Student Testimonials

My name is Harry Smith. I am a Pastor at a church in Texas, in Dallas, Texas, and I have been with Spanish55 for about 11 months now. I began taking lessons about 11 months ago, very little Spanish background. I had just done some independent work trying to learn a language in a context where I need to use it on a daily basis and would like to become fluent in it.

Working with coaches, it's less intimidating one-on-one than trying to use language just in a public setting. I'm less self-conscious about things. I know that there's freedom to make mistakes and that I learn most through those mistakes. Rodrigo and Ana have really helped me through that very well. Yeah, that's part of the reason why I really enjoy working with one-on-one coaches.

My name is Amber Christian and I've been with Spanish55 for five months now. I am a digital marketing professional in the Southern Florida area, so understanding Spanish and being involved in that market is very important to me.

I have tried to learn another language, Spanish specifically, for about 10 years. I've tried many other programs, many other classes, and nothing ever actually stuck with me. Being able to order food, for example, being able to set up appointments. Being in Southern Florida, many people speak Spanish only. Right away, after my first week, I could use what I learned. It really becomes a partnership to see the students succeed, so I think that's one of the greatest things of the coaches at Spanish55.

For anyone that wants to learn Spanish, Spanish55 is the way to go. It's effective, it's affordable, the coaches are passionate about the student's success, and what do you have to lose?

My name is Dawn Lucrisia-Johnson and I have been taking lessons with Spanish55 since February 2016, so 10 months, I guess. I'm an administrative assistant, but I also am a photographer on the side. I do some volunteer work with a nonprofit and I photograph terminally ill children with their families and many of them are Spanish speaking and don't speak a lot of English. That was one of the reasons that drove me to take lessons. I had started out with Rodrigo and I just love him dearly and I miss him, but I have Alberto now and he's doing really well with me. I had an excellent junior high teacher who taught me a lot of words, apparently. Now, I'm just learning to put them together and that's what's important to me.

Spanish55 means there's a future with me speaking Spanish fluently and everybody has been so nice to me from the staff and just the invoicing. Everything has been really simple and I like the fact I don't have to leave home to do it. It's convenient. The challenge is just getting home in time.

My name is Laina Dunning. I am a family nurse practitioner and I've been doing Spanish 55 for eight months. I studied Spanish in high school and college, so I did it just because I had to, not because I wanted to, so now I'm a nurse practitioner and it makes you more marketable to be able to do history and physicals on people who speak Spanish instead of getting a translator.

I work with Alberto, so he's just really fun. It's just like I feel like I'm talking with a friend, not like I'm being like I'm a student, he's a teacher. It's like colleagues almost, so I don't feel intimidated. For me, I'm doing it just because, one I want to learn it because I'm a lifelong learner. I'm done with school at this point, so I'm like, "I have to do something else," and two, it'll be helpful just for me in my career, so why not do something you like, you know?

I really enjoy it. I've told co-workers about it. I'm actually taking ... I have to take continuing education credits for my license, so there is a Spanish course called Rios Associates in San Diego that I'm gonna go to in June. They help you do history and physicals to get more into the medicine part of it, so hopefully with all of this and that, then I'll be good to go. We shall say.

Hi, my name is Karlee and I am a nursing student and also a client of Spanish55. [Spanish] Hola soy estudiante de enfermería y también una cliente de Spanish55. I first decided to learn Spanish when I began college. I knew that I would use Spanish in whatever field I decided to work in since I live in San Diego bordering Mexico. I also wanted to learn Spanish so that I could be a bridge between those people who only spoke Spanish and those who spoke English. Decidí aprender Español cuando empecé a ir a la Universidad, supe que lo usaría en cualquier campo de trabajo y también quería ser un puente entre las personas que hablan Español y los que hablan Inglés.

