In an era of disconnection from the natural world, certain books act as bridges—offering us pathways to reconnect with the land, listen to its wisdom, and redefine our place within it. Two such works that deeply resonate in this space are Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer and Todo lo […]
María Ortega García
46 posts
Note: This is not a review of the Netflix miniseries Adolescence, but it is a spoiler in itself, so do not read before you have finished watching the four episodes. The purpose of this article is to lay out the main characters and their interconnectedness. It shows how the lines that […]
“There is no separation of mind and emotions; emotions, thinking, and learning are all linked.” — Eric Jensen Learning a foreign language is often perceived as an intellectual pursuit, requiring memorization, grammar mastery, and vocabulary expansion. However, an equally crucial yet often overlooked factor in language acquisition is emotional intelligence (EI). Emotional intelligence, […]
When learning a language is not a love story. For many, the main reason why they learn a language is because they fall in love with it. They love the sound of it. They want to connect with native speakers. They are attracted to the culture of the language. This […]
Selvas tengo en el corazón; árboles gruesos prietos de ramas; yuyos, retamas, flores de malvón, pájaros en las ramas, todo eso tengo en mi corazón. – Alfonsina Storni Una chica de ciudad. I once was a city girl. Coming from a small Spanish city, I grew up seeing only pigeons […]
Mindfulness is a double-edged sword when it comes to trauma. In recent years, educators and school administrators have increasingly embraced mindfulness techniques as an essential tool to foster a supportive learning environment. Mindfulness, defined as the practice of maintaining a moment-to-moment awareness of one’s thoughts, feelings, bodily sensations, and environment, […]
Nature’s first green is gold,Her hardest hue to hold.Her early leaf’s a flower;But only so an hour.Then leaf subsides to leaf.So Eden sank to grief,So dawn goes down to day.Nothing gold can stay. As our friend Robert Frost said in his poem: Nothing gold can stay. But what is gold, […]
By knowledge, I don’t mean academic knowledge about different topics—although that kind of knowledge can help—but self-knowledge, relational knowledge, outside knowledge, and intercultural knowledge when conversing in a non-native language. How do you build confidence? Stage one: self-knowledge As always, we should start with ourselves. We should begin looking within […]
From stream-of-consciousness writing to guided journaling, jotting down what’s inside our heads has the power to make sense of the tangle of ideas in our brains. I started journaling when I was a teenager and have never really stopped doing it, but the format, the content and the language have […]