My Bilingual Heart

I accept one-on-one students on a rolling basis, but only a limited number at any given time.

This is so I can provide the best possible services to each of my students.

You can book your first session to give it a try and see if you’d like to continue.

One-on-one coaching sessions must be booked a minimum of four times monthly and for a minimum of two months at the very beginning.

The reason is that you need consistent and extended practice and guidance in order to make progress. And you need to make progress to feel happy and successful. And I will only be happy if YOU are happy. This is why, after you try it out and if you decide to continue, it is best to commit to and pre-schedule a minimum of 7 more sessions over the course of 2 months when you are first starting out.

Your First Session

In your first session, you will do most of the talking. I will ask you questions about your past experience with Spanish, your reasons for wanting coaching, your goals, and in what settings you primarily need to use your Spanish.

This information from you will drive our work together. That being said, coaching is a very fluid process. At any point you should share with me changing priorities, what sort of practice seems most urgent depending on upcoming events in your personal or professional life. I can adjust our work together on a dime, so consider this a two-way street!

At our first session, if we decide to continue working together, we will also book out our sessions for the remaining two months. If you continue after that, we will schedule out one month at a time.

What Else to Expect

There are primarily 3 types of sessions: Explicit Lessons, Conversation Coaching, and Environmental Prep.

In Explicit Lessons, I will prepare instruction based on needs I observe in your current skill level.

In Conversation Coaching sessions, we will primarily engage in conversation while I help you through difficult parts or briefly address misunderstandings as we go.

You may request a specific type of session leading up to our time together. Otherwise, I will make a determination as to which is best for you at that given time.

Environmental Prep sessions are available at your request. For example, I can come to your home or classroom to label objects in the environment with their names and/or related phrases. For example, we may put a card on your window that says “La ventana: Abre la ventana/Cierra la ventana” for “window: Open the window./Close the window.” These can be customized to your wishes and uses.

One-on-one coaching is for highly motivated individuals.

Given that one-on-one is highly customized and highly regular, it is important for these students to be very motivated. Your motivation combined with my support and consistent guidance inevitably leads to rapid forward movement!

We can make our practice as specific or broad as you need.

Depending on your needs and motivations, we can practice specific conversations. For example, if you are taking a school operations job you may want to practice an early dismissal conversation. On the other hand, if you have a field trip coming up and want to be able to make small talk with parent chaperones, we would practice get-to-know-you conversations. Or, if you want to improve your social conversation in general, we can also work broadly on that.

Expect varying levels of in-the-moment correction.

Some people are petrified of making a mistake and want me to correct them every time they make one, seeking to “perfect” their language. Others get so caught up with avoiding the sting of a correction that they stop themselves constantly, losing sight of fluidity.

Please know that there will be times when I correct you in the moment and other times when I address the error after the fact — possibly in a future lesson.

The reason for doing this is that sometimes there is a quick fix that is easy to handle in the moment and move on. However most of the time, building your confidence and letting go of perfectionism are FAR MORE important to your longterm success. That is why much of the time I will let you continue speaking through an error, and then address it later. 

I LOVE one-on-one coaching. 

I get to know you as a person and a Spanish Learner so well. I love seeing you progress through your goals and cheering you on as you are able to do more independently. If one-on-one coaching is for you, I am so excited to work with you!

Changes may be made once we have scheduled within reason.

Changes and cancellations made less than 24 hours in advance will still be charged for the session.