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Conversational and interactive method

We encourage our students to be 100% present and interactive in class; why spend the whole hour silently taking notes when the action is right in front of you! We’ve found that real-time exercises in active listening, concentration and imagination improve students’ language skills fast. And they’re fun, too.

Of course, we also teach “book style” when it makes sense. We do written exercises, read, and then engage in interesting conversations where everyone is an active participant, not an outside observer.

We insert doses of culture in our classes whenever possible. Students are invited to visit and explore Latin American/Spanish cultures with teachers who are more than pleased to “open that door” for you. Discovering new worlds is not only exciting, it also helps you learn. A language is a product of culture, tradition and the realities of everyday life, so you’ll better understand how the language is structured and used if you have some idea where it all came from, and thereby find it easier to use the language yourself.

Our purpose is to create a friendly, dynamic learning atmosphere, not rigid or strict. When you feel comfortable in class and really enjoy getting involved, you will achieve your goals. There is no doubt.

Unique & non-traditional style

Enjoy Spanish is creative, energetic and alive, combining effective new and time-tested learning techniques. Our goal is for all of our students to finish each class session feeling that they have learned something new about Spanish grammar and Latin/Hispanic culture while having a rich, fulfilling experience. We help students free themselves of fear and inhibition allowing them to just be themselves.

We value real cultural and intellectual connections between teachers and students. Teaching is an exchange of knowledge. While teachers are teaching, we’re also paying attention to what our students teach us about making their learning journey more meaningful and joyous. We all learn in class.

A human approach

A student is a human being, and we embrace your “people side” at Enjoy Spanish. We teachers have all been students, too, after all! We know everyone learns best when their whole self is involved – intellect, emotions and more.

We encourage class conversation based on real-life experiences, so you’ll connect to the material in a personal way. We also use engaging oral and written exercises to involve students in the educational dynamic, stimulating their interest, and sparking their active brains.

Our philosophy reflects how a child first learns to speak. It is this openness and playfulness that we strive to kindle in all our students. Spontaneity is key.

Living the language

The best way to learn a language is to live it. It’s great if you can actually spend time in Spain, Peru or Mexico, but even if you don’t plan to travel just yet, you can still “live the language” right here and now in San Francisco. Just as you live your first language, you can live Spanish, bridging the gap between the concepts of verbs, nouns and adjectives and your everyday reality.

We guide you through a fun and easy process of making Spanish part of your life. You’ll get into the language through such activities as:

• Visualization – Your imagination will be your best friend in your process of learning. Be creative. Anytime you discover a new word in Spanish, take one second of your time and visualize the object, the situation, the action, and create an image that will help you remember that word or phrase.For example, imagine you’re in the middle of the high mountains of Bolivia and you are extremely thirsty and you don’t know how to say “I am thirsty” in Spanish. Suddenly, your best friend appears and tells you that “I am thirsty” in Spanish is “Yo tengo sed.” You will never, ever forget that image, because you were so connected to that reality you were feeling when your friend gave you the “sacred phrase” for you at that particular moment.

• Association of ideas -Ideas don’t exist in a vacuum. We learn best when we place new concepts in context of other concepts we already know well, and connect them. For example, imagine there are two students in a math class and one is doing well and the other is doing very, very, very well. The guy is doing very, very, very well because he is associating ideas. The first formula is linked to the second formula, and the second formula is linked to three other formulas. For him, it’s easier because there’s a link between the formulas and that helps him remember them. The other guy is memorizing formula by formula without any link, and of course that’s harder for him to remember. This works with any subject. For example, in history class, events are linked and we can follow the story; it’s a chain of events. We’ll help you build sets of concepts or words, nets of words, trees of words and phrases linked by similarities to English and your own images, so you can go through the chain and remember words easier because they are linked.

• Role playing – It’s helpful and fun to pretend to be a Spanish speaker. San Francisco, California is the perfect place for this. You surely have friends, co-workers, neighbors who speak Spanish. Practice in real situations such as asking for directions, ordering a burrito, etc. One major benefit of role playing is that it can help build your confidence and make you feel more comfortable in your new language. Sometimes we adults want to build our confidence in a second, and it doesn’t work. However, we can certainly build our confidence with a new language over time. So, for example, if you are in a Mexican restaurant and you are a beginner student … well, say: “¡HOLA!” and feel happy for that. Next time will be “¡HOLA, COMO ESTAS!” and you are going to feel more comfortable. The third day will be “¡HOLA, COMO ESTAS, QUIERO UN BURRITO POR FAVOR!” and you are going to feel much better still. That’s the goal, to feel more and more comfortable using Spanish, and that will build your confidence naturally, step by step.

• Exaggerating pronunciation -We encourage beginning students to really accentuate their new Spanish pronunciation. Even exaggerate (a bit) your pronunciation, so you’ll define your words clearly from the start, and that will help you be understood the very first time you speak. Exaggerating pronunciation even helps students when they write because the sounds that make up the words are well-defined, and therefore, easier to identify and write down properly.

• Gestures and acting -Acting out the words you’re learning helps you “communicate with yourself,” that is, to get clear just what you’re expressing verbally. Especially when you’re starting out, acting “I’m cold” or “He’s tall” or “We’re together” helps cement the whole concept in your mind thereby making you feel more connected to the meaning of the word or phrase.

Have fun and Enjoy Spanish!

Last and very important is: JUST HAVE FUN AND ENJOY SPANISH! Don’t be afraid of making mistakes. Kids aren’t afraid of mistakes, that’s why they learn so fast; they just have fun and learn. We, the adults, don’t like to make mistakes, and that sometimes blocks us. Mistakes will be there. We just have to correct them as we learn.

Another thing kids are great at is that they’re the greatest imitators. To speak like a native speaker, we should imitate them. We have to closely observe the rhythm of their sentences, their cadence, the movements of their lips, etc.

Entertainment is fun, too! If you love music, go discover some Latin American or Spanish singers. If you love movies, rent a film in Spanish with English subtitles once a week or so. If you love to read, and you’re a beginning language student, go find a fairy tale in Spanish that you know perfectly in English, so you can guess words and discover new vocabulary.