When I´m running at 5:30 or 6:00 AM each day, (you didn’t think I was going to put a photo here, did you?, seriously?) I bring my iPod with me for energy and inspiration.  And these days I need it even more ’cause I’m swearing off  the caffeine.  Yup!  I´m doing it!  Half a cup [...]

“I have this great idea.” Luis groans but the right corner of his mouth quivers slightly upward which crinkles the corresponding eye and so though he’s wanting to communicate sternness … my ideas typically mean work for him … the quiver and the crinkle betray the fact that he loves my ideas despite the pain [...]

It was all around me … I mean ALL around me … the banners and flags, the body paint, the colors, the vuvuzela, the snare drum, the battle cries, the charged and excited chatter ….. but it wasn´t until I excused myself to the ladies room that the true beauty of it all was revealed. [...]

“So, where have you been?” you ask. “Well, trying to catch my balance,”  I respond.  ”While Luis and I continue to work on the Free Online Video Program I have had to add a job search to the ‘jarana’ (party)”. Yes, I’ve lost my job.  The clinic I was working for has experienced a meaningful [...]

In the Post Pregúntale a Joan/La historia de Andy – Ask Joan/Andy’s Story I responded to some questions that an online student of ours had written regarding a budding love affair upon which she was embarking.  She’s a Canadian and he is a Peruvian and they met through an online chat language exchange site thingy [...]

It has become so automatic that we don´t often realize that we have a running dialog going on in our heads at all times.  It´s so a part of us that it’s often happening at a pre-verbal level.  Yes, you heard me right!  A pre-verbal dialog!  Think about it for a moment.  Just a second [...]

I remember when it scared me to find myself in a group of Spanish speakers.  The people speaking looked nice enough, non-threatening enough, for the most part they were even shorter than me which gave me that unusual feeling of physical advantage …. should I need it … but I remember how unsettled I felt [...]

Luis and I are in the throws (visualize tandem seizures) of teaching the Subjunctive tense in our Free Video Classes right now … and man! … it’s been an interesting process. Not to belabor a point that those of you viewing our videos already have heard me say about a half a million times, but as English [...]

Scene: Joan and Naomi working together at Naomi’s house.  It is about 12:30 PM and they have been working intensely since 8 AM.  Neither have eaten breakfast and now it’s time for lunch.  They know this not by the clock, but by their fading energy level and by the gnawing in their stomachs.  They have [...]

Luis and I find inspiration for teaching Spanish in the most mundane of situations.  Take for instance another moment during our recent visit to TN.  This was our second visit to see my parents since they’d moved there about 3 years ago.  The first time we flew and my dad did all the driving once [...]