Even though we suggest to follow our teaching material developed in house and that we suggest to cover one chapter of it per level, you can always request your tutor, in private classes, to cover less or more content per hour, to dedicate time to cover prior material, and/or to just practice with what you have learned so far. Just keep in mind that if going slower, the number of hours purchased may not be sufficient to cover all of the suggested material for a level. If this were to be the case, you can always purchase more hours later on so that you can resume where you left off. :) On the other hand this flexibility will allow you to go faster or skip content when you both see fit.
Because your classes are conducted on a private basis, your level can be changed at any time. Just be aware that knowledge of grammar in isolation is not enough to decide what level you should work on, and that the most important criteria should be instead how well you use that knowledge as part of a normal conversation.
Before deciding on any changes, consider waiting until meeting with your tutor a few more times. Jumping up a level too soon only because your first class may have seemed to be too easy, because the homework was too easy, or because the topics to be covered in class had already been seen before, may be detrimental. In order to be placed one whole level up, all of the topics, vocabulary, tenses and structures of a level, not only need to be understood but also need to be used verbally in conversation.
Some good alternatives to switching right away may be to cover content faster or skipping some chapters that cover knowledge that you already master. You can also request your tutor to replace the homework suggested for each chapter for something adequately challenging for you such as writing essays or preparing for oral presentations in class.
You may also mix and match syllabi. You may discuss these options directly with your tutor, need be.
With private classes you are in control. These classes can be personalized to your specific interests whether they are:
- open conversations about current events or hispanic culture,
- grammar,
- vocabulary acquisition,
- essay writing,
- literature,
- industry needs, or even
- standardized Spanish test preparation.
Normally though, most of our Spanish students are mostly interested in improving their speaking abilities. We strongly believe that this objective is not achieved in a short time by paying too much attention to grammar. It is indeed grammar that makes most people lose confidence while speaking. The idea is that there is only a limited amount of time to be exposed to the language. Studying grammar would distract you from your ultimate objective.
Our Spanish classes are very practical and conducted almost entirely in Spanish using a speech that gently increases in complexity, speed and sophistication so that you can get the feeling that you are understanding almost everything that the tutor is saying. You will learn to speak in Spanish in a context that considers your unique needs, interests and prior knowledge simply because we know students will learn faster when they are paying attention to something they care about.

