Student Reviews

Hola a todos! My name is Katie. By day, I am a freelance editor. By night, I am a professional musician. By 2023, I hope to achieve complete Spanish fluency.

Why the urgency? In January 2023, I will marry un chilango - a native of Mexico City.

Although I've devoted my professional life to editing and music, my love of Spanish was always lurking in the background - in years of high school Spanish classes, multiple service trips to Panama, and fun vacations to Spain. But no matter how many trips or courses I took, I found myself stuck in the rut of an intermediate (B1) Spanish student.

In September 2020, I moved to Mexico City to live with my fiance. There, in interacting with his family and friends, it became apparent that the grammar and spelling lessons I'd learned in school had little value in the real world. Rather than feeling happy to get to know my fiance's loved ones, I felt embarrassed and frustrated that I couldn't understand them. Even though Spanish was all around me, why wasn't I advancing?

That's where Spanish55 came in. In October 2020, after hearing about Spanish55 on my favorite podcast (Españolistos), I nervously booked my first appointment with a Coach. I explicitly requested an instructor based in Mexico who would be able to help me decipher the (seemingly endless!) amount of Mexican slang that I heard on a daily basis. And that's how I got matched with - in my humble opinion - the kindest and most patient instructor ever, Coach Francis.

In one year of working twice per week with Francis, my fiance, his family, and his friends have been astounded by my progress. I used to get lost in conversations as soon as the greetings ended. Now, I can chat with pretty much anybody, whether at restaurants, supermarkets, clubs, bars, parties, etc. I've even taken up learning Nahuatl, the language of the Aztecs, from Spanish-speaking teachers. Undoubtedly my greatest feat, however, is being able to gossip with my suegra (mother-in-law) - a crucial skill to master before marrying into any family!

In the coming year, with Francis's invaluable help, I look forward to advancing from the C1 to C2 level. I am confident that fluency is just around the corner, and that the many hours that Francis has spent preparing my lesson plans, creating ingenious scenarios for me to practice grammar, and acquainting me with Mexico's beautiful and multifaceted culture will be well worth the time and effort. And the best part? I'm psyched to exchange my wedding vows with my fiance in flawless Spanish in January 2023.

P.S. Spanish55 has become a family affair! My mom also became a student of Coach Francis this past summer. We are planning on meeting Francis in-person over the holidays and toasting her amazing impact on our family. ¡Mil gracias a Spanish55!

Hi! Mi nombre es Kim. I’m a primary care doctor who was raised in the Bay Area, California. My parents are refugees from Vietnam, and their immigrant experience has had a big impact on my desire to learn from people with different cultural backgrounds. I studied literature in college because I love language and stories, and decided to eventually pursue medicine for its opportunity to listen to people’s narratives and become a part of them.

I recently relocated to New Mexico because I wanted to go somewhere with a greater need for healthcare, especially in the area of addiction medicine. I work at First Nations - a community clinic caring for underserved populations. At my previous clinic, I often felt like I was doing my Spanish-speaking patients a disservice by not knowing a language so prevalent in California. When I took some time off in between jobs, and knowing I’d be going to New Mexico, I decided to take advantage to take Spanish lessons.

Like many of you, I googled ‘Spanish lessons’ and found Spanish55. I liked the idea of having a one-on-one tutor, and then my teacher (Coach Sofia) and I developed a connection that has made learning Spanish so much more fun than listening to audio lessons! Sofia is so committed to her work - she works all the time and yet has so much energy at every lesson, and she remembers everything about her students. You can tell she really cares about us as students and as people, which motivates me to be better at both! We share news articles in Spanish, text each other in Spanish, and of course Sofia helps me translate and practice medical scenarios. It's been really, really rewarding for me to be able to use what we've learned with our patients.

Our patients are constantly having to adjust to a society that is often inequitable. I feel like putting effort into speaking in their own language shows them we are trying to meet them where they are, instead of always the other way around. And when they are sharing vulnerable issues like abuse and trauma, or having to do vulnerable procedures like a Pap smear, being able to communicate in their language adds a layer of safety that they might not have in other areas of their lives.

I really enjoy having real-life conversations. I'm really looking forward to one day not having to use a translator with my patients, and also being able to have more and more complex conversations with Sofia, because she has such interesting perspectives.