My Heart Smiles Every Time I Look At Them
We are pleased to be featuring Dario De Santis as our Tutor in the Spotlight in October 2023. Dario is an inspiring and passionate Italian language tutor online who is currently using his teaching skills within his role as an Italian and English tutor at Lonet.Academy. He shares with us his teaching journey, and how the teaching profession energizes and fulfills him! He is passionate about history and mythology, he loves playing sports and traveling, and dreams about retiring on a Greek island in a cozy house facing the sea!
Dario De Santis – Italian and English language Tutor | Italian Tutor Of The Month
What has led you to the language teaching?
My passion for languages began in high school, which is quite surpising considering how dull I found most teachers and subjects then. However, during English and even Latin and Ancient Greek lessons, I suddenly got out of my lethargy and got all excited. Despite not being the most zealous student, I was pretty good at them!
My first teaching experience was a language exchange that I set up with some Irish students to
improve my English, soon after I had moved to Ireland for work. It didn’t take me long to realize that I loved teaching and I could make a profession out of it. Living abroad, looking for a job as a language instructor was a logical step and after all these years I can say that that turned out very well for me.
What is your philosophy?
My life philosophy is very simple: our time on Earth is limited and we don’t know when our time
will come and if we’ll get another chance after this, so we should try to be as happy as possible
here and now. I try to do that by doing things I like every day or as often as possible. Luckily for
me, I am a very down-to-earth person who finds pleasure in the little things of life: a night out
with friends, a nice meal, a swim in the ocean, reading a book under a tree….
How has teaching practice benefited your life?
I started teaching as a hobby, then it became a part-time job, and finally a full-time job. Teaching gives me great satisfaction not only because I can see the result of my work, but also because I have the chance to meet people from all over the world and learn a lot from them.
It’s like traveling without leaving your desk!
Tell us some funny story that have ever happened to you with regards to teaching.
I’ll tell you a touching one instead. After six months of teaching English in China, I got a scholarship to attend a Master’s program in Italy, so I had to quit my job. On my last day at school, all the kids wrote me goodbye letters filled with sweet words; some of them gave me small gifts such as toys, stickers, pens, etc. for me to remember them. Then they walked me to the school gate gave me a heart-warming hug and kept waving at me until I got into a taxi and disappeared. It was heartbreaking. I still keep all their letters in a box and I have some of them in a frame on my desk. My heart smiles every time I look at them.
What difference/impact has your tutoring had so far on the people you have been teaching?
I believe that knowing another language opens up a whole new world and countless opportunities for students. For some of them, our lessons have become a moment of “self-care”, a time of the week in which they can escape the daily grind and pursue their genuine interests and personal growth. It’s almost therapeutic.
What’s the biggest area in teaching you are curious about and why?
I’m very curious to see how new technologies and AI in particular will change the rules of the game in language learning. In my opinion, AI will never be able to replace the human touch in teaching.
What advice would you give someone wanting to pursue a language teaching
career?
Go for it only if that is what you love doing. Moreover, if money is what you are after, you’d better choose another career 🙂
Thank you, Dario, for sharing your teaching journey with us!
If you are feeling inspired and would like to have a teaching business and practice you can run from any place in the world, then do join Lonet.Academy and make a positive impact!
Interested in reading some other stories of language tutors?
Kristi Kiilman – Estonian language tutor, A Tutor In The Spotlight.
Stacy-Lee – American English tutor at Lonet.Academy.
Want to join Lonet.Academy and make a real impact in language education?
Register at Lonet.Academy as a tutor.
See the full list of our Italian language tutors online.