translate movie trailers, I would love to translate songs, interviews from my favourite favourite actresses and actors. So I spend pretty much my entire teenage years translating and creating content on YouTube. The YouTube channel was called Cool Girl Spain. I remember there were like twenty thousand people subscribed to the channel, which makes me really sad because I don’t have it anymore. But thank God something inside of me told me that I needed to be on TikTok and Instagram and everything, so thank God I never stopped really doing what I really like and love in life which is creating... creating in general. I’m not gonna say creating content, I just love creating in general. I love creating connections with people, I love creating content in English. Yeah, I love… I love what I do.

EXPERIENCE

María has considerable experience as an English teacher both online and offline. She began giving private lessons to children as a teenager, she studied translation and interpreting at the University of Malaga and spent time working in Denmark and in Warsaw, Poland. She also spent time in Toulouse, France, organising language workshops and teaching English at the university. It was, in fact, the pandemic that brought her home, where she discovered a love of performing. She decided to bring her interests together and try out a new teaching technique on TikTok, as she explains.

María G. Durán: That was my boyfriend who said to me “María, please just go on TikTok, post a video, because I think you’re gonna smash it there. You’re gonna be the best in there. I think you have such great potential”. So I thought to myself “Well I might give it a try. Let’s go for it.” So I remember there was this day where I just pretty randomly recorded myself saying something along the lines of “Don’t say ‘Thank you’ say ‘Appreciate it’”. You know those little truquitos that I always post so… and it became viral and  I never stopped posting videos every single day, because I really wanted to make sure I was consistent. During the first few months what I did was to upload like three, four videos a day. Which is, now I think about it, it’s a bit crazy because I don’t know how I coped with it. I don’t know how I did it! But I did it, and that helped me grow a lot organically on TikTok and Instagram as well. And that’s how… that’s how it came about, that’s how it happened. Deep down inside of me I feel that this is my calling in life.

MAKE ME SMILE

María is the best kind of teacher. She not only shares her knowledge, but also her passion and love for the language in a way that makes learning feel personal and fun.

María G. Durán: I think people like the fact that I don’t see English in a very difficult way. I don’t find it difficult, I find it challenging, for sure, but for me it’s not a burden. So I think people see that in me. People see that it’s really genuinely is my passion in life, and I try to share that with everybody. My hope is they go like “Wow! Maybe English is not that complicated. Maybe English can make me smile, too. Maybe English can make me have a good time, too”. So that’s kind of my goal and that’s how I hope my followers see me. I also really love to just give them this approach that you just can learn with Billie Eilish, you can learn with Stranger Things, you can learn with Euphoria, you can learn with a lot of stuff that you genuinely care about, that you genuinely find interesting. So that’s the way I see it and the way I want everyone to see it.

CONNECTIONS

And interaction from her online community is also vital to her learning more about the needs of her students.

María G. Durán: I remember when I started off on Instagram, I just off-handedly asked my community “What do you want from me? How can I help you?”, because I don’t feel like I’m the main character in here, I feel like they are, the people who are watching me, who are finding the content useful. So I just asked them. I’m always listening and I’m always willing to improve, for sure. It is just so fulfilling to see and to feel that you are having a positive impact on people. That is just beyond my dreams. So that is why I’m always listening. I’m all ears!

www.mariaspeaksenglish.com