ABOUT US

Real Spanish is brought to you by a great team of professionals from Canada, the UK, Spain, Argentina, Venezuela and Colombia. Click on the photos to learn more about us.

I’m originally from the UK but have lived for many years in Canada, where I worked in the field of language education. You can find out more here. I had the idea of Real Spanish as a result of my own experience studying Spanish. I had taken many hours of Spanish classes, but when I came to live in Spain I was frustrated because I still didn’t understand what people were saying, and struggled to express myself. I began to stream films and TV, making frequent use of the rewind function as well as the English or Spanish subtitles. I was taken aback, though, by the fact that the subtitles were often quite different from what was actually said! We have fixed that problem in Real Spanish.

Because the material I was watching was entertaining and informative, I enjoyed learning. I improved my comprehension and learned loads of new vocabulary and colloquial expressions; at the same time, I learned a lot about the history and culture of Spain and other Spanish-speaking countries.

I realized that this approach could help many other people as well, and so, with the help of Gema, began developing scripts for virtual lessons based on short clips from movies and TV. Gradually we refined the idea and we began working with other professionals from various countries to create the video lessons. It has been an amazing experience— a whole new way of working for me. I hope you enjoy Real Spanish just as much as I enjoy developing the lessons.

Read [-]

I’m from Spain. I live in England but I also spend a lot of time in Spain. I’ve been involved in the teaching of Spanish for many years; I’ve worked as a lecturer in Spanish in countries such as China and India, and as a secondary school teacher in England, but in the last six years I have focused on teaching online, by video conference. That’s how I met Elizabeth, who asked me to work on Real Spanish.

I’m also director of studies in the department of online teaching at Spanish Express, which offers many different programmes and courses. You can see them here.

In Real Spanish I create the Spanish subtitles and check the transcriptions so that they match exactly what the presenters or actors say. I edit the Spanish text on the site and in the lessons, and I help to create the learning materials such as the grammar notes. I help to identify the vocabulary, expressions, and grammar that arise in the lessons and that will be useful to students, because some are used more often than others and in Real Spanish we want to focus on Spanish as it is really spoken by Spanish speakers, not on the contrived language featured in textbooks.

Most of my students feel that they have spent many hours studying Spanish but still find it difficult to understand native speakers. They ask me how they can express themselves better and improve their listening comprehension, because they are tired of typical, repetitious learning materials. I believe Real Spanish will help many students to learn in a way that’s more fun, based on a variety of topics. I’m sure you will enjoy it!

Read [-]

I’m passionate about Spanish pronunciation. If you are reading this, you’ve probably dreamed about being able to participate confidently in a Spanish conversation. It was the same for me in various languages that I have learned. Because of these experiences, and my experience in teaching Spanish, I’ve learned that pronunciation is one of the keys to success.

I started my professional career giving Spanish lessons in countries like Spain, Austria, Turkey, Hungary and China. During those years I was aware of the need, among both teachers and students, to learn pronunciation in order to improve oral communication. So I have been specializing in phonetics and since I came back to Spain, where I was born, I’ve been helping people like you to understand and speak Spanish more effectively, through online pronunciation classes and specialized materials.

If you want to know more about my work, you can take a look here.

I was lucky enough to meet Elizabeth through my pronunciation classes, in which I enjoyed helping her to recognize the small and large aspects of Spanish pronunciation that make listening comprehension difficult for her and made her sound foreign. Now I am delighted to collaborate with her on Real Spanish and give people like you the same secrets of effective oral communication.

Read [-]

I’m from Madrid, although I’ve always considered myself a citizen of the world. I love languages, music, and movies. After many years working as a translator and subtitler of films, TV series and documentaries, I started to train my voice and combine my translation work with voiceover work, focusing mainly on audio-description (for the blind) and e-learning courses. You can learn more about my professional career here.

