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Spanish in downtown San Rafael is a language learning center founded in California in August 2013 by Felipe Garces. He taught foreign languages in Medellin, Colombia, both in Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana and in the local American-Colombian binational center for many years. Felipe also taught Spanish to adults in the San Francisco bay area for the past eight years. The language center offers group classes, one-on- one lessons and immersion courses.
 
There are no more than ten students per class. It is located right in downtown San Rafael on 1299 4th Street, Suite 209 B. There is plenty of parking in the five-story city garage next door. Students get a one-hour validation ticket in every class.

 
Spanish in downtown San Rafael is a Language Learning Center founded in California in August 2013. I am its only Spanish teacher. My name is Felipe Garces. I taught foreign languages in Medellin, Colombia both in Bolivariana University and in the local American-Colombian binational center for many years. I have also taught Spanish to adults in the Bay Area for the past four years. The language center offers group classes, one-on-one lessons and immersion courses. There are no more than eight students per class. It is located right in downtown San Rafael on 1299 4th Street, Suite 209 B. There is plenty of parking in the five-story city garage next door. Every student gets a one-hour validation ticket in every class. 
Classes are held on the second story of this building on 4th Street in downtown San Rafael, CA.
 
 
The testimonials tab has a good description of what it is like to study Spanish with me. My university education and experience have taught me that students must use the language since day one in a meaningful, communicative way. My main responsibility as a teacher is to create those opportunities to use Spanish in a natural manner. The first step in my teaching process is to teach grammar and vocabulary in order to use it as a foundation for the communication that will take place in class. The second step is to use a story that the students will read in class in order to see written Spanish used in an authentic way. Since I am a native speaker, I use only Spanish as it is used in Latin America and Spain. Whenever “Spanglish” is spotted, it is identified and the authentic, equivalent word or sentence in Spanish is taught. The third step is to use the Spanish that has been taught and learned in a conversation with students that will cover whatever the students have shared about their lives, families, jobs and their daily routines. This third step is congruent with Gestalt, the German psychology theory, which says that once learning is incorporated into our normal way of thinking, behaving and speaking it has truly taken place. Therefore any time there is a possibility in class to use Spanish in a meaning way regarding any topic that comes up, this opportunity is immediately taken advantage of and a conversation is carried out. Likewise, any vocabulary or grammar that we come across in class is purposefully taken one step further by using it in the context of the lives, families, jobs and daily routines of the students.
 
The teacher profile tab describes what I bring to the table as a Spanish teacher. I look forward to having the opportunity to help you learn Spanish in downtown San Rafael. 
 
Teacher profile tab
 
Felipe Garces first taught foreign languages at eighteen years of age when he returned to Colombia after spending a year as an exchange student in the United States. In his early 20’s, he combined teaching English at the local American-Colombian binational center in Medellin and doing promotional work for the Jack Russell Co, Inc. throughout the world. He also taught English as a Foreign Language in the School of Education at Bolivariana University in 1993 and 1994. Felipe received a degree with Honors from Bolivariana University in Modern Languages (Spanish-English) in 1993. He received an MBA and a Master of Science from the University of Miami in 1996. He moved to California in 2008 and started teaching Spanish to adults the following year. His effectiveness and success as a Spanish teacher encouraged him to open his own Spanish Language Learning Center in downtown San Rafael.
Felipe uses a variety of material to teach his classes. He currently uses in his classes Maravillas del Español, a series of books for students of Spanish developed by EAFIT University in Medellin, Colombia and University of Bergen in Norway, the Pobre Ana series of short stories that use the Total Physical Response Storyline approach to teaching foreign languages, the book Realidad o Fantasia, interesting material that he encounters on the Web as well as material he develops himself. 
Felipe’s method and style as a Spanish teacher can be inferred from the references about him that his students have written in the Testimonials tab. 
Spanish in downtown San Rafael is a Language Learning Center founded in California in August 2013. I am its only Spanish teacher. My name is Felipe Garces. I taught foreign languages in Medellin, Colombia both in Bolivariana University and in the local American-Colombian binational center for many years. I have also taught Spanish to adults in the Bay Area for the past four years. The language center offers group classes, one-on-one lessons and immersion courses. There are no more than eight students per class. It is located right in downtown San Rafael on 1299 4th Street, Suite 209 B. There is plenty of parking in the five-story city garage next door. Every student gets a one-hour validation ticket in every class. 
Classes are held on the second story of this building on 4th Street in downtown San Rafael, CA