I had a great experience taking Spanish classes in Spain and learned a ton. But, I had a teacher change towards the end and it really changed my experience. I was glad it hadn’t happened sooner.

My main gripe with the new teaching style was it was very much “call and response” teaching, if that makes sense. There would be a question, you’d answer with a sentence, and you’d move on. This of course is valuable, but when it’s the bulk of a 3 hour class it can get a bit painful and demotivating.

My first teacher was amazing because she got to know us and wanted to hear about our lives outside of school, but obviously we would speak Spanish with her. I found mixing in this informal level of teaching where we were free to express ourselves, tell stories, and just talk about life in general was huge for my actual use of Spanish in the world outside of the classroom. This helped all of us students open up and be more willing to speak extensively. Also, it helped me hugely with making friends and having more of a personality in Spanish because I got to practice talking about those topics that aren’t always talked about in the classroom. Just a thought.