Iraitz Lizarralde Dacosta

First of all, Basque is my native language as I was born in Aia and grew up in Zarautz. Due to this fact it was easy for me to get the EGA, and even to this day, Basque is the language I use the most when talking to friends and family.

Secondly, I started my journey as a teacher right after I finished my degree in Primary Education, even though it wasn't in a conventional way, as I left the country and moved to Austin, where besides working as an Au Pair for an American family (we then moved to Cedar Park, a nearby city), I taught Castillian and improved my English greatly, achieving a high level. Moreover, I didn't just sit around waiting for my English to get better through sheer immersion, but I also took and passed grammar, oral communication and pronunciation courses. Consequently, I wound up passing the CAE with a Grade A, which demonstrates an ability at level 3 and Council of Europe level C2.

After having achieved the aforementioned level, I worked as an English teacher at A&E English academy and I also taught Basque at Basque schools in both the northern (Seaska) and the southern (Irurako Ikastola) Basque countries (which are in France and Spain respectively). I currently work at Kids & Us English Academy, teaching various levels of English ranging from 1-2 year olds to students preparing for the C2 Proficiency Exam (formerly known as Cambridge English Proficiency).

As a side note, I also have a basic knowledge of French as I needed it to communicate with many non-Basque speaking parents and I feel confident that I could become fluent within a few months if necessary, as I can already understand the language.