MEET CHIARA: THE EXPAT WHO DREAMS OF TEACHING THAILAND TO SPEAK ITALIAN

Meet Chiara

the expat who dreams of teaching Thailand to speak Italian

Hi Chiara can you briefly introduce yourself?

My name is Chiara Gasparotti, I’m from Brescia but I live on Koh Samui. I studied languages in high school, earned a bachelor’s degree in Italian literature and a master’s degree in Sociology from Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore. I’m currently Director of Studies at Mind Your Language Thailand, head teacher of Italian and English, founder of the Italian Certification Centre PLIDA Thailand and a teacher trainer.

Why Samui?

I came to Samui in 2014 to take a TEFL certificate to teach English. At the time I was teaching English at Wall Street English and I needed to get certified. I have been teaching English and Italian since my university days. As soon as I got my TEFL certificate I was offered a teaching job by a language school. Little I knew how life changing that job offer would be. My plan was to teach in Thailand 3 months and go back to Italy. Reality is that I set up the foreign language department of that school from scratch, creating the whole syllabus and in a few months all my classes were fully booked. To my great surprise, I started to get inquiries to teach Italian as well. Mind Your Language Thailand, the school that hired me then, is the same for which I am still working now. It was opened in 2001 as a Thai Language School by the best teacher I’ve met in my teaching career. His name is Jom and he’s my husband now. But that’s another story…

What type of students of Italian do you have?

During my time in Thailand I’ve met students from every walk of life. I teach mainly adults. I’ve had students who learn Italian because they have an Italian heritage and want to preserve their Italianità, other students join my classes because they are fascinated by Italy and its culture. Recently, I’ve been working with students who need to prepare for the B1 exam to apply for the Italian citizenship or the B2 exam to enroll into Italian Universities.

What are your short term and long term projects?

As much as I’m a doer, I’m a dreamer. When in 2016 Società Dante Alighieri in Rome asked me why I wanted to open an Italian Certification Centre on Samui, I answered I felt I had the responsibility to proudly represent Italy in my host country. This is what I still want to do. PLIDA Thailand opened in 2017 and this year Dante Rome has extended our partnership for 3 more years. I’ve worked mainly as an English teacher and teacher trainer for the past years, but once forced home by the lockdown I decided that 2020 and 2021 would be dedicated to Italian only. And I bet on online classes to reach more students offering them an Italian course taught in a very upbeat way. We use a method, called T.M.C. that works on the development of the muscle memory. My biggest challenge has been to use it to teach a language like Italian that has such a complex structure. I’ve done a massive job creating resources that could help online classes be as interactive as my in-class lessons are and so far my commitment has paid off. My long term objective is to expand outside of Samui becoming a guiding light for all students in Thailand who want to achieve their learning goal in a fast, effective and fun way and to make them love Italiano as much as I do.

Mind Your Language l Thailand

Address: 142/7 Moo 1, Bophut, Koh Smui, Surat Thani 84320 WhatsApp: +66 (0)97 192 0294 LINE: +66 (0) 97 192 0294 Email: chaweng@mindyourlanguagethailand.com Facebook: mindyourlanguageschoolkohsamui