Oxfordian Life
Author Talk Stirs Emotion
The primary students of Oxford’s five campuses in Reynosa had a great experience interacting with Diana Guardiola, author of the book series “Ortografía y redacción divertidas”, through a video call from Spain.
The expert in the Spanish language spoke on a range of subjects including her book, the character Karari and her professional life. The excitement, enthusiasm and wit of the children, who asked creative and unexpected questions, greatly surprised her — there were even moments that moved her to tears. On her social media, the linguist mentioned how rewarding this encounter had been for her.
“You have no idea how much I enjoyed the virtual visit to several primary groups at Colegio Oxford in Reynosa, across its different campuses. The boys and girls asked me interesting and challenging questions about their book «Ortografía y redacción divertidas», about Karari… and about me! Believe me, there were moments when I was moved to tears. Thank you, and thank you again, for such a heartfelt experience. The work and the effort are worth it!” wrote Diana Guardiola on her Facebook account.
The students showed particular interest in learning about the character Karari who appears in the book series; they also asked about the process of creating the books, which took the writer almost three years to complete. They took the chance to clear up doubts about the Spanish language and congratulated her on her innovative methodology, which makes it easier to reason through the language and so to communicate more clearly and correctly in writing.
For many years Guardiola has played an important part in the ongoing training of our staff, thanks to the various courses she has given year after year and her willingness to help whenever she is consulted.
The books created for the primary level form part of Oxford’s programme of study and have revolutionised the way of learning Spanish, with a methodology original to the author that offers simple, playful and compact explanations allowing reflective use of the language.
Diana Guardiola is a successful philologist originally from Reynosa whose expertise led her to settle in Spain several decades ago; even so, she has not passed up the chance to support her place of origin and has stayed in constant contact with our school.
