Esa foto es de mi en un barco con dos niños quien viven en Puerto Escondido

I didn’t want to study Spanish while I was in my early teens (tweens?). I wanted to study French but adults in my life encouraged (coerced) me against it with arguments like, “Spanish would make you a much more desirable candidate for jobs.” No one else really cared about how desirable French felt in my ears, so I caved and took public school Spanish classes for almost 6 years.

    I always had an ear for accents so pronouncing words “correctly” in Spanish feels easy, but in school I really struggled with having confidence while speaking the language. This was as much due to my own lack of motivation and it was a result of the approach being taught. In every school Spanish class, I spent more time filling out papers with the correct answers, aptly placed accent marks, and unique punctuation than I did having conversations in Spanish. 

When fluent speakers tried to communicate with me, I felt about as lost as I imagine a lot of folks do when they show up to their first Non-Violent Communication Training (or my preferred Spanish translation, communicacion compasiva). Actually, I know this for a fact because I watch it every fall in the training I give called, “The Shift”—which happens, also, to be bilingual between Spanish and English.

    Every fall in The Shift there are participants who are confused as to how their emotions don’t have to be dependent on the actions of others, but can be observed, felt, and understood singularly by their own needs. And every fall in the training I find myself listening to someone share a story and become entirely lost as to what happened after their dog escaped from Luis’ home and they felt…embarrassed or pregnant (very similar words in Spanish)?

    Every fall I am reminded from these experiences at this training that reprogramming ourselves—for different languages, communication approaches, or ways of respecting others—requires a lot of humility and even more mistakes. Every fall at The Shift, though, I’m amazed at the will of the participants who sign up and the deep desire they have to change. I am reminded of how much capacity humans have to learn and adapt and, ultimately, I am reminded of how real learning that is intrinsically motivated is playful, challenging, and enriching. 

THE SHIFT: The Shift is a 7 day long training for parents, adults supporting youth, facilitators, and folks who want to transform how they think about education, parenting, and community. If you want to gain more freedom in life and build equitable & consent-based relationships with others and with yourself – this training is for you! Reach out with questions about what the day to day and content of this course looks like at madelynzins@gmail.com

Learn more about it or sign up for the training in late October in Puerto Escondido of coastal Oaxaca, Mexico for an amazing bilingual (English/Spanish) learning experience in an emergent Agile Learning Community. Check out more from the work of my co-facilitators, Becka and Sari over at Radical Learning.