Tutoring
What the lessons actually are
One hour a week, one-to-one, built around real material and the specific things you cannot do yet. No fixed syllabus, because a fixed syllabus is a plan for somebody who is not you.
A typical hour
Four things, in roughly this order
- 01
A warm-up you cannot prepare for
Ten minutes of unscripted talk about something ordinary. It is deliberately unrehearsable, because the gap between prepared and unprepared speech is the thing that actually needs closing.
- 02
One piece of real material
An article, a clip, a song, a recorded argument — chosen for your level and, more importantly, for your interests. We work through what you did not catch and why you did not catch it.
- 03
The grammar that just came up
Whatever the material threw at you becomes the grammar for the day. It arrives attached to a sentence you have already met, which is the difference between a rule you remember and one you revise.
- 04
Something to do before next week
Small, specific, and no more than twenty minutes a day. The lessons are one hour of a week that has a hundred and sixty-eight in it; what happens in the other hours is what decides the pace.
Roughly, and not rigidly. A lesson that turns into an hour of argument about one article has usually done more good than one that ticked every box.
Levels
From nothing at all to arguing comfortably
- A1 – A2Beginner
From nothing, or from school lessons that have long since faded. The aim of this stretch is to get you speaking in whole sentences, badly and often, as early as possible.
- B1 – B2Intermediate
The longest and least glamorous phase, where most self-teaching stalls. Work here concentrates on listening at natural speed and saying complicated things without rehearsing them first.
- C1 – C2Advanced
Register, idiom, humour, argument — the difference between being understood and sounding like yourself. Material moves to whatever a native speaker would actually be reading.
- DELEExam preparation
Spanish exam work built into ordinary lessons rather than replacing them, so the language keeps growing while the exam technique gets handled alongside it.
Formats
Two ways to do this, both online
One-to-one, online
The default. Sixty minutes, video, with a shared document that becomes a running record of everything covered. Recording is available on request so you can go back over the parts that moved quickly.
Pairs
Two people at a similar level learning together, which suits couples and colleagues preparing for the same thing. Lively, cheaper per person, and less flexible — the pace has to serve both of you.
Languages
Spanish, and only Spanish
- EspañolEnrolling
Spanish
Conversational and exam-focused tuition from beginner through advanced, with attention to the difference between what textbooks teach and what people actually say.
One language, taught properly, rather than a menu. If you are looking for another language, say so anyway — it is worth knowing what people are asking for.
Not sure which level you are
Most people underestimate it. The first thirty minutes are free and exist partly to answer that question properly, rather than by asking you to guess on a form.
Book a free conversation