San Francisco Language Services

I have been studying Spanish with Fernanda for almost ten years now in both group and private lessons. She is an amazing teacher and incorporates film, literature and art into classes. She’s also great at tailoring lessons to your needs or interests (i.e. special vocabulary for a trip or work). Not only has my Spanish improved immensely, I also truly enjoy our classes. She is kind and patient and we always laugh a lot. I can’t recommend her enough.

I have been learning Spanish with Fernanda for about 4 years. She is a great tutor who will give you different materials to explore while learning Spanish. I think the best part too is how she supports me whenever I make mistakes — she is always graceful at it. From past experience, some tutors can be too hard on their students and in effect, I lose interest in learning. Learning a new language, to me, is insatiable and thanks to Fernanda, she always makes it interesting =) Thank you for scaffolding the lessons for me and making me understand it with better confidence. See you soon!

We have been thrilled with Fernanda! She is teaching my 12-​year-​old daughter and a friend Spanish once a week. The girls love her style of teaching and the classes themselves. Fernanda has made them feel comfortable while helping them enjoy the process of improving their Spanish.

Fernanda is a wonderful Spanish teacher!
I have been taking both private and group Spanish classes with Fernanda for over a year now, and my Spanish has and continues to progress immensely. She knows exactly how to progress the classes so that they remain challenging, interactive, and extremely fun. Every class is different, and she always has literature, activities, homework, etc. prepared, which keeps each class interesting.
I would absolutely recommend Fernanda’s classes to anyone looking to learn Spanish! She’s great!

Fernanda Monmany is a terrific tutor, and I could not recommend her more highly. I have been working with Fernanda for about a year, and I have learned so much. In each class, Fernanda manages to cover an array of topics, including grammar, vocabulary, verb conjugations, and conversation. She is very good at tailoring her classes to the interests and needs of her students, both in terms of meeting her students at their skill level and in her ability to select topics and create assignments. One of my favorite things about studying with Fernanda is that her own interests in art, literature and film shine through, as she exposes her students to new filmmakers and writers and artists from Latin America and Spain. (Now there are new Latin American poets, films and writers I’d never known before that I love!)
Her style is friendly and easy. I took group classes with her, and she matched us well by level. Going to class feels like going to coffee with friends. She is very focused on conversation, and deftly engages all her students in the conversation, regardless of their level. Homework was interesting, creative and relevant to whatever we were learning. She also has a strong understanding of the fundamentals of the Spanish language. She’s very thorough about correcting her students, but always in a way that encourages us to understand the grammatical rules, correct ourselves, and help each other find the right words.
Finally, Fernanda is extremely professional, pleasant, organized and flexible, always striving to work around the busy schedules of her students. Above all, Fernanda is a lovely person who is clearly passionate about her work and wants to ignite in her students a love of the Spanish language, arts and culture.
In sum, Fernanda is a fantastic teacher and the combination of her skills, passion and creativity – combined with her genuine interest in seeing her students learn – make her a joy to work with.

I had zero Spanish experience when I first started. I took lessons with Fernanda for a month before my trip to Peru. I really enjoyed Fernanda’s approach of teaching. My trip was so much more enjoyable because of Fernanda!!!

This is a long overdue review for an excellent teacher.
I could only take lessons once per week due to my schedule but Fernanda made sure that I still progressed each time I saw her. The homework outside of class was enjoyable to do. For example, Fernanda noticed I loved music and recommended a list of groups and musicians to listen to and we would learn Spanish by going over the lyrics together.
She adjusts the subjects covered in class to what you want to learn and your interests which I really appreciated. I always looked forward to our lessons and always felt so welcomed.

Fernanda was exactly what I needed as a tutor, both personable and professional. I needed to test out of Spanish to complete a graduate degree requirement. I had taken Spanish many years ago but only remembered bits and pieces. She customized her approach to meet my timeline, needs, and starting skill level. I highly recommend her services.

Fernanda is the best language teacher I’ve ever worked with, and I’ve studied with quite a few. She has a deep understanding and feeling for Spanish that goes far beyond grammar and vocabulary. She is patient, resourceful, and most importantly, extremely interactive with her students. Her humor, playfulness, and gracious manner make studying with her a real joy.

