The main reason I wanted to “settle” in Medellin for a while was to study Spanish in a place where I would then also have to use it and practice. After a week in Colombia, and numerous humiliations, there is no doubt that I need lessons. Having seemingly forgotten most of what I learned last year, I may well need to stay here much longer than a month if I want to make any progress. Spanish seems to be fighting me, and I’m not putting up much opposition.
About the only element of this trip in which I had done research of any degree of thoroughness was trying to line up a good Spanish teacher in Medellin. Pretty much everything else would take care of itself, I thought, and so far, everything else has. Finding a good Spanish teacher hasn’t, so much.
Medellin has many language schools, many of them in shiny buildings with hip, attractive, mostly young, people in the offices. And they advertise cool and fun events like salsa dancing, but I don’t think these are for me. I don’t want a class with multiple students following a set curriculum, and I think my chances of learning the language are actually better if I don’t combine it with salsa dancing. I’m looking for a teacher works with me, who clarifying and explaining without being pedantic, coaching and correcting while keeping the conversation flowing. Not easy to do and not easy to find.
I thought I had a lucky strike when I found Jorge Perez online. He’s a local teacher of German and Spanish connected to one of the Medellin universities. He had excellent recommendations from other travellers. I contacted him early January, he was available, and he suggested we start with some lessons by Skype.
I enjoyed the four Skype lessons we had, and I liked with his teaching approach and ability. Then, a week before my departure, he told me he would have to change our arrangement, he was going travelling with his mother who hadn’t been back to Colombia in years. I didn’t like it, but how could I object to a man taking his mother on a trip? He offered to continue the Skype lessons during his travels, but that arrangement didn’t suit me either, so I asked him to recommend someone else, which he did.
Next up was Bibiana, and that went poorly from the start. She took a long time to reply, was vague in her messages, and seemed to have limited time available. Eventually, we scheduled our first class for Friday morning at 8, and then she wanted to meet at a grocery store, which seemed odd. Thursday night she sent me an email to cancel, because her school had called a meeting for our appointed hour on Friday AM. I guess she works as a teacher and was trying to fit this in, but I don’t know. Rather than reschedule to another day, I told her I’d pursue other options.
Third on the batting order was Tony, whom I had already met at my hostel where he was coming to meet with a student. That seemed much more convenient than a supermarket, and he was very personable. So when I gave up on Bibiana, I asked my hostel hostess, Sylvia, to contact him for me. He sent an immediate reply saying he would be there in the morning. It looked like I would have a Friday lesson after all.
Friday morning Sylvia informed that Tony would not be coming, he had just sent her a message from the emergency ward of the hospital, where he was receiving treatment for a heart attack. The message was accompanied by a photo of him with an IV tube in his arm.
Friday, I checked out some language schools in the area and did some more searches online and Friday night I contacted teacher #4, David Estrada Vazquez, who has ads online, no recommendations, but replied quickly to my what’s app message, and who had time available in the afternoons this week.
Nothing bad happened to him over the weekend and today, Monday, I had my first class. We meet in the food court of a shopping mall, (not ideal but better than the entrance of a supermarket).
This is where he meets his students and has been working there for four years, he says. I’m not sure yet how he compares to Jorge Perez, but he’s alive and well, he shows up and he speaks Spanish, all bonuses in my book, by now. And he does try to accommodate my requests and interests. I sure hope nothing happens to him.