¡Hola Amigos!

If you didn’t learn anything for Junior High or High School Spanish, don’t worry – you’re not alone – neither did I or anyone else I’ve ever talked to…or at least not enough to carry on a real conversation with native Spanish speakers.

Let me be clear up front that the fault usually doesn’t lie with our Spanish teachers – they’re generally very creative, hard working and underpaid. The challenge is the old-style curriculum they’re required to use. They’re using the same tools that have been used for hundreds of years – text books…and in this economy, some don’t even have text books. Granted, some are slightly more advanced technologically and have “software” that comes with the text books. However, it is usually a glorified picture dictionary on CD or simple quiz system. It’s not a system for teaching Spanish.

To put it succinctly, Junior High and High School Spanish curriculum isn’t meant to teach you to converse in Spanish, it’s meant to teach you lists of vocabulary, grammar rules and verb conjugations.

I’ll continue on my personal vendetta in a minute, but first, I want to show you my favorite Spanish YouTube video that illustrates what is learned from the first semester of Spanish in the academic school system. This video is so funny because it is completely true!

Hopefully you thought that was as funny as I did.

Now back to my personal vendetta.

Unfortunately, you really don’t learn to converse with native speakers in academic Spanish (Junior High, High School and even most colleges). Sadly, in many cases it is simply a waste of time.

My first daughter took Junior High Spanish and regressed from the Spanish I had taught her as a child. She was embarrassed to speak with proper pronunciation because nobody else in her class did (including the teacher unfortunately).

Personally, after taking 2 years of Spanish in Junior High, I finally learned Spanish after living abroad for 2 years. I also got a degree in Spanish and taught it for 3 years at a university.

From my frustrating experience teaching academic Spanish at a university using the horse-and-buggy approach, the Visual Link Spanish course was born.

I knew there had to be a better way – a way that could teach proper, grammatically correct Spanish, without having to memorize word lists, rules and focusing on verb conjugations – similar to the way kids learn, but using the resources of the adult mind.

After years of research, heavy collaboration from native speakers, and teaching hundreds of people in the community and business setting, we had developed a system that gets you conversational quick by categorizing words into different groups that can be used like building blocks to form sentences. We then spent the next 10 years turning it into the software and online Spanish lessons we have available for you today in a 1-month free trial.

Now, there you have it, the birth of the Visual Link Spanish course – a result of over 16 years of intense research and development to give you the best experience out there for learning Spanish. We firmly believe that statement and our customers also affirm it.

¡Gracias por estar conmigo! (Thanks for joining me!)

¡Hasta luego Amigos!