Carolina Hernandez

I feel so fortunate to have found Carolina. She is the best! Works with me at my level towards my goals. She uses really good materials that are very helpful. I am always happy to have had a lesson with Carolina. Siempre cinco Estrellas!

Outstanding. I chose Carolina because of how clearly she spoke in her video, making it easy for me to understand her. I also was impressed that she is a journalist. I could tell that she was a nice person. She was very helpful and knowledgeable in our first lesson. I'm going begin regular lessons with her immediately.

OK, here we are! I'm an expert in almost every area in Spanish: pronunciation, translation, writing transcriptions, reading a PhD thesis, participating in professional symposia, leading bilingual tours and hosting a bilingual YouTube channel. Yet after more than 6 years, I'm still at the most basic beginner level with movies and series, though I can understand them almost perfectly with subtitles. Without them, I'm lost. I asked Carolina if I have a learning disability in this area. She said no, but there is clearly some kind of block. So we're starting from Square 1. She has the necessary patience, the question is whether I do with myself.

I often say similar things about my lessons with Carolina, because they're consistently true. She works me hard. I feel like my brain is getting a workout. We pick difficult material and it's slow going, but I'm learning steadily. I'm learning about the legal system in Colombia and the standards of evidence, and I'm not involved in police or legal work--these are simply topics that have caught my interest in looking at other aspects of Colombian social life. Wherever you are in your studies of Spanish, Carolina can take you higher, at whatever pace you're ready for.

As I thought, Carolina has more patience with me than I have with myself. I am living the words of a favorite song by Laura Pausini: "Vas a salir a la calle, y comenzar desde cero." You will go to the street, and start from zero. In trying to understand TV series, I am starting from zero. This gifted teacher has led me from impossibility to possibility before, so--I'm following.

Last week, Carolina sent me a video explaining how colloquial speech becomes reduced, letters dropped, etc. I wrote a summary, and today we viewed examples of these changes. She had me read several examples out loud. This is good for me, because as a bilingual nature presenter, I use clear and correct pronunciation all the time at work, and as a result I often have difficulty understanding unclear speech in movies. There were connection problems with the iTalki classroom today, but we both used our Zoom accounts we keep as alternative methods.