The process has been a dynamic one, and it's taken a lot of time. I clearly remember when I was only able to count to ten in Spanish and say, [Spanish] ¿Hola como estás? El proceso ha sido dinámico y ha tomado tiempo, recuerdo claramente cuando solo sabía contar hasta diez y decir ¿Hola, cómo estás? Even though I wasn't sure if it would actually be possible to learn Spanish, I remember the day one of my Spanish professors encouraged me and said, "Little by little you can learn anything." And I found this to be true. [Spanish] Aunque no sabía si realmente era posible aprender Español, acuerdo del día cuando mi profesora me animó y me dijo poco a poco se aprende todo, y eso era cierto.

Learning Spanish has been a beautiful rewarding process. [Spanish] Aprender Español ha sido una experiencia y un proceso muy provechoso y bonito. Knowing how to speak Spanish is like, it's really like being able to see a world that you weren't able to see before. It also provides you with a lot of experiences you might not have had before and opportunities. [Spanish] Saber hablar Español es como poder ver otro mundo que no veía antes, y también le da nuevas experiencias y oportunidades.

So I am the only person in my family that speaks Spanish. I didn't learn everything that I know in the class. I also did everything that I could. I would read books in Spanish, and write, and talk to friends, and I'd find new recipes so that I could learn food vocabulary, but also just so that I could eat and enjoy the food. [Spanish] Soy la única persona en mi familia que habla Español y aunque empecé mis estudios en la Universidad, no aprendí todo en la clase, también leía, escribía, hablaba con amigos en Español. Conseguía recetas para aprender vocabulario de comida y por supuesto para comerla.

I use Spanish every day in the hospital where I work as a nursing student. It's really helped me build rapport with the patients I work with, and have conversations of trust and to avoid a lot of confusion. [Spanish] Uso Español todos los días que trabajo con los pacientes en el Hospital como estudiante de enfermería y me ha ayudado para tener conversaciones de confianza con los pacientes y también para evitar confusiones.

Spanish55 has really helped me with learning a Spanish that is ... Well, Spanish at a new level. They really encouraged me. I feel so much more confident when I speak Spanish with patients, and especially when it evolves a Spanish that's a little bit more technical. [Spanish] Spanish55 me ha ayudado y me ha animado a aprender Español a un nivel mas profundo, también me siento mas segura cuando hablo con pacientes especialmente cuando la situación requiere un Español más técnico. I really am thankful for the coach that I work with at Spanish55. For all the employees there, it is a great program. [Spanish] Aprecio mucho mi coach y también todos los empleados de Español55, la verdad es un programa muy bueno, entonces, gracias.

Hola, me llamo Charlene, soy una enfermera y también soy una estudiante de Spanish55. Hello. My name is Charlene. I'm currently a nurse and I'm also a student of Spanish55.

My journey with Spanish55 started when I received a message from Alvaro on LinkedIn, inviting me to come and try Spanish55. Since I've been busy with work and now school, I figured that Spanish55 was a great alternative for lessons since I would be able to get one-on-one instruction from a native speaker in Spanish and it was also in the convenience of my own home. I don't have to go anywhere, I don't have to spend a lot of money on gas to get great education and great learning experience for Spanish.

So, I gave it a shot. I've been with Spanish55 for a year now and I can only say great and amazing things about the program, about my coach, and about the whole staff at Spanish55. In the time that I've been working with my coach in Spanish55, I was able to barely interact with my patients in clinic to becoming a certified Spanish interpreter at the hospital that I was working at. I only have Spanish55 to thank for that and for their time to be able to cater all of our learning sessions for me and directly for my needs.

As a medical professional, I highly recommend Spanish55. They'll definitely tailor the experience to your needs. Like I said, they're very nice, very personable, very accommodating, and very easy to work with. I especially love my experience with the whole staff. They're very responsive, very kind, and very generous. I could tell that they're passionate about what they do and they helped me do what I love to do and interact with my patients in the healthcare setting every day.

So, [Spanish] gracias a todas las personas en Spanish55, and thank you so much for watching my video. I hope it helped to give you a little bit more insight about my story, about the program, and just help inspire your wish to learn Spanish or your desire to learn more about Spanish and get started with that. Thank you.

I really love Spanish55 because first off, the convenience. I love that it's flexible around my schedule and I also love that I can take it virtually anywhere, even when I'm traveling for work. I also love my coach Rodrigo.

