ZOILA, OUR NEW LANGUAGE ASSISTANT

 This school year we are lucky to have Zoila Ulanday as our language assistant. She is a 24 year old young woman from The Philippines who has lots of things to teach us about her country. Also, she will help students to improve their linguistic competence in the English language with motivating activities.

We asked her to write a description about herself and here it is. Welcome to CEIP Outeiro das Penas, Zoila!

Hello there! I´m Alexandra Zoila D. Ulanday. Most of my childhood friends call me by the name Alex, but for its uniqueness, my friends in college changed my nickname to Zoila, which I also ended up using even now that I´m in Spain as a language assistant. 

Few words that would summarize all of the things that I´ve indulged myself into through the years are creativity, music, and communication. Most of my life, I´ve been involved in activities and projects that stirs my constant desire to create things like producing and editing videos, doing photography, writing songs, reciting poems, and acting for theatre. Through these experiences, I was able share not just my thoughts, but most importantly, I was also able to tell stories of different people and moments that come into my life and have a bigger view and understanding of the world.

Because of my constant yearning to tell stories, I also found my love of performing and creating music. I started singing by the age of 12, and later on learned to play instruments like the guitar, the piano, and the ukulele. Since then, I treated music as my universal language to connect to people. Even at school, I still see and use music as a vital tool not only to learn a different language, but also to connect to my students. 

Finally, in correlation with these passions of mine, I decided to study a degree in the university that would cater all of them which is Broadcast Communication. Through this, I was also able to discover my love for the media and communication. Through my course, I was able to create films, produce documentaries, practice my public speaking skills, and interview people from all walks of life. All of these really strengthened my desire of broadening my worldview and share not just my own stories this time, but also the wonderful stories of my culture and my country.

For all of these reasons, I decided to take one of the biggest decisions of my life and fly in a country that is 7,363 miles away from home and be a language assistant. Not to sugarcoat for the sake of this blog, but I genuinely believe that this is one of the most fulfilling things that I´ve done in my life. Being a language assistant served as an avenue for me to discover new abilities and passions that I never thought I have which is sharing my knowledge and creativity to kids and being passionate about teaching. It also opened doors for me to learn more about Spain and Galicia, and appreciate the uniqueness of every culture. And most importantly, my favorite thing of being an auxiliar is that it allowed me to share more about my country, the Philippines, and its beauty. I'm very happy to have chosen this path, and surely, it will be a special memory that will be engraved in my heart forever.