What inspired you to work for Spanishlink?
I love learning languages and teaching them. Seeing how my students learn about my culture through the language fills me with pride and motivates me to keep going. When I decided to take this path, I was sure of what I was doing. I was searching for time for myself and my happiness. This journey has been one of self-discovery, and every day I am more convinced that it was the right choice.
Describe a typical day at work.
A typical day at work for me doesn’t exist—no two days are the same. If I have online classes, I wake up early, go to the gym, prepare the lessons, teach, and after the classes, I design practice exercises. At the end of the day, I dedicate time to myself and my passions.
If I’m leading an immersion program, I won’t have online classes that week. A typical day would start with me being the first to wake up. I organize the Spanish expression cards each student receives daily, coordinate the day’s work and menu with the chefs, and slowly begin talking to the students as they arrive in the lounge for breakfast. Once everyone has eaten and is ready, we begin the day's class, followed by activities, games, visits, or whatever else is planned for the day.
Relaxed vibes under the sun
Why do you do what you do?
I am an electronic engineer, and I worked for seven years at a major aircraft manufacturing company (I won't name it). I know what it feels like to wake up every day feeling unhappy about going to work. I didn’t want that for my life, and there came a moment when I decided to change it. My life has changed a lot, but I am happy now. I am doing what I am most passionate about, and I have no plans to change that.
What is your favorite part of your job?
Connecting with my students and watching them improve and express themselves better in Spanish fills me with happiness. Seeing their progress and growing confidence motivates me every day to continue doing what I love. It’s truly rewarding to help them achieve their language goals. Every time I prepare something during an immersion program to encourage them to use a specific idiom or expression, and I hear them use it naturally days later, it feels priceless.
How do you use your education and international background in your current role?
My background has helped me learn how to solve problems. As an engineer, you're always trained to think one step ahead, and that skill helps me organize my team and my programs.
Speaking four languages also helps me understand how a student thinks and the challenges they may face when learning a new language. I’ve felt that frustration four times myself, each with a different language.
What challenges do you often face, and how do you overcome them?
The challenges I face are many. Creating a program where all participants have different needs and preferences can be very difficult. Every program presents unique challenges, and I simply rely on my team. My team is essential to me. They help me see things clearly and approach each obstacle effectively.
Laughter and good wine – the perfect evening.
What are some current projects you are working on?
Right now, I am developing my next program in Colombia and Tenerife. Both are very different because we always try to ensure that students experience the cities and countries like locals, which requires a lot of preparation. Since the two destinations are so distinct, it’s impossible to copy a program model from one city and apply it to the other. That would be a huge mistake. Everything here is custom-designed with a lot of care, so the time I dedicate to it is essential. There is no rush, but also no pause.
What advice would you give your pre-travel self?
It's a very difficult question, but I think I would tell myself to take a risk, do it, and enjoy doing it. Don’t overthink it. Sometimes the fear of the unknown holds us back, but the experience and personal growth that come with it are invaluable. Embrace the adventure with an open heart, trust the process, and allow everything to fall into place naturally.
Climbing in the Alps
What makes Spanishlink special?
Regarding online classes, we are the only ones offering a flexible class reservation system. The student decides when to have classes (day and time) as well as the duration of each session. We also offer the possibility for students to change the class duration, choosing between 30, 45, or 60 minutes. Of course, the option for fixed-duration classes is always available.
As for the immersion course, I have yet to see one that matches ours in terms of hours of Spanish practice and the number of activities included. Our students live with locals and participate in activities designed to use the language. Cooking, yoga, flamenco, ceramics, salsa, hiking, the coffee experience, fruit tours, kayaking—everything is carefully planned so they can do something enriching and fun with local people while communicating in Spanish. We also offer daily short classes, as well as plenty of games and activities in the house. The students also have time for their own freedom to do what they wish. There is space for everything. Furthermore, we can't overlook the quality of our food, with two chefs in the house who prepare their own menus and adapt them easily to allergies and intolerances. Here, we eat in Spanish and like locals do. Traditional cooking here is not what you find in the bars. Spain and Colombia are also known through their food.
Why should someone choose Spanishlink over competitors?
If you want a truly immersive experience, with over 98 hours of Spanish practice and a tailored, bespoke program, there’s nothing like it. Here, they eat in Spanish, have fun in Spanish, and do everything in Spanish. In a natural, guided, progressive way, with four immersion experts with them 24 hours a day. There’s nothing else like it on the market, and I’m sure of that. We don’t need to take them to Michelin-starred restaurants because that’s not something a regular Spaniard or Colombian would do. We don’t make them eat paella or drink sangria because that’s not typical, it’s stereotypical, and we avoid that. SIP is about Spain, Colombia, and their people.
Life in color – exploring the pink streets of the DR.
What is your organization's mission, and how do you continue to work toward it?
The mission of my organization is to teach Spanish in a natural and comfortable way. Many of my students learn as a hobby while having a job, arriving to class tired after a long week or workday. I try to make sure they don't feel like they are in a traditional class. That is my mission, and every day I spend time searching for new games, new activities, and new ways to teach something. The tools are endless, and the internet is vast. We must take advantage of that.
I do the same with my immersion programs. I don't want to fall into stereotypes. I don't want to teach commercial Spanish or a clichéd vision of a country. We work and will always work to make everything as authentic and transparent as possible.
What do you hope participants take away from your programs?
I would love for the participants to take away a positive image of my country, but above all, I want them to take away an authentic image of it. I don't want them to come and leave as tourists. I want them to come and take a piece of Spain with them. I want them to be able to replicate the way of life we have here, to enjoy the food the way we do, or even use our humor and expressions, even if it’s in their own language. I would like them to leave with the feeling that they truly know the country in a genuine way.
Why is it important for people to travel abroad and experience new cultures?
We are movement; if we stop, we don’t evolve. It's necessary to see what others are doing and how they do it to understand whether what we're doing makes sense or if we can improve it. We are social and curious; we need to go out there and experience new cultures, new forms of humor, new insults, new foods, new traditions, and we do all of this through language. Something we find very beautiful. If you don’t move, you stagnate.
What does meaningful travel mean to you?
A meaningful trip is one in which you enrich yourself. Everyone does it in their own way; there are no written rules about this. The beauty of it all is that no two people are the same, and being able to make two different people enjoy the same thing seems wonderful to me.
A meaningful trip is the one where you return having learned something and having become a different person. A more advanced version of yourself.
It’s the trip where you return with a smile because you did things your way and with sadness because you can’t continue them.