When I met Elizabeth I really liked her project and am delighted to be a member of the Real Spanish team. I continue to learn and to analyse my mother tongue while I contribute my voice to help to popularise it among the users of Real Spanish.

The Real Spanish method is entertaining and really does teach real, colloquial, everyday Spanish. In Real Spanish, I’m the voice of Carmen.

Read [-]

I’m from Spain and I have a degree in Textual Interpretation from RESAD (Royal School for Dramatic Arts, in Madrid). I’ve participated in various theatre festivals around the country. After graduating, in 2012 I formed, together with classmates from the department of Dramatic Arts of and Direction of RESDA, la Compañía del Señor Smith. This is a collective of artists in different disciplines, such as dance, theatre, or visual arts, whose objective is to tell new stories using current language and a contemporary perspective through the creation of different projects.

At the same time I balance my theatre work with my work as a voice artist, giving voice to different projects such as audio books. In Real Spanish I am the voice of Juan.

Read [-]

I am a Venezuelan, living in Texas, USA, where I am developing my career as a freelance graphic designer. When I was small I always felt greatly attracted to audio-visual work, so I decided to begin training, to take classes and different courses which would help me become a professional in this area of work. It’s a complicated field, with a new challenge every day, but this keeps me interested and motivates me to continue learning from day to day.

I feel very fortunate to feel passionate about my work: animation (motion graphics), video editing, sound editing, image design, etc. I’ve been working for businesses and individuals in various parts of the world.

Presently I am a member of the creative team of Real Spanish. I‘ve had the honour of working on this project from the very beginning, editing sound and video for the different lessons.

Read [-]

I’m from Colombia. I studied multimedia technology in Bogota, with a focus on animation and design. I’ve worked on all kinds of design, animation and video projects for clients all over the world.

My work in Real Spanish consists of creating animated videos from the scripts, images, and audio files. I also edit movies and TV clips, inserting subtitles and title frames, etc.

Read [-]

I’m from Buenos Aires, in Argentina. I studied image and sound design at the University of Buenos Aires. I started working in the filed of cinema when I was very young. In fact, my first job was as a film projector in local cinemas in the Abasto neighbourhood, and there I met a well-known movie director at the premiere of one of his films. Thanks to him I had contact with many people in the film industry and soon started working in advertising and film production.

There I learnt about directing and camera work. After some years, I decided to focus specifically on editing and postproduction work in film and video; and that’s what I’ve ben doing for the last 10 years. In Real Spanish I create the animated video lessons and subtitle the film and TV clips.

Read [-]

I am a born entrepreneur and linguist, and am passionate about languages, culture, gastronomy and art. I’ve lived half of my life in Spain and the other half in the UK. I’ve been involved in education for more than 20 years, ever since I opened my own language centre, Spanish Express. My experience as a Spanish teacher, teacher trainer, translator and editor was essential when I came to set up my Spanish school, and I strive constantly to keep up with globalization, new technology, and the new demands of the market.

I am involved in the development of teaching techniques, to create new models of learning, including online learning and immersion programs in both Spain and Latin America. You can see more information here.

I met Elizabeth through Gema, with whom I’ve been working for almost two decades. I liked the Real Spanish project so much that I decided to be part of it right away, with the objective of offering students of Spanish at intermediate levels, from all over the world, the opportunity to enjoy new online resources that would help them to develop a broader vision of our language and culture. The lessons of Real Spanish focus on everyday language that you can quickly put into practice to communicate with 577million people around the world.

In Real Spanish I help with editing as well as administration, marketing, publicity and social networking.

Read [-]

I have more than 30 years of international business experience. Some years ago I moved to Barcelona, where I taught business English. Later I combined these two fields and established my own business, Pinfield English, where we focus on intensive course for business English. Recently we’ve started offering intensive courses in French and Spanish as well. You can see more information here.

In Real Spanish I make use of my experience in language teaching and in the business world to help with the planning and development of the project.

Read [-]