Spanish English Classes Denver | The Language School

Time 2020-07-20 04:54:26

Web Name: Spanish English Classes Denver | The Language School

WebSite: http://www.thelanguageschool.us

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Details-Course name: Spanish Foundations 1-Days: Wednesdays-Time: 9 AM 10:30 AM-Cost: $300 per month*We use Zoom, a web conferencing application to learn and talk online. They are live classes with me, David El Profe .Let’s Start Talking! Spanish Foundations 1 is the best level for you to start if you fall into one of these categories:You have never studied Spanish beforeYou took some Spanish in high school or college, but it’s been a whileYou have been trying to do some self-study online or through an app, but don’t have any real confidence when it comes to speakingI only have space available for 6 more students, so don t delay!Would you like to enroll? Click here:ABOUT “LET’S START TALKING! SPANISH FOUNDATIONS 1”Let’s Start Talking! Spanish Foundations 1 is the first Spanish course in a series of conversational Spanish classes created by The Language School. This course is designed to help adults start speaking Spanishat workin their local communitieswhile traveling in the Spanish speaking world (including Latin America, the United States, and Spain)Once you complete this course, you will have a solid foundation in Spanish. Your new conversational skills in Spanish will include being able to introduce yourself in Spanish, being able to order food in restaurants and go shopping for necessities. Finally, you will know how to start having simple conversations in Spanish with native Spanish speakers.HIGHLIGHTS OF LET’S START TALKING! SPANISH FOUNDATIONS 1:Key Spanish conversational and cultural skills will be:Conversation, so Let’s Start Talking! On top of basic conversational skills, students will learn cultural and historical lessons that will help prepare them for interacting with Spanish speaking people locally and abroad. These are the top conversational skills you will learn to prepare you for real-life situations with Spanish speakers:Spanish greetings and how to formally introduce yourself to someone in SpanishConversation starters that are culturally correct so you can start making friends and practicing with native Spanish speakersSurvival Spanish so you can order food and buy things in Spanish speaking countries and neighborhoods close to homeHere are some of the various aspects of Spanish Arts, Culture, and History you will learn about in this first course:Spanish Music:Salsa with Celia CruzBoléro with Los Tres ReyesWe’ll also take you on a tour of the Spanish speaking world, including interesting information about the Spanish language and culture of:The United StatesMexicoArgentinaOf course, our conversational programs are backed by grammar, so here are the main Spanish grammar skills you will take away in this level, and some of the differences between English and Spanish:Me gusta/Te Gusta – I like/You likeSentence structureArticlesNounsAdjectivesMasculine vs. feminineSingular vs. PluralRegular verbs in the present tense (AR, ER, IR)Asking questions and answering both positively and negativelyNumbers (0-100)Spelling and the alphabetDavid StevensDirector of The Language SchoolDavid@thelanguageschool.usCell: (720) 257-8539PS We limit participation to 8 students so that everyone gets a lot of personal attention and time to talk. We already have 3 students enrolled, so don t delay!Lies, lies, and more lies… that’s what I see all over the internet regarding learning how to speak a new language.I’m here to tell the truth.  It won’t be fast, it won’t be easy, and it won’t be cheap.These are your options to learn a new language with a short break down of what you will get in 1 year of study:Free with Duolingo you get what you pay for.  Duolingo will give you a lot of vocabulary, and it’s fun and engaging, but you won’t make real progress.  You will never learn how to speak a new language by using an app.  Most students I work with that have used Duolingo or some other app  like this for at least a year usually have to start in my first or second level. Non-Profit/Community Organization Free (or a very low cost)  There are an abundance of these organizations for ESL classes, but very few for Spanish.  While these sound good in theory, they tend to make the learning experience extremely difficult.  First, most of these organizations rely on volunteers to teach the classes.  Unless you are incredibly lucky, this means you are not working with a real teacher that has any training or experience.  These volunteers are usually mono-lingual, elderly, and are just doing something to fill up their free time.  They tend to work with large groups of people that have different levels, and the format is rather open with no structured curriculum.   Most students stop attending classes within 2 weeks, and the remaining students that continue have very poor results.  This leaves a bad impression on students, and instead of learning the new language, they leave the class frustrated and feeling hopeless. Community College $21/hour plus fees and books After 1 year of a program like this, you will probably develop some decent reading and writing skills, and have a fairly advanced understanding of the grammar, but you won’t have any real conversational skills. University $45/hour plus fees and books There isn’t much difference here with the community college route, it will just cost you much more money. The Language School $30 $60/hour In 1 year, you will be fully conversational in most of your daily interactions with people and have an intermediate level of grammar.  The Language School is the only option that provides true conversational classes, and is the only option that will enable you to become conversationally fluent in this amount of time.  For the results our students achieve, this is an incredibly powerful and reasonably priced program.So do you want to “play with Spanish” on an app?  Do you want to help volunteers spend their free time?  Do you want to study Spanish grammar in an academic Spanish program?  Or do you want to start speaking Spanish with confidence at work, in your community, and during your travels?  The Language School is not the least expensive option, and it’s not the most expensive option, but it is the only option that will give you the ability to really speak Spanish with confidence! My name is David “El Profe”, and I’ve been teaching people how to speak Spanish since 2005.  Learning a new language is like going to the gym to get a 6 pack, or learning how to play an instrument like the guitar.  You have to put in work.  You have to get comfortable with getting uncomfortable.  You have to make it your #1 priority, and study or practice every day.I studied Spanish intensively for 7 years.  I lived in 5 different countries and in total spent over $200,000 to learn how to speak Spanish.It was a miserable experience for most of the time… but I finally did it.The good news is that along the way I learned some tricks that did make it easier.  I learned how to focus on what was useful and relevant to me, and I figured out that studying grammar was a waste of time, but focusing on words and phrases was extremely beneficial.Since then, I’ve been teaching what I learned during this experience, and I have come to understand why most people never learn how to speak the new language that they are studying.Over the last 10 years or so, I’ve been working on my “Let’s Start Talking!” program to teach people how to start speaking the new language from day 1.  Like many of these “internet gurus”, I have developed a program that will teach you how to start speaking a new language like English or Spanish in only 15 hours.  The difference between what I’m offering to you today and what the others claim is my willingness to present this to you with full disclosure it’s not cheap, and it’s not going to be easy.  The offer is for 15 hours of class time, but your success will depend on the time that you put in outside of class.  And you won’t be fluent.  You won’t master the language in that time, and you’ll still be making plenty of mistakes after those 15 hours.  