Live The Language

I’ve been taking «Live the Language» Spanish with Deidre for the past 8 months. It’s been a great experience. There’s nothing like learning a language in a small group in someone’s home — NOT in a large, sterile classroom where you don’t get individual attention. Classes are difficult and there’s a lot of homework (sometimes TOO much:)), but it’s worth it. Two months after starting class I landed in a hospital in Peru (long story) where no one spoke English. I was able to converse and communicate thanks to what I learned at LTL, and am grateful I’m continuing to learn more!!!

I learned of Live the Language on the high recommendation of a friend. I have taken Spanish lessons for about 12 years from a variety of instructors, and Live the Language is the BEST. The first meeting with Deidre where she assesses your level is free, and for me, this was about an hour. This attention to detail & dedication is evident in all of Deidre’s teaching. Deidre’s preparation, materials, energy & teaching style are just wonderful. She makes learning Spanish fun. Her homework assignments are just enough to keep me learning, but not so much I get discouraged. She is fluent in both Spanish & English, and in addition to grammar, I have learned a lot about the culture of Spanish speaking countries. Deidre is patient & thorough. She makes an effort to pair up students according to interests and ability. I feel very lucky to have found Live the Language! I look forward to every lesson.

Woohoo! As good as it gets! as Unilocal would say. My wife and I just completed our first semester with Deidre, and as someone with a background in adult education and instructional design, I could not be more impressed or pleased with the course. Deidre structures the course around adult learning principles, focusing on our need to learn things logically as opposed to the way children learn language. That in and of itself is valuable, but on top of that, the material is well-​organized, the instructor (Deidre) is always well-​prepared, and it strikes a perfect balance of challenge (not too difficult, not too easy– WAY not too easy if you slack on your homework!). Possibly the best element of the course is its flexibility; I got the sense that Deidre accelerated or slowed down the learning curve based on her sense of how quickly or slowly we were absorbing the lessons. She’s a talented teacher and I would recommend this course (any of her courses) to anyone looking to expand their linguistic horizons.
PS she taught me at least one swear word, that was pretty cool

The absolute smartest move you can make for yourself and for your child is to enroll in the Live the Language Spanish immersion program. Bilingualism has many life-​long benefits and is proven to accelerate learning for children. Having known Deidre for more than twenty years, I can attest to the educational and personal benefits her Spanish immersion classes have yielded. Special discounts for businesses and groups. Si se puede!

An advert on KUT led me to Live the Language and to Deidre. My friends and I tried her introductory offer for a free class and we were very impressed. We continued as a Spanish class for over one year and we learned more than I ever could have imagined. Deidre is a natural teacher. Her enthusiasm is contagious and she immerses you in both the language and the culture. She is the best prepared teacher I have had, and I came to her after trying 3 other teachers who were not as prepared or as challenging. Deidre is both challenging and patient. My progress with Deidre as my teacher was way beyond my previous attempts to tackle Spanish. I will definitely take class with Deidre again. Live the Language is a family business that includes the extra added bonus of her husband Marshall’s cooking, and her mother’s cultural expertise. I give Live the Language 5 stars.

I’ve been learning Spanish for a little over a year now, and I have taken classes with 4 different teachers. Deidre’s classes have been the most fun because her class sizes are small, focused on conversational Spanish and also because she is a super interesting person who has a lot of interesting experiences to share.
She also organizes socializing events for her Spanish students — happy hours and movie nights, which are good opportunities to make some new friends to practice your Spanish skills on.
In my opinion, Live the Language is the best Spanish learning program in Austin.

Deidre is truly a gifted teacher. She loves her work and is endlessly patient, yet gently and effectively challenges her students to understand and conversationally use verb forms, sentence structure, a naturally expanding vocabulary, and highly useful idioms. I have been a student of Live The Language for most of 2012, and both my speaking and writing skills have increased enormously.
Deidre is also a warm and fascinating person, whose grandparents were friends of Frida Kahlo and Diego Riviera in Mexico City during the 1940s and 50s. Her bright and delightful husband Marshall is an author and chef, whose presence contributes to the lively and genial nature of the classes. From time to time, he creates and serves an astonishing gourmet meal to those of us laboring over the Spanish language.
Live The Language deserves and receives my highest recommendation,

I started looking for a Spanish class a couple months ago because I work with children who are native Spanish speakers. I found Deidre at Live the Language after a few weeks of research. I’m so glad I decided to go with her! She was kind enough to let me try out a class to see if I would like it and I was pretty much sold.
As a beginner, a lot of things are new to me and pretty challenging, some plain make no sense. However, Deidre is very patient and she takes the time to explain and answer any questions I have. I don’t feel like a complete moron when I make a mistake either! She is very encouraging.
The classes are pretty small so you get one-​on-​one time with her, which is really important to me.
She makes her lessons fun, and this is the part I freakin’ love — we get to practice what we’ve learned outside of class during Happy Hour! All her students (of various levels) gather at a restaurant and we speak Spanish the entire time; we order in Spanish too.
I really love going to class, and amazingly, as hard-​headed as I am, I’ve been able to use what I’ve learned so far and be understood by native speakers.

Deidre’s Spanish classes are the highlight of my week. Deidre offers a highly interactive and well prepared lesson plan, with the perfect balance of free conversation, vocabulary expansion, and grammar. Additionally, Deidre loves to share her beautiful and fascinating Mexican heritage with us. I truly enjoy expanding my knowledge of Latin American and Mexican culture through reading famous Latin American authors together, discussing current events, and learning about the diverse customs throughout the region. I can’t imagine a more fun and interesting way to improve my Spanish!

This Spanish school is one of the great treasures of Austin! Deidre’s advanced class has helped me gain fluency in conversation, improved my vocabulary, fixed my grammar, introduced me to new Spanish authors and newspapers, and deepened my knowledge of Latin American and Spanish culture. A typical class starts with Spanish conversation, which is usually very fun as friendships develop in such a small class of only 3 – 4 people. Deidre, very helpfully, stops conversation to correct our mistakes and review a rule, or explain a piece of vocabulary (I have never had a teacher who does this so effectively). After conversation, we review the week’s lesson, and practice using the rules contained therein. Then we discuss whatever literature or newspaper article we were assigned to read for homework. On top of that, Deidre incorporates fun (usually food-​related) activities throughout the course-​for example, a gourmet Mexican dinner. I was a language teacher myself for a few years, so I appreciate the fine pedagogy Deidre employs. But, the best part of the course is having contact with such a brilliant, knowledgeable (Deidre is a native Spanish speaker, and also fluent in at least four other languages), passionate, kind, and interesting teacher. I now look forward to Thursday nights just as much as the weekend because the lessons are so fun, interesting, and engaging. I can’t recommend this school enough (and I tried others before I found this one). It is truly a cut above the rest.

Thoroughly grounded and native fluent in both languages, including grammar; Diedre is dedicated to teaching. I feel my work in acquisition and comprehension is producing results. I always look forward to every class.

Deidre’s unique style of teaching makes her classes both fun and challenging. Her classes focus on core subjects rather than an overview, which gives you a better understanding in recognizing verb forms, sentence structure, and vocabulary. She encourages conversational Spanish and is patient in helping with correct pronunciation and sentence structure. Deidre will have you understanding and speaking Spanish in no time! I feel very lucky to have found the best Spanish teacher in Austin!