In this episode of Conquering Spanish, host Tania Roman sits down with Brent, a retired technology sales leader from Queens, New York, who began learning Spanish after retirement and now describes it as building a slightly different version of himself.

Brent explains what started it: travel that showed him how routinely people elsewhere speak two or three languages, and a desire to keep his mind active once the working years ended. He began with free community college classes for seniors, then went looking for real conversation. Transparent pricing is what made him try Spanish55, and he has been working with Coach Fran since December 2024, including an unexpected lunch together on a Caribbean island.

He speaks candidly about freezing in public, the deer-in-the-headlights moment when two words refuse to arrive, and how one-on-one lessons gave him the time and patience to work through it. His practical fix will be useful to anyone stuck at the same point: build a vocabulary wide enough that you can grab a close-enough word and keep the conversation going.

Brent also shares the habits around his lessons, from riding the 7 train through some of the most Spanish-speaking neighborhoods in New York to watching well-dubbed series with subtitles and taking a weekly no-English class. He is heading to Mallorca in September with his bike, and his reflection on what Spanish has given him is a reminder that retirement can be a beginning rather than a slowing down.

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In this episode of Conquering Spanish, host Tania Roman sits down with Jennifer, a traveler, photographer, and former travel editor who spent close to two decades visiting Mexico before deciding it was time to actually learn Spanish.

Jennifer studied French from childhood through a semester in Paris, and she describes how that history both supports and interferes with her Spanish today. She walks through her path from an app, to a tutor, to a work immersion program, and finally to Coach Ana at Spanish55, where she has been a student since 2020 and where a conversation-led approach has kept her going week after week.

She also shares the most unexpected part of her routine: using AI as a study partner. She works through tricky phrasing with ChatGPT, and she built her own Spanish vocabulary app that turns the notes from her lessons into flashcards. Alongside that, she talks about the podcasts and shows she uses to hear how people really speak, and why cultural context matters as much as vocabulary.

Jennifer is candid about the frustrations of learning part time with a full-time job, and about the moments when she has questioned where it is all leading. Her conclusion is one many adult learners will recognize, and it is a good reason to keep going even on the weeks when progress is hard to see.

Start your own Spanish journey with a free trial lesson

In this episode of Conquering Spanish, host Tania Roman sits down with Elaine, a psychologist who first began learning Spanish to connect with her stepson's wife and her family, and stayed with it because it became one of her favorite ways to keep growing.

Elaine shares what draws her to the language as more than vocabulary and grammar: the way Spanish reflects a different way of thinking and phrasing the world, and how that keeps her open-minded and curious. She talks about her years of volunteering with children in Guatemala and Costa Rica, her immersion experiences in Malaga and across Latin America, and the moments at markets and workshops where speaking Spanish let her connect with people in a deeper way.

She also explains how she weaves Spanish into daily life through multiple sources, from her lessons with Coach Giovanna to reading the New York Times in Spanish and listening to podcasts, and why real progress comes from a little input every single day.

If you have ever wanted a richer reason to learn Spanish beyond travel or work, this episode offers a thoughtful and encouraging perspective from someone who sees language learning as a lifelong path of growth.

Start your own Spanish journey with a free trial lesson