However, I can quite confidently say that after those 15 hours, you will have learned how to speak more Spanish than I was able to speak in my first 3 years of studies.You will learn how to introduce yourself to a new friend or colleague and make small talk.  You will role play ordering food at restaurants and buying things from stores.  All of this will essentially prepare you to START talking to people in your new language in your local community or during travels.I emphasize the word start because that’s it.  I don’t want to disappoint you.  I want to set your expectations.  You can start speaking a new language in a ridiculously fast amount of time if you study the right things.  It has to be the right level of relevance, practicality, and also the words that you will use on a daily basis.The Let’s Start Talking approach does just that.  From day one it teaches you how to start speaking.  Everything that you do in this program is done from a conversational point of view, focusing on dialogues and vocabulary that you as the new student are most likely to use in real life scenarios when you find yourself in the company of someone that speaks the language you are learning.  And I charge a lot of money for this program.  It’s $997 if you want to do it with live classes with me personally.  I also have a more affordable option to get access to a digital, on demand course for only $97, but just like anything else, you get what you pay for.Let me explain to you why this will be the best decision that you’ve ever made when it comes to learning how to speak a new language.Your high school Spanish program, if it was anything like mine, was a total joke.  It was a requirement, which means you had to be there. If you are like me, then that also means that you didn’t want to be there, so you didn’t have the right motivation to learn Spanish from the beginning.Another major flaw that I have observed with high school Spanish programs is that they aren t geared towards conversation.  They are geared towards grammar.  In my 20+ years of learning and teaching languages, I’ve come to learn an extremely odd thing about language learning when the focus is on grammar, it doesn’t work.  So, your high school Spanish studies were frivolous, and there is a good chance that they left you with the belief that it is impossible to learn how to speak Spanish.Now let’s look at a college program.  By definition, a college program is academic.  It may be a requirement, or it may be of your own volition.  Unfortunately, because the college program is so academic, even if you are doing it because you want to, the focus doesn’t align with yours learning how to speak Spanish to enhance your primary major of business medicine, or whatever it may be.Professor Bill VanPatten, creator of the Destinos Program you have probably used at some point, conducted a survey several years ago that the results were alarming.  University Spanish programs for the most part and designed to prepare students to go into a Masters Spanish program.  Over 80% of students, however, were studying the language to learn how to speak it and had no plans to continue on to a Masters Spanish program.When your program’s objective doesn’t align with your objective, you probably won’t be successful.  This may sound odd, but think about it this way.  If you want to learn how to swim, should you study the mechanics of muscle memory and physics to learn more about how water resists your body movements?  Of course not… you have to dive in.  You have to start swimming.  You have to apply this same principal to learning how to speak Spanish and you absolutely must start speaking Spanish.Let’s move along in most recent years, it has been wildly popular to use a computer app like Rosetta Stone or Duolingo.  Both of these companies are crushing it, with millions of users and billions of dollars in revenue.  Yet I haven’t once met someone that has become fluent by using one of these apps.  Not once.Don’t get me wrong, I actually like these apps, for what they are, which is a cool way to practice.  But they don’t teach you how to start speaking the language.  The goal with these apps is to be intuitive and get away from grammar.  In other words, an easier way to learn how to speak Spanish.  Trust me, I know I use Duolingo to practice French, and I’m even a Duolingo Global Ambassador and host 2 weekly meetups so their users can practice live.These apps are gamified, competitive, and cheap.  Again, though, they won’t teach you how to speak the new language.  They can help you practice it, but they won’t help you develop real conversational skills. At the end of the day, there is no silver bullet.  There is no single solution that will guarantee your success.  I’m here to tell you the truth about that.  You have to find something that works for you, your goals, and your learning style.To learn how to speak a new language takes time.  One truth I can confidently share is that there are better ways you can develop a lot of conversational skills in less than 6 months if that is the core focus of your program, and your desire.  And if you do the work.  And if you put in time studying, memorizing vocabulary, and practicing.  And also, one of the most important things you have to do is get comfortable being uncomfortable, trying to introduce yourself to people everytime you hear the new language.Again, I’ll level with you.  I don t know if the “Let’s Start Talking!” program is the right fit for you, but what I do know is that I’ve helped thousands of students learn how to speak a new language since 2001, and this program is incredibly powerful if you work the program as it is meant to be worked.  That means that if you do the classes, memorize new vocab, and then do the homework you will learn Spanish.  Then, if you come to the weekly practices I host, start introducing yourself to Spanish speakers, and find a conversation partner, you will start speaking Spanish quite confidently in less than 6 months.  It’s not necessarily a faster, or easier way.  It certainly isn’t a cheaper way. It may seem like a lot of money, but compare $997 to my 7 years and $200,000 that I spent to learn how to speak Spanish.That said, it is a better way, and I believe that with all of my heart.  I believe that if you want to learn how to speak Spanish, you will not find a better approach.  I’m also sure that if you do this program, if you follow my advice, and you put yourself out there you will want to continue studying with me for years to come, and will look back on this initial course and investment as the best time and money you have spent on learning how to speak Spanish ever. I say this because I’ve had students tell me that after working with me for 1 hour, they have learned more about speaking Spanish than they did in 4 years of a college program, and I get told this often.This is a conversational program that I have been working on and improving since 2007 that has 1 main objective, which is to teach adults how to start speaking Spanish with people at work and on their travels.Sign up today:$97 On Demand, Digital CourseWhat are conversation classes?I think it would be helpful for you to understand what learning how to speak a new language really means.  It’s quite simple it all boils down to speaking the language. Let me explain, because that sounds absurdly easy.  In a way, it is  I studied Spanish intensively for 7 years.  I wouldn’t recommend that anyone else do that, unless they plan on becoming a teacher.  It wasn’t really my plan to become a teacher, but it happened by accident. Unfortunately, I studied for so long and so hard because there were no other options back then.  Now, this idea of conversational language classes is starting to catch on in the US, but it’s still not really, truthfully happening in most educational institutions.  Most so called conversational programs are still taking the traditional, grammar based approach, and just doing it in smaller groups.  That is not a conversational program.Web apps are not conversational programs either. A conversational program is when the classes are structured around a conversation as opposed to grammar. You see, the traditional, grammar based approach typically looks like this. You learn a piece of grammar, and then do activities based on grammar.  These activities are for the most part writing activities that involve filling in blanks.  