Don Quixote said that “since you are not experienced in things of the world, all things that are a bit difficult will seem impossible to you. Trust time; it usually provides a sweet way out of many bitter challenges.”
So, as an avid fan of Cervantes, one day I packed my backpack and went to travel to distant places to experience the things that seemed impossible to me.
This gave me a new sense of purpose and soon I started working as a Spanish teacher far from Spain, an experience so enriching that it is hard to describe.
Now, settled in Seville, the teachers that are part of this beautiful project want to offer you the best of our experience and the best of our culture. We are travelling teachers with a great love for languages, for art and for teaching.
WHAT IS OUR METHOD?
We believe in unique Spanish lessons, in closeness to our students, in a personalised approach, and in being a great family.
I am the director and Spanish teacher at Isbilia Spanish Online. I have extensive experience teaching Spanish for both private and public institutions.
Additionally, I am an examiner of Instituto Cervantes’ DELEs. I have been working in countries such as Bulgaria (For You Organization), Russia (Southern Federal University and Federal University of Siberia) and China (Lola School, Guangzhou).
The reason is that I love teaching and communication is one of my passions. I use a range of methodologies. I favour flexibility and adaptability in order to suit each student’s needs and interests. I introduce my students to the language easily but with a view to providing them with in depth knowledge. At Isbilia Spanish Online we want our students to be able to manage complex situations in any kind of daily life context and to learn about the culture through the language in a way that is both authentic and engaging.
Besides teaching I am a journalist, researcher and writer. I have worked and collaborated for the Spanish press (La Voz del Sur and PeriodismoDeViajes.org) and radio (National Radio of Spain), as well as in digital magazines (proyecto-kahlo.com and pikaramagazine.com) over the last few years.
Nowadays, we live in a completely specialized world, and I consider that any profession must be done with a comprehensive worldview. For this reason, Isbilia Spanish Online believes that to be an effective Spanish teacher, one has to have a deep knowledge of other topics.
I’m Julio, one of the Spanish teachers at Isbilia Spanish Online. I have been working both as Spanish and English teacher since I was very young and, after ten years of experience, I would say I do not have a particular style of teaching: it would be my student’s needs that make every class different and unique.
Why did I decide to be a Spanish teacher?
Lingüístic exchanges are both fundamental and amazing for me. I do not seek to be seen as a mere teacher or educator, but as a conversator and, in essence, as someone you can share different views and cultures with – it can be so fun! So, adapting to my students and learning how to get the best out of them is really challenging but it is definitely what I enjoy the most.
Getting to know how other cultures work, the way many people understand life so differently from my own, is one of my passions. I have always been very committed to my environment, which is why I have collaborated in international projects related to linguistics and social issues. Besides, I love culture: cinema and music is one of the things I enjoy the most. I integrate this into my teaching method, it really helps me to enjoy my work.
I am a French and Spanish teacher, but I also enjoy teaching History, Art and literature. I tend to think that learning the formal part of a foreign language such as grammar or vocabulary it is not enough to learn a language.
In order to learn about a foreign language, teachers must extend the knowledge of the students by integrating to their activities cultural subjects of the country as well, such as gastronomy, geography, etc. and understand in a way the character of the Spanish people and where does it come from and why for instance in Spain we speak also Catalan or Basque, would you like to know why?
I find gratifying as a teacher to constate day by day improvement on my students. The fact of being able to interrupt with them or make them interrupt among themselves is very engaging and motivate the students. They improve very fast. On the other hand, the advantage of teaching face-to-face is that is very efficient as you can adapt personalized teaching strategy to every student because every student has a singular way of learning as far as rhythm is concerned.
I have worked and lived in Paris for 22 years where I have worked for the turism industry teaching guides and tourism employees how to communicate in a foreign language. I have also lived in United Kingdom for 4 years. I have mainly worked for private schools and companies and I have participated in many ONGs campaigns for the alphabetization. The profile that I like the most working with are the adults because they are usually passioned about learning a new language and their effort is higher. I enjoy hiking and traveling and what I enjoy most is to learn, I am an eternal student.
WhatsApp us