March 2025 - John Collins

With great enthusiasm and a friendly demeanor, John approaches learning Spanish with remarkable patience. He exudes warmth, genuinely enjoying the social interaction that occurs in group classes, and sets a great example of having a sense of humor with ourselves as we’re in this lengthy, sometimes bumpy, learning process. A proud father of a kindergartner in a local Spanish immersion school, keeping up with his little guy is a big motivator for him these days. Hailing from Ireland, he has a keen interest in deepening his cultural knowledge of the Spanish speaking world and often discovers parallels and differences between languages and cultures. We’re delighted to count John among our amazing community of students and look forward to continuing to see him reach toward fluency.

Name: John Collins
Occupation: Healthcare Analytics Manager
Time Studying at Tierra: ~ 1.25 years

1) Why are you studying Spanish?

"As well as being great for your brain and nice to have when you travel, our nearest public school is a Spanish Immersion school (90% Spanish in Kindergarten). My son just started and I want to be able to speak Spanish with him at home. Growing up in Ireland I learned Irish at school for 12 years and still can't speak it because we never practiced at home. He is progressing really fast and I want to keep up".

2) What is your favorite part about your experience here at Tierra?

"I have had three different teachers and they've all been great. Each has been a little different but one thing they've all done in common is to make the learning fun and encourage us to speak a lot. I have also loved in-person learning and the small but mighty classes. The camaraderie of the students has been excellent".

3) Can you tell us of a time you have been able to use what you have learned studying here?

"Each day I try to speak Spanish with my kiddo. The very first week he came home from school and when I asked him "Te gusta tu maestra?", he said, "Sí, but papá, it's not my-stra, it's mah-ehs-tra." So we speak Spanish and I stay humble".

¡Felicidades John!