An Excellant Spanish Instructor
Back in January (2007), I took a trip to Buenos Aires, Argentina, and while I was there I decided to enroll in an advanced Spanish course at a private school. My goals were twofold: (1) to meet other Spanish students; and (2) to improve my Spanish and learn the local slang or way of speaking.
My instructor was Julio Sivautt, a native from Buenos Aires, who is fluent in English and Portuguese also. And I have nothing but great things to say about him and his teaching methods and ability.
I believe it is a combination of his life experiences, ability to tell stories and his passion and excitement to teach and interact with others that makes him such a great Spanish (and Portuguese) instructor. He’s been teaching for over 7 years now and I highly recommend anyone seeking to take private lessons, whether you’re a beginner or an advanced student, to take classes with Julio.
Julio is a very diverse person who has lived in London and Brazil. In addition to being an instructor, Julio is a translator and when he’s not working, he writes stories and music and even plays in a band at various bars, clubs and restaurants in Buenos Aires.
Julio offers classes in person if you’re in Buenos Aires, but also via the Internet through messenger services like Skype and MSN Messenger.
I definitely recommend Julio as a Spanish instructor because he doesn’t just help you understand things, he makes learning a very fun and enjoyable process. And that’s basically the key to learning a language - you have to enjoy doing it otherwise you’ll grow tired and won’t put in the time to study it.
If you’re interested in taking private classes with Julio, you can contact him via email:
juliosivautt@yahoo.com.ar
May 21st, 2007 at 9:50 pm
Thanks for letting us know about Julio, I like the idea of learning Spanish over skype.
August 24th, 2007 at 5:40 pm
I think Julio needs a website and can set up business giving online classes. Sounds like a lot of fun.
September 3rd, 2007 at 9:18 pm
Language courses using skype are great because the phone costs are free but do you think that it is harder to get pronunciation right over the phone ? I find I look at peoples lips to get clues as to how to pronounce a word and this is lost over the phone. Still a good concept though for one on one tutorials.
September 7th, 2007 at 9:51 pm
Learning a language can be a different experience for each person. Some learn better one way, and others another way. Personally, as a language-learner myself, I find it’s more effective to have classes face-to-face, because, yes, it is very helpful to look at the teacher’s lips and also because phone lines, be it a landline, cell phone or VoIP and messenger programs like Skype, Yahoo, MSN and Gtalk, are not always crystal clear and when you’re a beginner or even intermediate language student, you’re not so familiar or comfortable with listening comprehension to be able to distinguish and recognize everything said. In my opinion, taking private classes via a program like Skype is best for advanced students who are very comfortable with their listening comprehension, and are simply looking to converse with native speakers. If you’re an advanced student, yet do not know any native Spanish speakers, let’s say, then it would definitely be a lot cheaper for you to pay a native speaker in a Spanish-speaking country for conversation practice/private lessons.