Happy to follow up my somewhat vague/general post...clearly I was tired as I was too lazy to look up Adriana's phone number. She is recommended by many different baexpats over the past six or seven years at least, at least ever since I joined.
I'll start off and say that I first enrolled in one of those 20 hour per week classes downtown, where I had four other people in my class, mostly those who wanted to party late, show up late, not do any homework, and take lots of coffee breaks. It has always been my experience in studying language that classes are frustrating because no one is your same level and there is usually a time hog/teacher's pet who takes up a bunch of time. I found it to be a total waste of my time, and the price was very similar to Adriana's private lessons per hour. Not to mention, I got more out of working with Adriana three hours per week than I did in that 20 hour per week class.
I liked Adriana because she got right down to work with me every time. No time was wasted. The homework was relevant and useful. Our classes were entirely in Spanish, unless I was struggling with some grammatical rule and she wanted to explain to me how it differed or was similar to English. Let me say that I never studied Spanish formally before I moved to BA, so I was truly a beginner, but I didn't fee overwhelmed. I studied with her twice a week for an hour and a half in her apartment in Recoleta, which is well-located and very quiet. Adriana fully understands English grammar (better than I do), and speaks English fluently, which as I mentioned, really helped me when I got stuck. Other than that, we spoke entirely in Spanish, including grammar instruction and free-flow conversation. She corrected me as I spoke, but without throwing off my flow or undermining my confidence. Working with her intensively for over a year made all the difference in my level of fluency, and that is why I continue to jump in and recommend her anytime I'm on baexpats and see someone looking for a teacher.
