OUR SOCIAL ENGAGEMENT

By Louis Galicia

Louis Galicia founded Xela Languages in August 2017 as a Facebook group with the objective of providing people with a different tool to learn languages for free and to meet new people both locally and abroad. The project started with the idea of getting together and practicing languages online or in a venue like a coffee shop or library. The aim was to help people realize that learning a new language could be easy and not as time-consuming as they thought. The majority of people in Guatemala do not learn languages due to the lack of access to education and the high cost of private academies.

Initially, it was challenging to arrange meetups. However, inviting tourists or people studying Spanish in Xela to exchange languages turned out to be a great idea. Sharing culture and new ideas was one of the main objectives. Xela Languages also collaborated with Duolingo Events, a program that allows people to apply and become international hosts. Louis Galicia became a Global Ambassador for Duolingo and organized events twice a week, offering language exchange, culture sharing, and the opportunity to meet new people. Xela Languages also started to teach Spanish, French, Italian, and German.

During Louis Galicia's program in Germany from 2019-2020, they continued to organize meetups online, and a couple of good friends hosted events in the central park. After returning from Germany, Louis Galicia wanted to expand the project and make it more accessible to people by offering affordable language lessons. They discovered that it was hard for people to pay for expensive language classes, materials, and enrollment fees. To help solve this problem, they renovated the Xela Languages brand and community and transformed it into a proper online academy.

Our latest projects include #teachdifferent, a project aimed at training English teachers in the public educational system in Guatemala, and essays and creative work. We also started the Xela Languages podcast, available on Spotify, Apple podcasts, and Anchor.

In conclusion, Xela Languages is a language learning community that offers free language exchange, culture sharing, and affordable language lessons online. Louis Galicia's social projects aim to help English teachers and contribute to various topics.

Join us on our social networks !