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Learning How to Drive in Spain (Part 1 – The Basics)
In the first installment of this series, Dani shares what she's learned thus far about the process of procuring a driver's license in Spain to help you select the right driving school (autoescuela) for you.
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Beyond Spain: Rich Encoding Techniques For Spanish Fluency
In this blog post, guest writer Jennifer of Bueno Spanish shares about rich encoding techniques, an approach to language learning that will help you acquire new vocabulary more easily and effectively. Use her tactical tips to improve your Spanish fluency wherever you live!
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What’s the Difference Between a Spanish Coach and a Spanish Teacher?
Dear Kim, We love that you’ve decided to learn Spanish (or further your study of Spanish) and integrate into life in Spain! We talk about language-learning a lot here on the blog and so you might already be familiar with some common options like apps, books, and tutors. However, did you know there’s another, less common but incredibly powerful way to learn Spanish? It’s working with a Spanish Coach, who offers a unique blend of teaching and life coaching. We’ll be honest, we weren’t super familiar with language coaching ourselves until recently, but when we connected with Jaime Valencia, the director of ABLA Academy, we were immediately intrigued! Coach Jaime…
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Navigating Expat Life: Building Community as New Parents
Building communities is relevant for people at all stages of their abroad journey, but we've found it to be especially important as we navigate our lives as new parents. Here are some of the ways we're finding a sense of community as expats in Spain and Finland.
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Traveling with a little one under 6 months
Dear Jim, Before our little one hits the six month mark we will have traveled together by car, train, tram, and plane (plus a short ferry ride). For me, living far away from my family, having this flexibility to move around has meant a lot because it means we can connect more easily with loved ones. Even within Finland, being willing to test out traveling options has been really beneficial for our ability to have tiny adventures around people and events that are important to us. Traveling with such a small person can feel daunting, especially if the day-to-day tasks are already feeling like a lot. At the same time,…
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How I maintain my Spanish without living in a Spanish speaking country
Dear Emily, Learning a language is hard but maintaining that language, especially when living in a country that doesn’t speak the language, may be even harder. I have lived outside of Spain for over five years, however, I am using Spanish more than ever now that I have a little one in my life, trying to ensure that their language learning journey starts sooner than my own. I have to admit that even though it is something that I have wanted to do, talking to a child in my non-native language means I have to work hard to keep it as up-to-date as I can (with the investment I am…
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Embracing Your Empowered Expat Woman
Guest writer Camilla Quintana walks you through the steps she uses with her clients to help them feel more empowered and in control of their path and story. With her thoughtful insights, you too can embrace your empowered expat woman.
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12 Mistakes to Avoid When Learning a Language through TV & Movies
Watching TV and movies can be an exciting and effective way to learn Spanish, making language learning more accessible than ever. However, many language learners often stumble upon common mistakes that hinder their progress. In today's guest post, Milena walks you through 12 of the main errors and how you can avoid them.
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Visiting Madrid with a baby: Travel tips from Spanish father and founder of AI Travel Planner
Dear Tony, Today on the blog we welcome Andrés Martinez to share his tips for visiting Madrid. Andrés is the Founder and CEO of Speakspots, a Spain and European-focused AI Travel Planner. He has traveled to 100+ cities in Europe (50+ of them in Spain) and has 8+ years of experience in Product and Tech across Mastercard, Deloitte, and the startup space (Speakspots, Aiia). From solo, to couple, to baby-friendly trips, he has tried it all in terms of travel formats. After having experienced dozens of issues while traveling (due to bad planning or lack of time), he is now driven to create the ultimate AI travel planning tool to…
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How To Survive Your First Year Living Abroad
Moving abroad is a journey filled with excitement and challenges. Guest writer John Harvey knows that the thrill of a beginning often goes hand-in-hand with the overwhelming task of settling into a new environment. Check out his eight tips for not only surviving, but thriving, during your first year abroad.
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Relocating to Madrid: A Specialist’s Insights into Apartment-Hunting
Today we welcome to the blog guest writer, Eliana. She is a reputable relocation specialist with tons of experience helping auxiliares find housing in Madrid. In this post, she walks you through what you should know about the apartment-hunting process, a few districts of the city you should consider, why you might want to work with a relocation specialist, and more.
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How to: Host Long-term Visitors
Hosting friends or family that come to visit for an extended amount of time can be trickier than short-term visitors. In this post, we share our top tips for setting clear expectations and boundaries to allow for both guest(s) and host(s) to enjoy the time together while balancing their other responsibilities and everyday lives.