What's really effective about Spanish55 is they have you take a personality profile when you start and you get mapped to a coach who has a very similar personality. What's great about that is that they really understand how to teach you concepts and ideas around the way you think based on your personality profile.

And lastly, what I really love about it is ... I'm learning Spanish. I mean, I've wanted to learn Spanish my entire life and I'm starting to get very fluent in it. In fact, I'm really getting good at reading comprehension and can actually speak some conversational Spanish. And I'm excited, because I can start using it in my acting career. So again, thanks so much, Spanish55. I highly recommend it.

[Spanish] Hola, mi nombre es DeAnna Pursai y me encanta Spanish55. My name is Deanna Pursai and I love Spanish 55. I'm the executive director of the college of adaptive arts where we're providing an equitable collegiate experience for adults with disabilities. Many of our students and families at our college are native Spanish speakers, and I've often wanted to converse and experience their joy first hand and with Spanish 55, I'm now able to do that on a regular basis. I was so pleased when Abraham and Alvaro reached out to me through LinkedIn and shared with me their services when I had indicated in my hobbies that I wanted to learn Spanish.

Up to that date, I had been learning through CD-based instruction which is wonderful, but Spanish 55 has provided the missing link for me because I get to work with a native Spanish speaker twice a week and get instant feedback and immediate feedback on my questions that I have about what I'm learning with my CDs and the conversations I'm having out in the community.

I very much look forward to my sessions. They're convenient. They're affordable. They've tailored it around my busy schedule, and they're joyful. Coach Rodrigo brings a positive energy of high expectations and really thorough analysis of why I'm learning what I'm learning in Spanish. It's super flexible, so when I have a particular question, they spend as much time as possible. I just can't be more grateful to them. I really was a little leery that I was gonna be able to learn this wonderful language, but after about four months, I can honestly say that I can converse with almost anyone in Spanish and we're able to communicate, and it's so empowering.

[Spanish] Entonces, estoy muy agradecida con Spanish55 y espero poder usar servicios por mucho tiempo.

I'm 29, coming on 30, and I work as a Marketing/Sales Assistant student at Samsung. I'm a student as well in marketing and sales, so that sort of goes together.

I came to San Diego as part of an internship last January and I decided that, okay, I want to try to learn Spanish now that I'm in California, this is the place to do it. I looked up a couple of different places and I just thought private tutoring would be the best to gain more in the few months I was going to be here. It's tailored to what I need. That is the most important part for me, actually, that we're not following a specific curriculum or plan, because that's what you do in school or in class.

We've had a couple of conversations, very early on, that I wouldn't have been able to have if it hadn't been for the way that he's been teaching me. This is why i continue doing this, even after I went back, I kept up with it, and now I'm starting to read on my own. I've got that confidence that it doesn't matter that you're not correct the first time around, he'll get you anyway and then he'll help you go from there. So that's a big, big thing for me.

Coach Alberto, he has done so much for me and he is really amazing and he is the driving force behind why I wanted to do this, and wanted to get better. Thank you so much, you're amazing.

Hi, my name is Mark Klein. I am a consultant, energy consultant and I have been taking Spanish 55 online since February of this year. I started taking Spanish for business, I've done a lot of travel internationally this past year, traveling to Colombia, Brazil, Chile, Panama, Dominican Republic and parts of Asia. Since my capabilities were very, very marginal going back almost 40 years when I took Spanish in high school. Essentially, we had to start from the very beginning and now over the last eleven months, as I am able to progress and the course can be tailored to either business, business situations or conditions that I'm going to be in, or different countries. My coach is able to tailor specific lessons that help or enable me in specific business environments.

Spanish 55 has been not only a great learning environment but I've developed a great friendship with my Spanish tutor Rodrigo and that is one of the, I think, big benefits of Spanish 55 is not only is it a medium for learning but it's a medium for establishing close relationships and friendships with people.