There are many problems with this approach.  For one, grammar is confusing, even in your own language.  Think about the last time you heard someone say something the wrong way in English.  Can you identify why?  Probably not… it probably just sounds funny to you. Let’s try this for an example: I want to learn Spanish fast.I want to learn Spanish quickly.I want to learn Spanish fastly. Which statement is right? Trick question…. The top two are right.  Do you know why?  Probably not.  I would guess that fastly just sounds funny to you, and you are right, even though you can’t explain why.  At the same time, I bet you have no problems speaking English and communicating with people, and you don’t even know why.   Well, the reason for this is that you grew up speaking English.  You learned it at home with friends and family, and spoke it for at least 10 years before ever looking at grammar rules.   I would be willing to bet that when you finally started learning the grammar rules that they confused you.  Most people I know dreaded their high school English classes. So why is it that you can speak English quite confidently, but now that I’m questioning your grammar, you can’t answer the question wny? Because you learned conversational English as a kid.  You learned how to speak it through trial and error.  You made mistakes, corrected your mistakes, and tried tried tried again.  Eventually, it became internalized, and that’s why you can speak it, but can’t explain the rules. Now let’s apply the same concept to your 2nd language. What is a conversation? According to Google, a conversation is… “a talk, especially an informal one, between two or more people, in which news and ideas are exchanged.” It doesn’t have to be perfect.  It doesn’t even have to be spoken.  Some people estimate that some 80-90% of communication actually takes place nonverbally. Well, if the point is on exchanging ideas, we can now simplify the process of learning a new language to exchanging information with people in a way to be understood, and this all starts with words, not grammar. WORDS ARE THE FOUNDATION TO A CONVERSATION  MAKE VOCABULARY YOUR TOP PRIORITY My son’s first word was “agua”.  When he was a baby, I would give him a bath and splash the water around and just say agua, agua, agua.  One day he started trying to repeat what I was saying, and that soon became his first word.  What a great thing that was, because he then started putting it together, and when he was thirsty he would say that too.  1 less thing to cry about! From there, other words started falling into place. Leche, comida, etc. He wasn’t speaking full sentences, but he was using words, and we understood him! He was exchanging information in a way that we could understand, and over the next few months he was able to start speaking both English and Spanish to us.  It was amazing. That really got me thinking about what conversational Spanish was. I’m also a musician, and believe it or not, music has taught me how to teach languages in a really unique and powerful way.You may or may not know this, but music is a conversation of sorts, especially when it comes to certain types of music, including church music, jam bands, and jazz. If you’ve ever been to church, there is typically a choir, and most songs take place as a call and response.  The preacher sings something and the choir responds. Jazz is all about opening up the music to allowing the instruments to communicate with each other, and the musicians learn how to listen for a certain drum beat in order to respond to it with a specific break, or change of rhythm.  Guitarists can make the piano respond in a certain way, or the rest of the group can respond as well.  Jam bands essentially do the same thing. Modern music like hip hop takes a cue from this as well, and break dancers make calls and responses to the beats and each other, and the MC or rappers verbalize these exchanges as well. One of my favorite styles of music is Afrocuban music, where you have drummers, singers, and dancers all communicating with each other, and all three have the ability to change the “conversation” if they know what they are doing.This comparison to music is helpful when you break it down to this concept of exchanging ideas, or information, by examining how a call and response work.This is the basic framework for a conversation too it’s all about a call and response. You say A, your partner says B. Most often this boils down to a simple question and an answer.  You ask a question and your partner provides you with an answer, and vice versa. So over the past several years, I’ve been working on this new concept of what I truly believe to be one of the first truly conversational programs in the United States.  What this means is that almost every activity that you do with me has been analyzed from a conversational point of view, not a grammatical point of view, and you simply start speaking Spanish, exchanging ideas. In the first three lessons, I do this by teaching you how to introduce yourself to a new friend in Spanish.  I give you the dialogue, make you speak it, and then break it down for you.  I don’t really explain to you how it works… you just do it, and learn it, and study it, then internalize it.  Before you know it, you can introduce yourself to someone in Spanish. The traditional manner would explain to you the grammar, and then have you fill in the blanks, and write essays in Spanish.  Maybe at some point you build up to a dialogue, but the problem with this approach is by the time you get to the dialogue, you’ve zoned out, grown bored, and the confusion sets in around the grammar.  You practice reading and writing, but you don’t practice exchanging information. Academic programs don’t teach the call and response, the questions and the answers.  They simply don’t teach you how to exchange ideas and information, which is by definition what a conversation is.  Simply put, you are very unlikely to learn how to speak Spanish through a high school or college Spanish class.  You will only learn grammar and theory. Initially, you don’t need to know the grammar you just need to know the call and the response.  You need to learn what to listen for, and how to respond to it, and then do it.   This also makes it incredibly powerful, practical, and useful.  Can you imagine studying Spanish for only a few hours, but being able to walk up to a complete stranger, introduce yourself in Spanish, and then make small talk for 20-30 minutes? I start with this dialogue, and this particular use case, because that is exactly what you need to start doing immediately in order to start speaking Spanish with new people, and almost everyone you are going to talk to is going to be a new person.  I help you internalize this simple introduction so that you can start doing it with confidence.  And there is no need to get lost in all the grammar rules, at least not initially. Scientifically, this also works really well because by learning the calls and responses, you are activating the right parts of your brain and developing the right neurological pathways from the beginning, much in the way that a small child learns how to speak his or her first language.Everyone has heard about people that use the right side or the left side of the brain, but there are many more components to it.  The above illustration is a very simplified image of other compartments, but we can use this as an example to show you why the traditional approach simply doesn’t work well. Most traditional, grammar based programs focus on teaching grammar through reading and writing activities. When you read Spanish, you are typically only activating the “vision” compartment of your brain.  When you write, you may activate the “vision and the touch”.  Some of these traditional programs have listening components, but again you would only be activating the “hearing” department. A real conversation would activate “touch”, “vision”, and “hearing” all at the same time.  