Spanish: John Rabassa

“¡Hola, me llamo John!

I am a native born Spanish speaker.  I was born in Mexico City, raised in a bilingual household and attended bilingual school.  I have been teaching Spanish with Speak! for two years. Being able to teach allows me to connect with my culture.  I teach one-on-one, semi-private (couples), and lead a drop-in conversation class.  I teach absolute beginners, advanced beginners, intermediate learners, and “have some high school or college and want to get back into it so please be gentle” beginners.  

I believe that creating a fun and engaging experience, lowering the stress of learning a language, is one of the best things I can do to help my students learn.  Each student gets individualized attention and I adjust the lessons with their feedback and goals in mind, but in all cases I blend instruction with practice and conversation.  An important benefit of working in-person with a native speaker, is the time and attention I can give to pronunciation and training the ear to hear what sounds right.

Community theater is a big part of my life, so you may find me on stage in local productions, or behind the scenes directing or designing costumes.  I have a facilitation and systems coaching practice called yesand.space.  And I’m a big knitter and learning to sew and quilt.”