Hello! My name's Ivan. I'm a Spanish native speaker from Barcelona but I've been living in Edinburgh for the last 11 years. I've always loved languages and I've studied several over the years including Chinese,Turkish and Arabic, as well of course English and Italian, even though I've only managed to learn the last two! In my free time I enjoy more than anything to walk around the forest and take photographs with old cameras. Edinburgh is a great place to do that as there are quite a few green spaces and woodlands that make you feel you're away from the city.

I graduated in 2015 from Edinburgh University and I'm a recent CELTA qualified teacher of English as a Second Language. I have taught English to children and young adults at a summer school here in Edinburgh. Additionally, I've taught Spanish at a private level for 2 years while I was at university and I'm currently teaching Spanish with an organisation helping immigrants and people from minorities.

Having studied several languages over the years I have been exposed to different teaching techniques which have helped me develop my own style. I believe an effort has to be made to talk as much as possible from the beginning though I understand grammar is also important. Moreover, I'm aware of how each student is different so finding the best teaching technique for each student is important as not everybody learns the same way or at the same rhythm. I've learnt from experience that reading and writing is very important when memorising a new language so this is also an important aspect of my teaching approach.