If you are speaking to someone while having dinner with them, you might even activate the “smell” and “taste” compartments, utilizing every part of your brain at the same time.If your end goal is to have a real conversation with someone, you have to develop those neural pathways at some point, and it’s better to start doing that from the beginning, just like a child does with the first language.Isolating specific parts of the brain throughout your Spanish studies may help at certain points during your Spanish career, but to start with, it’s so much more powerful to activate everything to begin with to develop those pathways in your brain. It gets messy when you start by isolating the brain compartments and then trying to mix them together later.  I’ve had plenty of 4 year, college degree holding majors that had to start this program from the beginning because they didn’t learn how to put it all together during school.  I’m talking about students with good grades, students that can read and write Spanish perfectly… students that can fill in blanks and tell you the rules… even students that are now teaching in high school programs and are actually well qualified to do so… but they can’t order a margarita in Spanish when they go on date night with their husbands or wives.They might freeze up when someone says ¿cómo estás? and understand the question perfectly, but they can’t make their mouth move in the right way to answer… because they never developed this simple call and response capability.  They can’t make their brain, eyes, ears, and mouth work together in the right way.  In fact, sometimes they get agitated, because after 4 years of Spanish they should be able to speak Spanish, but now their emotions add to the chaos in their heads and this further causes them to stumble.Not only did they fail to develop the right connections in their brain, they have also developed bad habits by compartmentalizing their brains, which only leads to more complications in the future.I can’t tell you how important it is to learn conversational Spanish from the beginning so that you start programming your brain to hear Spanish, understand Spanish, and produce Spanish, based on the verbal cues of questions and answers.So the first three lessons I teach are really dedicated to programing your brain to work the right way, understanding the dynamic of answering questions and getting you comfortable with the practice of introducing yourself to strangers in your new language. The next step is to start teaching you how to make your own questions, and understanding how to connect the right dots in a more free flowing, open conversation. I do this by teaching you verbs, which are the most powerful part of a sentence.  However, I take a way different approach to this by only teaching you what you need to know to start speaking Spanish.  I do this by only teaching you the “tú” and the “yo” form (you and I). Most programs would have you learn 6 verb conjugations for AR, ER, and IR verbs on your first day of Spanish.  It’s overwhelming, intimidating, and quite frankly… useless.  It only serves to make the teacher feel smart and the student to feel hopeless.  It’s also completely unnatural. The reason for this is that 99.9% of your Spanish conversations for the first 6 months are going to be almost identical: you are going to be talking to a new person, introducing yourself, and then making small talk.  You are going to ask what the other person likes to do by using the “tú” form, and he or she will answer in the “yo” form.  The other 4 verb conjugations are very unlikely to come up in this initial conversational exchange, so it doesn’t make sense to even start learning them until you have made it past the “tú” y “yo” forms, learning how they interact with each other, and getting comfortable with that initial call and response: Call Question:   Do you …?Response Answer:  Yes, I …. This is now a real conversation.  If you learn how to speak Spanish with me, you will learn how to do this in only 4-6 hours of class time. This incredibly simple approach is what makes the “Let’s Start Talking!” conversational program so powerful.  There is a smarter way to learn how to speak Spanish, but you have to find the right conversational program to teach you Spanish based on how a conversation works, not how the language works. Words give you an almost immediate ability to express your thoughts and desires, which gives you the ability to communicate.  You just have to learn which words you are most likely to use when you are starting.Understanding how to listen to a call, or a question, will take you to the next level, and that is where studying dialogues, not grammar, is so helpful.Finally, learning how to make verbs interact with each other based on the situations that you are most likely to find yourself speaking Spanish in will enable you to start speaking Spanish very quickly. This is what a conversational Spanish program is, and there are very few true conversational options that exist in the world.  The program I created, the “Let’s Start Talking!” program is the only true, authentic, conversational Spanish program that I know of that is based on the framework of a conversation, which is just the simple exchange of ideas or other information.   There may be others out there… If there were, I wish I had known about them before dedicating the last 13 years of my life to developing this one.   The Spanish language, on the other hand, is incredibly complex, which is why the subject matter, or the grammar of the language, should be avoided initially.  Unfortunately, almost every program on the market today follows this approach. So get away from the grammar and “Let’s Start Talking!” Details-Course name: Spanish Foundations 1-Days: Wednesdays-Time: 9 AM 10:30 AM-Cost: $300 per month*We use Zoom, a web conferencing application to learn and talk online. They are live classes with me, David El Profe .Let’s Start Talking! Spanish Foundations 1 is the best level for you to start if you fall into one of these categories:You have never studied Spanish beforeYou took some Spanish in high school or college, but it’s been a whileYou have been trying to do some self-study online or through an app, but don’t have any real confidence when it comes to speakingI only have space available for 6 more students, so don t delay!Would you like to enroll? Click here:ABOUT “LET’S START TALKING! SPANISH FOUNDATIONS 1”Let’s Start Talking! Spanish Foundations 1 is the first Spanish course in a series of conversational Spanish classes created by The Language School. This course is designed to help adults start speaking Spanishat workin their local communitieswhile traveling in the Spanish speaking world (including Latin America, the United States, and Spain)Once you complete this course, you will have a solid foundation in Spanish. Your new conversational skills in Spanish will include being able to introduce yourself in Spanish, being able to order food in restaurants and go shopping for necessities. Finally, you will know how to start having simple conversations in Spanish with native Spanish speakers.HIGHLIGHTS OF LET’S START TALKING! SPANISH FOUNDATIONS 1:Key Spanish conversational and cultural skills will be:Conversation, so Let’s Start Talking! On top of basic conversational skills, students will learn cultural and historical lessons that will help prepare them for interacting with Spanish speaking people locally and abroad. These are the top conversational skills you will learn to prepare you for real-life situations with Spanish speakers:Spanish greetings and how to formally introduce yourself to someone in SpanishConversation starters that are culturally correct so you can start making friends and practicing with native Spanish speakersSurvival Spanish so you can order food and buy things in Spanish speaking countries and neighborhoods close to homeHere are some of the various aspects of Spanish Arts, Culture, and History you will learn about in this first course:Spanish Music:Salsa with Celia CruzBoléro with Los Tres ReyesWe’ll also take you on a tour of the Spanish speaking world, including interesting information about the Spanish language and culture of:The United StatesMexicoArgentinaOf course, our conversational programs are backed by grammar, so here are the main Spanish grammar skills you will take away in this level, and some of the differences between English and Spanish:Me gusta/Te Gusta – I like/You likeSentence structureArticlesNounsAdjectivesMasculine vs. feminineSingular vs. PluralRegular verbs in the present tense (AR, ER, IR)Asking questions and answering both positively and negativelyNumbers (0-100)Spelling and the alphabetDavid StevensDirector of The Language SchoolDavid@thelanguageschool.usCell: (720) 257-8539PS We limit participation to 8 students so that everyone gets a lot of personal attention and time to talk. We already have 3 students enrolled, so don t delay!Lies, lies, and more lies… that’s what I see all over the internet regarding learning how to speak a new language.I’m here to tell the truth.  