Welcome to the best life!

Welcome to Best Life Ever TESOL! I'm Nakia, founder of Best Life Ever TESOL. I've always been fascinated with languages and words—as a child, I would get in trouble for reading when I should have been cleaning my room! I was also amazed by my sister's fluent Spanish and ability to pick up Mandarin Chinese. I was determined to keep up with her one day, at least in Spanish! It was no surprise, then, that in college I declared an English major and a minor in Spanish.

Despite a detour in finance for 10 years after college, I never stopped loving languages or teaching others. When working late, I would chat with the office cleaning crew in Spanish, asking them to respond in English. The biggest problem many faced—and that I faced with my Spanish—was lack of practice. Many understood English but had trouble expressing themselves verbally and in writing. I could feel my Spanish slipping, but between my sister and other friends, I was determined not to lose my language skills. I chose to spend my vacation time traveling internationally and even earned my TESOL certification in 2012. I once found myself on a beach in Costa Rica with people from Spain and Germany who found common ground through their shared knowledge of English. This happened over and over again: in a room full of people in South Africa, a shared second (or third or fourth!) language was English.

By the end of my time in the corporate world, I had been a financial advisor and was developing and running training programs for future financial advisors in my company's offices across the country. Beginning in 2018, I began focusing on my volunteer work and on helping people earn their own TESOL certifications. As I did so, I realized that more consistent, personalized effort was needed to support ESL students' English skills. Many had excellent test scores but struggled with pronunciation and error-filled writing. I knew that my experience creating training programs would be helpful in improving those skills. Thus, Best Life Ever TESOL was born. I became determined to use my love of the English language to help ESL students improve their communication skills and reach their goals.

Let Best Life Ever TESOL help you live your best life—your best life ever!