Native Spanish teacher with his own method of making you advance fast!

Find out more about Adrian

• 1) Do you speak this language fluently because of your origins or because a teacher inspired you to learn?

  My parents are Spanish. I was born in Germany, but my parents moved back to Spain with my brothers and me when I was 14. I finished school in Spain and also uni.

• 2) Can you name a living, historical or fictional character that you think is the emblematic representative of the language's culture?

  Spain has a lot of amazing historical figures, especially in the arts. Such as Cervantes (the writer of Don Quijote) or Picasso who happens to be from Málaga where my family is from. I think a very good representative of the Spain (apart from the King of course) and who's still very present in everybody's mind is Antonio Banderas who by the way also happens to be from Málaga. Maybe I'm just a bit biased :)

• 3) Is there a typical word, phrase, tradition or behavior in the language that you particularly like?

  I love how dramatic Spanish can be. For example, to say that something is a mess, we say: ¡Es un desastre! It's a disaster! I feel that Spanish is much more passionate, not just culturally, but also the language itself.

• 4) Why does speaking this language matter to you?

  Speaking Spanish helped me to connect not just with my Spanish family, but also with a big part of the world's population as there are so many Spanish speakers around, especially in London. It's always fun to meet someone who I can speak Spanish to and they tend to be very grateful when you speak Spanish. It opens lots of doors.

• 5) What is the main difficulty in learning this language and what can help the process of learning?

  For English-speakers who haven't studied a second language yet, conjugation can be quite tricky. Also the tenses. As there are lots of irregular verbs in Spanish. Pronunciation also takes a while to get used to. But all of this is definitely manageable and just requires a bit of practice and time.

• 6) Provide a valuable anecdote related to your language learning or your days at school.

  I once taught Spanish to an Austrian class at the language school in Málaga where I was working at. They didn't know that I spoke fluent German too and only spoke Spanish to them during the whole week they were in Spain, forcing them to making an effort when communicating with me and therefore improving immensely. On the last day when saying our goodbyes, I did that in German. The surprise in their faces was priceless :)

• 7) How has travel or a specific trip helped you to increase your skill and knowledge of the language?

  Travelling helps you realise that the way you speak your language isn't the way everyone speaks it. There are lots of regional differences even within Spain, but especially between Spain and South America. Let's take the word "coger" for example. In Spanish it's a rather innocuous word and means "to take". In South America however it means something much more sexual. That's why travelling and learning each other's cultures and differences is so important to avoid making big mistakes or offending people accidentally.

• 8) What makes you a Superprof in language?

  I've been teaching German and Spanish for almost a decade now. And in that time I also studied other languages. I feel that the more languages you learn, the quicker you see the patterns between them and the easier it gets to learn a new language. I'm now pretty good at spotting mistakes and also the underlying issues with them, understanding why a student made a specific mistake and trying to solve that issue rather than just repeating myself over and over again and getting mad at the student for not understanding it. If they don't understand something, then I haven't explained it clearly enough and that's on me, not on them. What's on the student is the responsibility to work on the language even in between our lessons. I sadly can't revise the vocabulary for them. I really would if I could, but that's on you guys :) But if you follow my instructions, work hard and are consistent, you will definitely be able to see some fast progress!