I have been learning from Fernanda for three months now and my Spanish has improved immensely. She is incredibly patient which is good because I can be a frustrating student. I recommend Fernanda without hesitation.

After spending a month in Buenos Aires, I was determined to learn Spanish. By chance I found Fernanda, who happened to be Argentinian and exuded a passion for teaching Spanish and her culture as much as I had the appetite to learn. In a short time, she was able to teach me vocabulary, grammar and I even started to write short essays. I left the country for many years, but now I’m back and have the intent to re-​engage with Fernanda to learn Spanish again. Fernanda has a special gift for teaching Spanish while motivating with culture, stories, poetry, and travel.

My 8-​year old daughter LOVES going to Fernanda for Spanish language tutoring. When we moved to San Francisco, my daughter made it into a 2^nd grade Spanish immersion class but she was way behind the other kids, particularly in her ability to speak. She actually couldn’t really speak at all. I saw Fernanda’s flyer in our neighborhood and when I met her to talk about helping my daughter catch up, I knew she would be perfect. Fernanda is a wonderfully engaging and fun person and she brings all of that passion for life to her teaching. My daughter comes home having read and written poetry and talked of waterfalls and rainbows and big ideas in Spanish. They also buckle down and do the days homework together. Fernanda pushes her but without the kind of pressure that would make my daughter beg not to go. They have a truly great time together and — the result — my daughter has immensely improved. She speaks and loves the Spanish language and we are so happy to have had Fernanda’s coaching.

My husband and I signed up for a series of Spanish classes with Fernanda about 8 weeks prior to leaving for a three-​month stay in Costa Rica. My husband had some prior knowledge of Spanish, but I was starting from scratch, which was quite daunting. Fernanda is an enthusiastic and patient teacher who walked us through the basics and had us apply what we learned through conversation. By the time we left for our trip, I had some of the basics down and a great foundation on which I could build. I looked forward to our classes because she made them fun, interesting and relevant — for example, she taught me how to explain my work and my thesis, which came up often in conversation on my trip. If you would like to learn or improve your knowledge of Spanish for work, a trip, or just for fun, I highly recommend that you give Fernanda a call today!

Fernanda is a great teacher, I’ve been struggling with Spanish since high school and her instruction has helped me so much. I needed to improve my Spanish for work and Fernanda has made a huge impact on my ability to communicate with my Spanish speaking patients. I have a crazy schedule and Fernanda is always gracious and flexible, I’ve been able to take one-​on-​one classes as well as classes with 2 to 3 other students. She does a great job of pairing you up with classmates at similar levels of proficiency and having another person to converse with (even if we’re both struggling) ands to the learning process.

I have been studying Spanish with Fernanda for only a few months, and in those few months my Spanish speaking skills have increased dramatically. I really did not expect to learn so much so quickly, by only meeting once a week — and to this I credit my amazing teacher. Fernanda has an incredible ability to make learning a language seem so easy and attainable. She is professional with a warm personality, which creates a relaxed environment for some intense learning. If you are thinking of taking a language class, but intimidated by the idea of a conversational environment, take a class from Fernanda — you won’t regret it… just don’t try to take my time slot.

I have been a student of Fernanda’s for many years and would recommend her services highly. She creates classes that are creatively attuned to the needs of the student’s time, talents, interests and budget. She is highly professional and experienced in the art of teaching adults a new language. If you want to learn spanish for any reason, you will succeed and have fun at the same time with Fernanda.

I have studied Spanish with Fernanda for ³¹⁄₂ years. She is always interesting and our Spanish only conversations cover movies, what we did last weekend, travels, world events and family. She uses numerous approaches to practice grammar, vocabulary while allowing time for review as well as challenging you to move on to a higher level. I have participated in group classes as well as one-​on-​one tutoring with her and she is very flexible in adapting her lessons to whatever topic or dialogue will help you to understand and speak with comfort. I have never felt like a fool or been embarrassed when I don’t get something; we have had many laughs about what I didn’t understand or said incorrectly. You can meet in public, such as a café, or in her home – whatever suits. I have learned to speak and read Spanish as well as gained much understanding about the multi-​faceted Spanish speaking world. I highly recommend Fernanda as a wonderful teacher of Spanish.