It won’t be fast, it won’t be easy, and it won’t be cheap.These are your options to learn a new language with a short break down of what you will get in 1 year of study:Free with Duolingo you get what you pay for.  Duolingo will give you a lot of vocabulary, and it’s fun and engaging, but you won’t make real progress.  You will never learn how to speak a new language by using an app.  Most students I work with that have used Duolingo or some other app  like this for at least a year usually have to start in my first or second level. Non-Profit/Community Organization Free (or a very low cost)  There are an abundance of these organizations for ESL classes, but very few for Spanish.  While these sound good in theory, they tend to make the learning experience extremely difficult.  First, most of these organizations rely on volunteers to teach the classes.  Unless you are incredibly lucky, this means you are not working with a real teacher that has any training or experience.  These volunteers are usually mono-lingual, elderly, and are just doing something to fill up their free time.  They tend to work with large groups of people that have different levels, and the format is rather open with no structured curriculum.   Most students stop attending classes within 2 weeks, and the remaining students that continue have very poor results.  This leaves a bad impression on students, and instead of learning the new language, they leave the class frustrated and feeling hopeless. Community College $21/hour plus fees and books After 1 year of a program like this, you will probably develop some decent reading and writing skills, and have a fairly advanced understanding of the grammar, but you won’t have any real conversational skills. University $45/hour plus fees and books There isn’t much difference here with the community college route, it will just cost you much more money. The Language School $30 $60/hour In 1 year, you will be fully conversational in most of your daily interactions with people and have an intermediate level of grammar.  The Language School is the only option that provides true conversational classes, and is the only option that will enable you to become conversationally fluent in this amount of time.  For the results our students achieve, this is an incredibly powerful and reasonably priced program.So do you want to “play with Spanish” on an app?  Do you want to help volunteers spend their free time?  Do you want to study Spanish grammar in an academic Spanish program?  Or do you want to start speaking Spanish with confidence at work, in your community, and during your travels?  The Language School is not the least expensive option, and it’s not the most expensive option, but it is the only option that will give you the ability to really speak Spanish with confidence! My name is David “El Profe”, and I’ve been teaching people how to speak Spanish since 2005.  Learning a new language is like going to the gym to get a 6 pack, or learning how to play an instrument like the guitar.  You have to put in work.  You have to get comfortable with getting uncomfortable.  You have to make it your #1 priority, and study or practice every day.I studied Spanish intensively for 7 years.  I lived in 5 different countries and in total spent over $200,000 to learn how to speak Spanish.It was a miserable experience for most of the time… but I finally did it.The good news is that along the way I learned some tricks that did make it easier.  I learned how to focus on what was useful and relevant to me, and I figured out that studying grammar was a waste of time, but focusing on words and phrases was extremely beneficial.Since then, I’ve been teaching what I learned during this experience, and I have come to understand why most people never learn how to speak the new language that they are studying.Over the last 10 years or so, I’ve been working on my “Let’s Start Talking!” program to teach people how to start speaking the new language from day 1.  Like many of these “internet gurus”, I have developed a program that will teach you how to start speaking a new language like English or Spanish in only 15 hours.  The difference between what I’m offering to you today and what the others claim is my willingness to present this to you with full disclosure it’s not cheap, and it’s not going to be easy.  The offer is for 15 hours of class time, but your success will depend on the time that you put in outside of class.  And you won’t be fluent.  You won’t master the language in that time, and you’ll still be making plenty of mistakes after those 15 hours.  However, I can quite confidently say that after those 15 hours, you will have learned how to speak more Spanish than I was able to speak in my first 3 years of studies.You will learn how to introduce yourself to a new friend or colleague and make small talk.  You will role play ordering food at restaurants and buying things from stores.  All of this will essentially prepare you to START talking to people in your new language in your local community or during travels.I emphasize the word start because that’s it.  I don’t want to disappoint you.  I want to set your expectations.  You can start speaking a new language in a ridiculously fast amount of time if you study the right things.  It has to be the right level of relevance, practicality, and also the words that you will use on a daily basis.The Let’s Start Talking approach does just that.  From day one it teaches you how to start speaking.  Everything that you do in this program is done from a conversational point of view, focusing on dialogues and vocabulary that you as the new student are most likely to use in real life scenarios when you find yourself in the company of someone that speaks the language you are learning.  And I charge a lot of money for this program.  It’s $997 if you want to do it with live classes with me personally.  I also have a more affordable option to get access to a digital, on demand course for only $97, but just like anything else, you get what you pay for.Let me explain to you why this will be the best decision that you’ve ever made when it comes to learning how to speak a new language.Your high school Spanish program, if it was anything like mine, was a total joke.  It was a requirement, which means you had to be there. If you are like me, then that also means that you didn’t want to be there, so you didn’t have the right motivation to learn Spanish from the beginning.Another major flaw that I have observed with high school Spanish programs is that they aren t geared towards conversation.  They are geared towards grammar.  In my 20+ years of learning and teaching languages, I’ve come to learn an extremely odd thing about language learning when the focus is on grammar, it doesn’t work.  So, your high school Spanish studies were frivolous, and there is a good chance that they left you with the belief that it is impossible to learn how to speak Spanish.Now let’s look at a college program.  By definition, a college program is academic.  It may be a requirement, or it may be of your own volition.  Unfortunately, because the college program is so academic, even if you are doing it because you want to, the focus doesn’t align with yours learning how to speak Spanish to enhance your primary major of business medicine, or whatever it may be.Professor Bill VanPatten, creator of the Destinos Program you have probably used at some point, conducted a survey several years ago that the results were alarming.  University Spanish programs for the most part and designed to prepare students to go into a Masters Spanish program.  Over 80% of students, however, were studying the language to learn how to speak it and had no plans to continue on to a Masters Spanish program.When your program’s objective doesn’t align with your objective, you probably won’t be successful.  