Experienced native Spanish teacher from Mexico City providing personalized and effective language learning sessions.

Find out more about Luis

• 1) Do you speak this language fluently because of your origins or because a teacher inspired you to learn?

  Spanish is my native language, so my fluency comes first from my origins. I was born and raised in Mexico City, surrounded by a language incredibly rich in metaphors, slang, metonymy, humor, irony, affection, intensity, and double meanings. Spanish has words and expressions that are difficult to reproduce exactly in other languages. Later, literature, science, teaching, and my own curiosity made me rediscover Spanish as something far more complex than simply the language I happened to grow up speaking.

• 2) Can you name a living, historical or fictional character that you think is the emblematic representative of the language's culture?

  I would choose Efraín Huerta. His poetry has accompanied important moments in my life, especially Cuarto canto del abandono and Junio, N.Y. What fascinates me is the way language can touch another person without any physical contact. Spanish, in particular, has an extraordinary emotional intensity and a unique ability to communicate things that are sometimes difficult to explain directly.

• 3) Is there a typical word, phrase, tradition or behaviour in the language that you particularly like?

  There are many, but one example is “chale.” It can express resignation, frustration, disappointment, or simply the feeling that something did not go well. You can also say it when a friend tells you about something painful. In that context, it can express empathy: you are listening, you understand that something hurts, but you are not judging or immediately trying to solve the problem.
  
  I like how such a short and informal word can communicate so much emotion and social meaning. That flexibility is something I find very special about Mexican Spanish.

• 4) Why does speaking this language matter to you?

  Spanish matters to me because it connects many different parts of my life. It is the language of my family and childhood, but also of literature, teaching, debate, humor, friendship, and emotional expression.
  
  I work in science, where English is dominant, so living between both languages has also made me more aware of how language influences the way we organize, communicate, and sometimes even develop ideas. Speaking Spanish also gives you access to an enormous cultural world extending from Mexico and the Caribbean to Central and South America and Spain.

• 5) What is the main difficulty in learning this language and what can help the process of learning?

  The biggest difficulty is probably that real Spanish is much more flexible than textbook Spanish. Verb conjugations, grammatical gender, and sentence structure can be challenging at first, especially for students whose first language is English.
  
  But I think the harder step comes later: learning to lose some control over the language. As you become more immersed in it, words and structures begin to connect more naturally. Sometimes thinking too much before every sentence can actually make speaking more difficult.
  
  Grammar is important, but language is also about practice, intuition, mistakes, interaction, and having fun. It should not feel like a permanent test or performance.

• 6) Provide a valuable anecdote related to your language learning or your days at school.

  One important lesson I learned through school and later through teaching is that knowing the correct answer does not necessarily mean you can explain it.
  
  When something is your native language, many rules feel automatic. Teaching Spanish forced me to stop and ask myself: Why do we actually say it this way?
  
  Sometimes a student asks a very simple question and suddenly makes you examine something you have been saying unconsciously your entire life. That experience changed the way I think about both language and teaching.

• 7) How has travel or a specific trip helped you to increase your skill and knowledge of the language?

  Travel has made me appreciate how diverse Spanish really is. Even within the Spanish-speaking world, vocabulary, pronunciation, rhythm, humor, slang, and expressions can change dramatically from one place to another.
  
  It shows you that there is no single, perfectly uniform Spanish. For me, this is one of the most interesting aspects of the language: learning Spanish does not give you access to only one culture. It opens the door to many societies that share a language while constantly transforming and reinventing it.

• 8) What makes you a Superprof in language?

  What makes me different is that I do not see language learning as simply memorizing vocabulary lists or completing grammar exercises. I am a PhD scientist in training, a teacher, and someone deeply interested in philosophy, machine learning, biology, literature, and ideas.
  
  My approach combines structure, curiosity, evidence-based learning strategies, and enjoyable conversations about subjects that genuinely matter to people: life, love, art, science, philosophy, technology, culture, hermeneutics, and meaning.
  
  I like understanding how each student learns, identifying exactly where they are struggling, and explaining difficult concepts in a clear way without removing their complexity.
  
  My goal is not simply to help someone produce grammatically correct sentences. I want students to reach the point where they can think, joke, argue, work, travel, discuss complex ideas, and express their personality in Spanish. That is when a foreign language stops feeling like an academic subject and starts becoming part of your life.