Testimonials
 

1) I'd tried all sorts of books, courses, paltalk etc, but nothing, absolutely nothing can compare to a 1:1 conversation with a native Spanish speaker. Having conversational classes with teachers from 'Online classroom' is the best time and money I have spent on learning Spanish.  The level of understanding and patience with the teachers is outstanding.
In my opinion, it's the only way to go, outside of living in a Spanish speaking country.  Give it a try, like I did (and that was over a year ago now) and you'll see what I mean.

John Ryley - United Kingdom
bluecheese55@yahoo.com
 
 

2) Several years ago, I made a commitment to myself to learn to speak Spanish.  I didn’t want to try to learn but I really wanted to learn it.  I had taken language classes in High School and college and I knew those methods didn’t work if you wanted to be able to communicate, so then I started - like so many other people - by buying an audio program and I admit I learned from it.  But after working thru the 90 lessons in the beginning thru advanced courses, I was asking myself “now what” because even though I now had some knowledge of vocabulary and understood some grammar, it wasn’t enough to actually communicate or think on my own.  So next I tried a classroom setting that used non-traditional means to teach and was a lot of fun.  After I had spent almost $2000 and 6 months in this program, I realized that I’d had fun and reinforced what I learned from the audio program but I still could not have a comfortable conversation beyond “Hola, ¿cómo estás?’.  Part of the problem is that I am shy and I’m perfectly content to watch the others participate while sitting back and listening.

Acknowledging that I would have to work privately to reach my goals, I found a private Spanish instructor near my home.  After a few sessions, I realized that even this wasn’t working because my teacher was a native English speaker and was much more comfortable explaining things to me in English.  There were times when I even knew some things that he didn’t.  Surely there’s a way to learn without needing to move to a foreign country!

Finally, after surfing the internet trying to find the magical answer, I found Online Classroom.  In less than a year, working with a native speaker of the language and not someone who’s trying to teach me in THEIR second language, I can understand Spanish and can communicate well, too.  The teachers at Online Classroom speak English as their second language so in the beginning they can communicate well with their English-speaking students.  Over time, you don’t even realize that you’re hearing less and less English and more and more Spanish and you can understand it all!  Besides that, there are so many questions that come up that only a native speaking teacher can answer properly.  I’m just regretting the fact that I’ll never know how well I’d be able to communicate if I had started here instead of wasting 2 years trying the less effective methods.  In the end, this program has proven to be a much better value and it was much less expensive per hour than my private sessions with my first private instructor.

Now, I’m happy to report that I’ve tested my language skills in both Argentina and Mexico.  I was so proud of myself when I had a 45 minute taxi ride to the airport and I spoke to the taxi driver in Mexico the whole way – in Spanish, of course.  He even commented on the fact that he didn’t have to speak slowly so I could understand him.  Now THAT’s progress!

Robie Lewis - Texas, U.S.A
divrdancr@yahoo.com