Valeria Calderón

My teaching style is based on conversational usage of each language. I think there is no better way to learn a language fully than daring to make mistakes and learning from them. I do make sure to distinguish between formal and colloquial registers but I find that a very important factor is to build confidence and familiarity with a language. Even native speakers make silly mistakes and use innappropriate terms!

I prefer to structure a long-term lesson plan so we can cover basic terminology and from there learn how to build and communicate more complex ideas. However, all of the initial sessions are based on an evaluation of current lexic level and confidence so we can keep building from there. I try to make my lessons as distinct as possible to ensure that you are not only learning the language but also engaging with contemporary interesting topics.

Based on this, I like to plan out the sessions for each student based on your own interests and needs. Whether you are trying to impress a certain someone, or trying to have a key tool to travel around the world, or maybe applying to a dream job in the sunny caribbean, I'm confident that with our time together you will feel strong in your verbal skills. Hopefully, our time together will also provide you insight into how the verbal language combines with the non-verbal, cultural layers of the linguistic system.

I look forward to helping you reach a confident, fun use of Spanish!