Laura Blakney | Co-founder/Board of Directors

Laura was born in Mexico City, Mexico but she grew up in Cuernavaca, Mexico. She got her B.A. degree in Teaching Spanish & English as a Second Language from the Universidad Autonoma de Morelos in 2002.

Laura started her professional career as a Spanish teacher working in a variety of language schools and companies across Mexico and in the United States. In 2008 she became the academic director and co-founder of the Querétaro Language School (QLS) and helped create all the teaching material and manage all the teachers in the organization. .

Six months after starting to work at QLS she also came on as the Academic Director and co-founder of Live Lingua and became a pioneer in developing language teaching curriculums in the online space. She left her job at QLS after selling the school in 2012 and started working full time at Live Lingua.

As the Academic Director her primary focus at Live Lingua is on finding and working with the best language teachers for each of Live Lingua’s language offerings. She personally interviews each teacher that is hired to make sure they are up to the standards of the company and then provides ongoing support and training to all the teachers on the Live Lingua staff.

WHAT INSPIRES LAURA TO WORK?

Teaching.

I love to teach. I was lucky that from an early age I always knew what I wanted to be. A teacher. Even in elementary school I used to organize the class and give mock classes as a teacher. As I got older, that feeling did not change. In fact it became stronger. Teaching gives me the chance to interact with people from around the world and there is no greater satisfaction then when a student first "get's it". That moment of breakthrough when all their hard work pays off and they break through to the next level.

I don't think there will ever be a time in my life when I will not be teaching. It may be in a different form than what I am doing today, but that is no problem. Ten years ago I did not imagine I would be training teachers and teaching online. In ten years who knows how teaching will be. I look forward to all the changes. It keeps this job exciting.

Love Learning. I not only love teaching, I also love learning and I do it all the time. I am always reading books or taking courses to learn something new.

Dancing. My dad was a semi-professional dancer - Mexican Folk Dancing and Ballroom - so I have been dancing since I was a very young girl with my dad.

Good aesthetic sense. I am constantly decorating things and redesigning the office so that it not only looks good but that it is also efficient and logical.

Bad sense of direction. I have a lot of trouble telling where I am and where other things are in relation to me. Luckily I always give myself time to find a place, so I get there eventually.

Have constant wanderlust. The biggest challenge for me every day at Live Lingua is being sat in one place all day. In a physical school I used to run from class to class or office to office. With a Live Lingua I do it all from my desk, which for me is not always a bonus. I get up at least once an hour and do a small task to keep me sane.

Hates to do dishes. I am not sure why but to me this is the worst chore. I can't stand doing them, but I also can't stand leaving dirty dishes in the sink. Kind of a Catch 22.

I teach cooking. In fact, as a side hustle I run a small cooking school for foreigners in the city of Querétaro where I give private and small group cooking lessons to students from around the world. In addition to loving to cook Mexican food - which I learned from my great grandmother - I also love learning to cook food from around the world. Recently I have been learning how to cook Southeast Asian cuisine and am working on perfecting my curry recipes.