Matt - Spanish tutor - London

One of our best tutors. Quality profile, experience in their field, verified qualifications and a great response time. Matt will be happy to arrange your first Spanish lesson.

Matt

One of our best tutors. Quality profile, experience in their field, verified qualifications and a great response time. Matt will be happy to arrange your first Spanish lesson.

  • Hourly rate £70
  • Response Time 1h
  • Number of students 21
Matt - Spanish tutor - London
  • 5 (19 reviews)

£70/hr

Contact
  • Spanish
  • Spanish speaking
  • Spanish reading
  • Spanish writing
  • DELE

Very experienced Cambridge graduate available for Spanish and German students (school and university!)

Lesson location

    • At Matt's house: London

    • Online
    • at your home or in a public place : will travel up to 10 km from London

Ambassador

One of our best tutors. Quality profile, experience in their field, verified qualifications and a great response time. Matt will be happy to arrange your first Spanish lesson.

About Matt

I have been tutoring privately since graduating from Cambridge in 2012, with over 700 hours of experience. I have also taught in schools in Costa Rica, and Argentina, as well as a sports coach, and a drama coach. 100% of my A-Level students (accurate as of August 2017) have got into their first-choice of University. My GCSE students have a 100% pass rate A*-C, always showing an improvement of at least a grade and a half from the time I take them on to the exams.

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About the lesson

  • GCSE
  • AS Level
  • A Level
  • +3
  • levels :

    GCSE

    AS Level

    A Level

    Undergraduate

    Intermediate

    Advanced

  • English

All languages in which the lesson is available :

English

Hi, my name's Matt. I've been working as a private tutor for over ten years now, from GCSE to University-level, including Oxbridge interviews. I tailor my teaching style according to the interests and needs of each student, and I believe rapport is the key to being a successful tutor.

I specialise in Spanish and German, having studied both at a high-level at the University of Cambridge. I have had several GCSE educational guides (Spanish and German) published, and recently designed the Spanish GCSE course for a study app and website. I now work in show-business as an actor, writer, and director.

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Rates

Hourly rate

  • £70

Pack prices

  • 5h: £350
  • 10h: £700

online

  • £70/h

Details

Since the pandemic I can offer tuition online or at home

Find out more about Matt

Find out more about Matt

  • Do you speak this language fluently because of your origins or because a teacher inspired you to learn?

    Actually - like most good adventures - I fell in love with learning modern languages by accident. As Rita Mae Brown said: "Language is the road map of a culture. It tells you where its people come from and where they are going." From a young age, I discovered my passion and aptitude for discovering more about different cultures and people, including ancient civilisations, and the languages they spoke. I studied French and Latin as a schoolboy and then took on German and Spanish at my secondary school, relishing the challenge of learning words and worlds.

    I was lucky enough to have very supportive teachers throughout school - and later, at university - to help guide me in these languages, including pointing me towards films, books, and plays they thought I would love. Ten years ago, I graduated with a degree with honours in Modern and Medieval Languages (specialising in Spanish and German) from the University of Cambridge, and have been helping others in their language-learning journeys ever since.
  • Can you name a living, historical or fictional character that you think is the emblematic representative of the language's culture?

    It's hard to pick just one person to sum up a whole culture through the ages, because of how wide-ranging and changeable it can be. For example, the Spanish-speaking world encompasses most of Latin America, which has its own unique history, traditions, and culture. However, the writer Gabriel García Márquez would be a very good place to start for newcomers as his work is entertaining, accessible, as well as informative and critical of Colombian and foreign politics. His novel One Hundred Years of Solitude (Cien años de soledad) is a multi-generational story that in essence acts as a microcosmic view of the evolution of Latin American nations, and his style is also emblematic of the narrative style and techniques that were being employed by other Latin American novelists at the time (the Boom era of the 60s and 70s), including magical realism. In fact, many people would argue that he popularised this style.
  • Is there a typical word, phrase, tradition or behaviour in the language that you particularly like?

    In Costa Rica, where I travelled to live and work for a few months before University, there is a very popular saying: "Pura vida". It's almost like an unofficial motto. Literally, it means "pure life", but it is so much more than a saying; it's a lifestyle. It embodies the Costa Rican culture of slowing down to appreciate everything in life, and not taking anything for granted. It's used as a greeting, to say goodbye, or just as a way of showing appreciation, almost like saying "life is going great!"
  • Why does speaking this language matter to you?

    As I say, the study of language is the study of culture - it enables me to broaden my mind when it comes to appreciating other people and countries, including their literature, films, and music. I've acted in plays and films in Spanish; watched Narcos and Money Heist in the original language; had opportunities to live and work and make lifelong friends from all over the world; learned to dance salsa, Argentine tango, bachata, cuarteto… Learning a new language literally opens up more worlds to you and Spanish is the second most spoken native language in the world after Mandarin - more native speakers than English! Likewise, German is the most common language throughout Europe, if you wish to visit other countries on the continent!
  • What is the main difficulty in learning this language and what can help the process of learning?

    When I'm asked to compare my two specialist languages, I maintain that German appears more difficult to learn for English-speaking beginners, because it seems like there are a lot of grammatical rules that are different to what they're used to. However, once you get to know the rules, you can master the language. There's something quite beautiful and satisfying about the way it all comes together - almost mathematical. By contrast, most beginners find Spanish the most accessible language at first, but then, when they get to an advanced level, they find that there are a lot more exceptions to the rules than they knew about, and a lot more nuances and subtleties, before they can feel they have mastered the language. In any case, my advice is always to immerse yourself in the language and practise, practise, practise! Whether this means speaking to native-speaking friends, listening to music, podcasts, or films etc. in that language or, even better, visiting the country and practising with locals, every little helps!
  • Provide a valuable anecdote related to your language learning or your days at school.

    At GCSE, we learned everything from the book and adhered to the rules. My grammar was perfect and I knew the vocabulary and topics for the exam inside out. I got an A* in the exam (actually, I got 100% but let's not boast), so I was thinking: "I'm pretty good at this." Then my school employed a new teacher to help us with our A-Level conversation - Argentina! Not only was her accent different, but she had different idioms and turns of phrases that took us a while to get used to. That experience showed me several things: 1) there's always more to learn 2) there's always someone who knows more than you, and 3) don't cling religiously to textbooks and rules-language is constantly evolving and you need to learn to be flexible and roll with the changes.
  • How has travel or a specific trip helped you to increase your skill and knowledge of the language?

    Similarly, I specifically chose countries with accents that I found challenging. Before Uni, I also went to Mexico, which was a real eye-opener, not least because of the amount of slang that is used on an everyday basis, which demonstrated to me how creative the language can be. In my Year Abroad as a University student, I lived and worked in Argentina. Spending more time in that country really allowed me to relax and settle into a rhythm where I could meet and get to know new people. The locals were always willing to help, and it didn't matter if you were grammatically perfect or not. Over time you learn to just enjoy speaking and living it and, in this way, you improve rapidly and naturally anyway.
  • What makes you a Superprof in language?

    I graduated with a BA (Hons) - now an MA (Hons) - from Cambridge and tutoring has been my main way of earning a living since then. I am very aware of the demands of the exam boards, schools, and the different challenges that students face nowadays. I am also the published author of educational books for both GCSE Spanish and German and I worked as the course designer for a study app to help students towards their exams. I specialise in boosting students' grades and exam technique, but I have also taught people - including adult learners - who just want to learn the language for fun, so I am able to vary my lessons and make them engaging and different.
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