This may sound odd, but think about it this way.  If you want to learn how to swim, should you study the mechanics of muscle memory and physics to learn more about how water resists your body movements?  Of course not… you have to dive in.  You have to start swimming.  You have to apply this same principal to learning how to speak Spanish and you absolutely must start speaking Spanish.Let’s move along in most recent years, it has been wildly popular to use a computer app like Rosetta Stone or Duolingo.  Both of these companies are crushing it, with millions of users and billions of dollars in revenue.  Yet I haven’t once met someone that has become fluent by using one of these apps.  Not once.Don’t get me wrong, I actually like these apps, for what they are, which is a cool way to practice.  But they don’t teach you how to start speaking the language.  The goal with these apps is to be intuitive and get away from grammar.  In other words, an easier way to learn how to speak Spanish.  Trust me, I know I use Duolingo to practice French, and I’m even a Duolingo Global Ambassador and host 2 weekly meetups so their users can practice live.These apps are gamified, competitive, and cheap.  Again, though, they won’t teach you how to speak the new language.  They can help you practice it, but they won’t help you develop real conversational skills. At the end of the day, there is no silver bullet.  There is no single solution that will guarantee your success.  I’m here to tell you the truth about that.  You have to find something that works for you, your goals, and your learning style.To learn how to speak a new language takes time.  One truth I can confidently share is that there are better ways you can develop a lot of conversational skills in less than 6 months if that is the core focus of your program, and your desire.  And if you do the work.  And if you put in time studying, memorizing vocabulary, and practicing.  And also, one of the most important things you have to do is get comfortable being uncomfortable, trying to introduce yourself to people everytime you hear the new language.Again, I’ll level with you.  I don t know if the “Let’s Start Talking!” program is the right fit for you, but what I do know is that I’ve helped thousands of students learn how to speak a new language since 2001, and this program is incredibly powerful if you work the program as it is meant to be worked.  That means that if you do the classes, memorize new vocab, and then do the homework you will learn Spanish.  Then, if you come to the weekly practices I host, start introducing yourself to Spanish speakers, and find a conversation partner, you will start speaking Spanish quite confidently in less than 6 months.  It’s not necessarily a faster, or easier way.  It certainly isn’t a cheaper way. It may seem like a lot of money, but compare $997 to my 7 years and $200,000 that I spent to learn how to speak Spanish.That said, it is a better way, and I believe that with all of my heart.  I believe that if you want to learn how to speak Spanish, you will not find a better approach.  I’m also sure that if you do this program, if you follow my advice, and you put yourself out there you will want to continue studying with me for years to come, and will look back on this initial course and investment as the best time and money you have spent on learning how to speak Spanish ever. I say this because I’ve had students tell me that after working with me for 1 hour, they have learned more about speaking Spanish than they did in 4 years of a college program, and I get told this often.This is a conversational program that I have been working on and improving since 2007 that has 1 main objective, which is to teach adults how to start speaking Spanish with people at work and on their travels.Sign up today:$97 On Demand, Digital CourseWhat are conversation classes?I think it would be helpful for you to understand what learning how to speak a new language really means.  It’s quite simple it all boils down to speaking the language. Let me explain, because that sounds absurdly easy.  In a way, it is  I studied Spanish intensively for 7 years.  I wouldn’t recommend that anyone else do that, unless they plan on becoming a teacher.  It wasn’t really my plan to become a teacher, but it happened by accident. Unfortunately, I studied for so long and so hard because there were no other options back then.  Now, this idea of conversational language classes is starting to catch on in the US, but it’s still not really, truthfully happening in most educational institutions.  Most so called conversational programs are still taking the traditional, grammar based approach, and just doing it in smaller groups.  That is not a conversational program.Web apps are not conversational programs either. A conversational program is when the classes are structured around a conversation as opposed to grammar. You see, the traditional, grammar based approach typically looks like this. You learn a piece of grammar, and then do activities based on grammar.  These activities are for the most part writing activities that involve filling in blanks.  There are many problems with this approach.  For one, grammar is confusing, even in your own language.  Think about the last time you heard someone say something the wrong way in English.  Can you identify why?  Probably not… it probably just sounds funny to you. Let’s try this for an example: I want to learn Spanish fast.I want to learn Spanish quickly.I want to learn Spanish fastly. Which statement is right? Trick question…. The top two are right.  Do you know why?  Probably not.  I would guess that fastly just sounds funny to you, and you are right, even though you can’t explain why.  At the same time, I bet you have no problems speaking English and communicating with people, and you don’t even know why.   Well, the reason for this is that you grew up speaking English.  You learned it at home with friends and family, and spoke it for at least 10 years before ever looking at grammar rules.   I would be willing to bet that when you finally started learning the grammar rules that they confused you.  Most people I know dreaded their high school English classes. So why is it that you can speak English quite confidently, but now that I’m questioning your grammar, you can’t answer the question wny? Because you learned conversational English as a kid.  You learned how to speak it through trial and error.  You made mistakes, corrected your mistakes, and tried tried tried again.  Eventually, it became internalized, and that’s why you can speak it, but can’t explain the rules. Now let’s apply the same concept to your 2nd language. What is a conversation? According to Google, a conversation is… “a talk, especially an informal one, between two or more people, in which news and ideas are exchanged.” It doesn’t have to be perfect.  It doesn’t even have to be spoken.  Some people estimate that some 80-90% of communication actually takes place nonverbally. Well, if the point is on exchanging ideas, we can now simplify the process of learning a new language to exchanging information with people in a way to be understood, and this all starts with words, not grammar. WORDS ARE THE FOUNDATION TO A CONVERSATION  MAKE VOCABULARY YOUR TOP PRIORITY My son’s first word was “agua”.  When he was a baby, I would give him a bath and splash the water around and just say agua, agua, agua.  One day he started trying to repeat what I was saying, and that soon became his first word.  What a great thing that was, because he then started putting it together, and when he was thirsty he would say that too.  1 less thing to cry about! From there, other words started falling into place. Leche, comida, etc. He wasn’t speaking full sentences, but he was using words, and we understood him! He was exchanging information in a way that we could understand, and over the next few months he was able to start speaking both English and Spanish to us.  