I live in Florida and I've been taking Spanish lessons through Spanish55 for a couple months now. Previously worked in the technology field in network security and I'm taking some time off of work, and what I'm doing is I'm making sure that my brain doesn't get stale while I'm not working. I used to do some work in Latin America and one of the things that I wish I had done previously was learn Spanish so I could communicate better in my job.

When I go back to work or if or when I go back to work, I felt that taking these lessons would increase my skills in the marketplace and make it easier to communicate with potential clients and customers in Latin America.

My experience with Spanish55, my experience has been really positive. My coach Paula, she's awesome. She's always got positive energy and reinforces everything that we do during our sessions and I find that very valuable. It makes me feel good when I'm doing, even though I forget a lot of things. It's much more than sitting down and reading a textbook. I get to learn things about the culture from a native speaker that you wouldn't get from an online program or reading a textbook. It's much more personal and dynamic and interesting for me. So yeah.

My name is David Williams. I have a PhD in physics. I work in drug discovery in Silicon Valley. I have been taking lessons for I think just over a year. Spanish55 has been almost universally positive. I really do appreciate getting personal lessons in Spanish. It's a big improvement over trying to do things either online or trying to do things purely in a written form to have to practice actual spoken language. My reasons for taking Spanish aren't related to any specific need. It's just an interest in trying to get closer at understanding a separate culture as best I can. I do appreciate that my coach is very patient, that he's willing to be interrupted and asked very strange questions about Spanish grammar and asked them as succinctly as possible. The lessons themselves do not follow a real pattern. They're very flexible. They also begin with a general discussion.

I think something I should warn people about is that there's a lot of electronic resources available for translation. In particular, there are apps you can get for your phone. What I've discovered is that beyond the simple basic vocabulary, the information you get from these applications are often very misleading and wrong. I think if you learn Spanish purely electronically, I think you start sounding probably like a robot. I've discovered ... I've tried to figure out how to say certain phrases in Spanish, tried to learn it online, and discovered from my coach that what I said actually was quite inappropriate. There really is a value in talking to a human, learning Spanish from someone who actually understands Spanish directly.

My name is Kaitlin McCoy, I'm 29 years old, and I work for a software company, I do customer support. My interest in learning Spanish was totally for personal reasons. I took Spanish in high school, but you don't really learn a whole lot; I remember a lot of words, but for conversational purposes that wasn't helpful. But I live in the Tampa area, so I have a lot of Spanish speaking neighbors. I like to travel, I went to Spain last year, and this year I'll be going to Mexico and Argentina. So I wanted to get better at my conversational Spanish, so that I could not only just survive traveling but also connect more with the people that I was meeting traveling.

And my experience in Spain really fortified my resolution to try to learn Spanish, because the people were so kind and generous, and even though I only knew a few words they would work with me, and they were just excited that an American was trying to speak Spanish with them. So that was a really fun experience, so that's kind of what drew me to Spanish 55, and why I wanted to explore more of my Spanish education.

I think that as a global citizen it's important for me to learn Spanish. You know, to be able to connect with my neighbors, to be able to connect with other people in the world. So for me, Spanish 55 is a gateway to another part of the world that I will now be able to explore and be a part of, because I can speak the language. Coach Alejandro, you've been wonderful, such a fun instructor. I love our lessons, and I can't wait for more Spanish lessons.

My name is Joe Vajda. I live in Miami, Florida. I moved around a lot. My mom traveled ... transferred from business to business so we moved around. My mom's entire side of the family speaks Spanish but as a kid I never learned so I definitely wanted to always try to learn. I tried classroom but it never stuck so now that I live in Miami and I've been in Miami for almost 10 years now I really need to learn Spanish in this city 'cause everybody does and I also want to travel a lot. I've always wanted to travel the world and I just want to be able to commerce and talk to the people in those countries that I travel so. I think she just learned my learning style so she knows what works and what doesn't and we have different lessons every week but what's great about it is ... So it's you're always learning something new but at the same time we're always going back to something we learned previously so it's reinforcing it. So it's not like okay we're teaching you this once and then that's the end of it. It always comes back. So it really reinforces it so that it really sticks. I think it's, Spanish55 just puts everything together in a way to help someone learn it, learn the language easily.