Language Educator & Researcher · EN · ES · FI

Wendolyn
Santana

Language is not a skill — it is a way of belonging. Researching the spaces where multilingualism, cultural identity, and teaching meet.

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About

Language is not a skill.
It is a way of belonging.

I am a Mexican language educator and researcher whose work lives at the intersection of multilingualism, cultural identity, and pedagogy. I speak English, Spanish, and Finnish — three languages that could not be more different from each other — and that trilingual experience shapes both the questions I ask and the way I teach.

I am the founder of The Mexican Vibe, a cultural organization dedicated to celebrating Mexican identity through language, food, music, and community-based education. For me, it is both a passion project and a living research site: a space where informal language learning happens inside cultural pride, not despite it.

My teaching experience spans formal classrooms — where I have taught languages and worked as a substitute across grade levels and subjects — and front-line customer service roles where cross-cultural communication happens in real time, under pressure. Every one of those contexts has taught me something that no classroom theory has.

3
Languages spoken
5+
Years teaching
1
Organization founded
Research Interests

Where the work lives

Four interconnected areas drive my inquiry — each asking a version of the same question: what happens when language education takes culture, identity, and the full person seriously?

Multilingualism

Multilingual Identity & Language Acquisition

How speakers develop and sustain multiple linguistic identities — especially when languages like Spanish, English, and Finnish occupy very different social roles in a person's life and community.

Heritage Languages

Heritage Language Education & Cultural Pride

The role schools and community organizations play in maintaining minority and heritage languages across generations — and how cultural pride functions as a force that no grammar textbook can replicate.

Intercultural Pedagogy

Intercultural Competence in Language Teaching

How language educators can move beyond grammar and vocabulary to teach cultural ways of seeing — and why that shift demands a different kind of teacher preparation than most programs offer.

Community Learning

Community-Based Language Learning

The informal, affective, and social dimensions of language learning that happen outside the classroom — in kitchens, music, festivals, and organizations like The Mexican Vibe — and what formal education can learn from them.

Selected Publications

Recent work

Full CV
From the Blog

Notes in progress

All posts
Heritage Language
August 5, 2025

When Your Mother Tongue Becomes Your Research Subject

There is something strange about studying Spanish as a native speaker and a researcher at the same time. It puts you inside and outside simultaneously — and that tension is, I think, exactly where the most honest work happens.

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Language Learning
May 20, 2025

Learning Finnish as an Adult: What Failure Taught Me About Teaching

Finnish is not a language that lets you coast on intuition. Acquiring it as an adult, with Spanish and English already in my head, surfaced assumptions about language learning I hadn't examined since I first set foot in a classroom.

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The Mexican Vibe
February 12, 2025

Why I Built a Community Before a Curriculum

The Mexican Vibe started as a place for people to feel proud of where they come from. The language learning came later — and came more naturally because of it. That sequence, I believe, is not an accident.

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Teaching

Courses & workshops

Language Instruction

Language course
Spanish for Non-Native Speakers
Communicative and culturally grounded Spanish instruction for adult and young adult learners. Emphasis on real-world use, not just grammar — speaking with confidence from the first session.
Language course
English Language Learning (ESL)
English instruction with a particular sensitivity to Spanish-speaking learners — leveraging shared Latin roots, addressing common interference patterns, and building a supportive environment for adult learners.
Substitute teaching
Cross-Subject Classroom Coverage
Extensive experience substituting across grade levels and subject areas — an experience that sharpened adaptability, classroom presence, and the ability to connect with students I am meeting for the first time.

The Mexican Vibe & Talks

Community organization · Founder
The Mexican Vibe
A cultural and educational organization celebrating Mexican identity through language, food, music, and community. Hosts informal language sessions, cultural events, and workshops where belonging comes before curriculum.
Community workshop
Language Without Borders: Culture First
A hands-on workshop offered through The Mexican Vibe on how cultural immersion accelerates language acquisition — and why the emotional connection to a language matters more than any vocabulary list.
Contact

Get in touch

I welcome messages about research collaborations, language teaching, speaking invitations, or anything related to The Mexican Vibe. If you are a fellow multilingual navigating questions of identity and education, I especially want to hear from you.