It was amazing. That really got me thinking about what conversational Spanish was. I’m also a musician, and believe it or not, music has taught me how to teach languages in a really unique and powerful way.You may or may not know this, but music is a conversation of sorts, especially when it comes to certain types of music, including church music, jam bands, and jazz. If you’ve ever been to church, there is typically a choir, and most songs take place as a call and response.  The preacher sings something and the choir responds. Jazz is all about opening up the music to allowing the instruments to communicate with each other, and the musicians learn how to listen for a certain drum beat in order to respond to it with a specific break, or change of rhythm.  Guitarists can make the piano respond in a certain way, or the rest of the group can respond as well.  Jam bands essentially do the same thing. Modern music like hip hop takes a cue from this as well, and break dancers make calls and responses to the beats and each other, and the MC or rappers verbalize these exchanges as well. One of my favorite styles of music is Afrocuban music, where you have drummers, singers, and dancers all communicating with each other, and all three have the ability to change the “conversation” if they know what they are doing.This comparison to music is helpful when you break it down to this concept of exchanging ideas, or information, by examining how a call and response work.This is the basic framework for a conversation too it’s all about a call and response. You say A, your partner says B. Most often this boils down to a simple question and an answer.  You ask a question and your partner provides you with an answer, and vice versa. So over the past several years, I’ve been working on this new concept of what I truly believe to be one of the first truly conversational programs in the United States.  What this means is that almost every activity that you do with me has been analyzed from a conversational point of view, not a grammatical point of view, and you simply start speaking Spanish, exchanging ideas. In the first three lessons, I do this by teaching you how to introduce yourself to a new friend in Spanish.  I give you the dialogue, make you speak it, and then break it down for you.  I don’t really explain to you how it works… you just do it, and learn it, and study it, then internalize it.  Before you know it, you can introduce yourself to someone in Spanish. The traditional manner would explain to you the grammar, and then have you fill in the blanks, and write essays in Spanish.  Maybe at some point you build up to a dialogue, but the problem with this approach is by the time you get to the dialogue, you’ve zoned out, grown bored, and the confusion sets in around the grammar.  You practice reading and writing, but you don’t practice exchanging information. Academic programs don’t teach the call and response, the questions and the answers.  They simply don’t teach you how to exchange ideas and information, which is by definition what a conversation is.  Simply put, you are very unlikely to learn how to speak Spanish through a high school or college Spanish class.  You will only learn grammar and theory. Initially, you don’t need to know the grammar you just need to know the call and the response.  You need to learn what to listen for, and how to respond to it, and then do it.   This also makes it incredibly powerful, practical, and useful.  Can you imagine studying Spanish for only a few hours, but being able to walk up to a complete stranger, introduce yourself in Spanish, and then make small talk for 20-30 minutes? I start with this dialogue, and this particular use case, because that is exactly what you need to start doing immediately in order to start speaking Spanish with new people, and almost everyone you are going to talk to is going to be a new person.  I help you internalize this simple introduction so that you can start doing it with confidence.  And there is no need to get lost in all the grammar rules, at least not initially. Scientifically, this also works really well because by learning the calls and responses, you are activating the right parts of your brain and developing the right neurological pathways from the beginning, much in the way that a small child learns how to speak his or her first language.Everyone has heard about people that use the right side or the left side of the brain, but there are many more components to it.  The above illustration is a very simplified image of other compartments, but we can use this as an example to show you why the traditional approach simply doesn’t work well. Most traditional, grammar based programs focus on teaching grammar through reading and writing activities. When you read Spanish, you are typically only activating the “vision” compartment of your brain.  When you write, you may activate the “vision and the touch”.  Some of these traditional programs have listening components, but again you would only be activating the “hearing” department. A real conversation would activate “touch”, “vision”, and “hearing” all at the same time.  If you are speaking to someone while having dinner with them, you might even activate the “smell” and “taste” compartments, utilizing every part of your brain at the same time.If your end goal is to have a real conversation with someone, you have to develop those neural pathways at some point, and it’s better to start doing that from the beginning, just like a child does with the first language.Isolating specific parts of the brain throughout your Spanish studies may help at certain points during your Spanish career, but to start with, it’s so much more powerful to activate everything to begin with to develop those pathways in your brain. It gets messy when you start by isolating the brain compartments and then trying to mix them together later.  I’ve had plenty of 4 year, college degree holding majors that had to start this program from the beginning because they didn’t learn how to put it all together during school.  I’m talking about students with good grades, students that can read and write Spanish perfectly… students that can fill in blanks and tell you the rules… even students that are now teaching in high school programs and are actually well qualified to do so… but they can’t order a margarita in Spanish when they go on date night with their husbands or wives.They might freeze up when someone says ¿cómo estás? and understand the question perfectly, but they can’t make their mouth move in the right way to answer… because they never developed this simple call and response capability.  They can’t make their brain, eyes, ears, and mouth work together in the right way.  In fact, sometimes they get agitated, because after 4 years of Spanish they should be able to speak Spanish, but now their emotions add to the chaos in their heads and this further causes them to stumble.Not only did they fail to develop the right connections in their brain, they have also developed bad habits by compartmentalizing their brains, which only leads to more complications in the future.I can’t tell you how important it is to learn conversational Spanish from the beginning so that you start programming your brain to hear Spanish, understand Spanish, and produce Spanish, based on the verbal cues of questions and answers.So the first three lessons I teach are really dedicated to programing your brain to work the right way, understanding the dynamic of answering questions and getting you comfortable with the practice of introducing yourself to strangers in your new language. The next step is to start teaching you how to make your own questions, and understanding how to connect the right dots in a more free flowing, open conversation. I do this by teaching you verbs, which are the most powerful part of a sentence.  However, I take a way different approach to this by only teaching you what you need to know to start speaking Spanish.  I do this by only teaching you the “tú” and the “yo” form (you and I). Most programs would have you learn 6 verb conjugations for AR, ER, and IR verbs on your first day of Spanish.  It’s overwhelming, intimidating, and quite frankly… useless.  It only serves to make the teacher feel smart and the student to feel hopeless.  It’s also completely unnatural. The reason for this is that 99.9% of your Spanish conversations for the first 6 months are going to be almost identical: you are going to be talking to a new person, introducing yourself, and then making small talk.  