Wendelyn Pentz, a Spanish teacher at ILA—or Profesora as her students call her—has had an interesting journey with the fourth most common language, Spanish.

She was twenty-six when she went to Argentina—and something happened.

“The passion really exploded in my heart,” Pentz said about the language during her first trip.

She started singing in Spanish, praying in Spanish, going around speaking the language all the time. She felt as though the Lord was bringing it into her life.

She grew up in southern California until she left for Argentina after college. She studied a good amount of Spanish in middle school, high school, and college, but it wasn’t until she got older that she grew a huge passion for the beautiful language.

After college she went to a discipleship training school which was in Buenos Aires, Argentina and was able to really find the opportunity to speak Spanish. Once she started speaking Spanish daily, it took her about two years to be completely fluent. Pentz says that if you want to be fluent in about a year then you should study the language thoroughly and maybe even live in a Spanish speaking country. Otherwise, it will take longer.

While living in Buenos Aires, she fell in love with the city, so much that she decided to live there, eventually staying for four years.

Pentz considered teaching during Covid because she was in a Bible study and the Lord reminded her she wasn’t using Spanish enough. In just a few months she heard about ILA and started to think about teaching there. She finds teaching very easy and fun and she loves doing it.

But Pentz doesn’t just use Spanish in the classroom, finding ways to use it in Boise. One of the things she says is the most important to remember when learning the language is to have an open heart. “You have to be willing to make mistakes and laugh at yourself,” she said. “There will be many times when you embarrass yourself or say the wrong thing, It doesn’t matter when you are having fun.”

She considers herself advanced in the language, even though she might forget words or how to pronounce them. She is very musical and listens to Spanish speaking worship songs constantly. Pentz is also a homeschooling mother and has a huge faith in the Lord. None of her other family members know Spanish but they are learning more and more.