María Laura (Lala) Ferro - Spanish Instructor

Hailing from cosmopolitan Buenos Aires Argentina, María Laura, who goes by her nickname Lala, has nurtured a passion for education and for languages from a young age. Constantly seeking new knowledge and skills, after getting her University degree in public translation, she pursued her passion for teaching with intensive continued education including a postgraduate course on Pedagogy, a Diploma in the Teaching of Spanish as a Second Language from the University of Buenos Aires, and working for several years in the Language Laboratory at the University of Buenos Aires and at the Argentine University of Enterprise. In 2012, she took an extended trip around Latin America where she was able to experience first-hand not only the rich cultural heritage of different countries and regions but also the incredible diversity of the Spanish language and its variations, an adventure which cemented her desire to share her love of her native language with students seeking to learn Spanish.

As a Spanish teacher, Lala believes it is fundamental to create an environment in which students feel comfortable and relaxed. She strives to ensure her students are active participants in their own learning process, guiding them to obtain the tools needed in order to use and interact with the language they are learning. Her classes are well-organized and highly stimulating, often integrating cultural content with the study of grammar structures in order to offer students the most well-rounded vision of the Spanish language and cultures of peoples who speak it as possible.

In her free time, Lala likes getting exercise, going hiking, and enjoying the simple pleasures of life such as sharing moments with her family and friends, enjoying a good meal, or having a good cup of café con leche, or some yerba mate, alone or accompanied.