You are going to ask what the other person likes to do by using the “tú” form, and he or she will answer in the “yo” form.  The other 4 verb conjugations are very unlikely to come up in this initial conversational exchange, so it doesn’t make sense to even start learning them until you have made it past the “tú” y “yo” forms, learning how they interact with each other, and getting comfortable with that initial call and response: Call Question:   Do you …?Response Answer:  Yes, I …. This is now a real conversation.  If you learn how to speak Spanish with me, you will learn how to do this in only 4-6 hours of class time. This incredibly simple approach is what makes the “Let’s Start Talking!” conversational program so powerful.  There is a smarter way to learn how to speak Spanish, but you have to find the right conversational program to teach you Spanish based on how a conversation works, not how the language works. Words give you an almost immediate ability to express your thoughts and desires, which gives you the ability to communicate.  You just have to learn which words you are most likely to use when you are starting.Understanding how to listen to a call, or a question, will take you to the next level, and that is where studying dialogues, not grammar, is so helpful.Finally, learning how to make verbs interact with each other based on the situations that you are most likely to find yourself speaking Spanish in will enable you to start speaking Spanish very quickly. This is what a conversational Spanish program is, and there are very few true conversational options that exist in the world.  The program I created, the “Let’s Start Talking!” program is the only true, authentic, conversational Spanish program that I know of that is based on the framework of a conversation, which is just the simple exchange of ideas or other information.   There may be others out there… If there were, I wish I had known about them before dedicating the last 13 years of my life to developing this one.   The Spanish language, on the other hand, is incredibly complex, which is why the subject matter, or the grammar of the language, should be avoided initially.  Unfortunately, almost every program on the market today follows this approach. So get away from the grammar and “Let’s Start Talking!” Let s Start Talking!The Language School teaches adults conversational English and Spanish so students can really speak the new language with confidence at work, in their community, and during their travels.For the safety of our students and staff, we are only offering classes ONLINE.We offer live classes through Zoom and an On-Demand Application for self-study.There are many options to consider when it comes to learning a new language, so we have created this simple process to help you enroll online:Small groups build confidence.We only allow 8 students at a time, which allows you to feel comfortable and get a lot of personalized attention. It ensures that you will spend a lot of time speaking in class, building your confidence and improving your pronunciation. Finally, if you have questions, you will get to ask them!Real people, real conversations.Language apps help you practice, but they don’t get you talking. Your high school or college class was too complicated and overwhelming. At The Language School, you will be speaking your new language from day 1, and that’s why it works!Great value for your investment.Most of our students pay between $100 $300 per month. With registration and books included in this price, it has one of the lowest costs in Denver. Learning a new language, and the opportunities it brings, is one of the best investments you can afford. The Language School 4.8 Based on 106 reviews Lane Weis 21:08 01 Jun 20 The Language school was the kick in the butt that I needed. It’s very hard to learn a language on your own (I lack... discipline) Although things are online at the moment due to the pandemic I still feel I am learning at the same rate as in person. David is very helpful and is always prompt to answer any of my questions day or night. If you stick with this program it will stick with you. I cannot wait for in class learning to open back up !read more Sarah Mortier 23:35 04 May 20 Have had a phenomenal experience with The Language School with Pedro as my instructor. Have been studying 2 months and... feel like I could order my own food at a restaurant and understand a good amount of casual conversations. Can't wait to keep studying!read more Tommy Bradshaw 00:43 26 Apr 20 Pedro has been very helpful and patient as a teacher. The first couple months have helped my Spanish tremendously. The... classes are very flexible and I was given the option to speed up my learning.read more Juvy Smith 21:08 23 Apr 20 I'm learning a new language in these school which is spanish.I am on Pedro's class and his patients is amazing.The... idea of limiting the capacity of each class is great,in that way the teacher can focus on the student.read more Greg Brewer 01:05 18 Apr 20 I have tried to learn Spanish on my own for a while now and I'd never progress to anything. I would get frustrated and... end stopping for long periods of time.I went to Mexico and realized I needed to learn a lot more to have conversations. So I started this January in The Language School. It's been three months and I've noticed a big difference. It is the interaction with my teacher Pedro and practicing at home and in the neighborhood that has expanded my talking. I think the each week part helps.read more Betsy Aker 21:45 10 Mar 20 I started by visiting the Friday Morning Conversation gatherings with Abby and really enjoyed the friendly and... supportive atmosphere. I signed up for Spanish classes with Pedro. He is teacher who works with you to get your spelling, grammar and pronunciation correct. I am continuing with Pedro to improve my Spanish understanding. His teaching style and encouragement are motivating to the students.read more Jodie White 21:12 09 Mar 20 Somehow they're even able to teach Spanish to me. I've tried a few of the online ways of learning spanish, without... much success, but this class is hammering it home. It's not easy, and I have to do homework and study a few times a week, but it's finally sinking in. I even signed up for the next course. Pedro's a great and patient teacher. Or Maestro I should say.read more Jordan Kirar 19:04 26 Feb 20 Pedro with The Language School is an excellent one on one Spanish instructor. He is flexible and easy to work with, I... do my lessons over Skype. The Language School offers many options so that you can get the type of instruction that best suits you.read more Jackie Nelson 21:14 05 Jan 20 This is a great school! My instructor is very patient, ensuring you really understand the content before moving on to... new material.read more Jeff Hargis 19:35 28 Dec 19 A great way for English speakers to learn Spanish at their own pace, their personal level, and in a verbal approach... that allows you start thinking in a new language rather than constantly trying to translate. I am very impressed with how much my abilities have improved in just four months!read more Jeri Williams 02:14 15 Dec 19 An awesome school with amazing teachers! It's one thing to learn Spanish in class, but truly another when learning from... native speakers. This school offers Spanish/English conversation groups where Spanish students can learn from English students and vice versa. In my opinion, there's no better way to learn!read more Next Reviews FoundationsTo help you get off the ground in terms of daily situations such as basic introductions, going to the grocery store, buying clothing, or eating at a restaurant.BeginnerTo help you achieve fluency and interact in everyday situations, as well as culturally integrate and learn how to make new friends.IntermediateTo ensure that you can successfully integrate into your new culture and country, as well as conduct job interviews and and participate in more formal situations.Advanced/ProfessionalTo perfect your new language and give you the ability to confidently speak and carry on extended conversations in any scenario.

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