Overview
Duration
12 weeks
Tuition
Under $14/hour
Level
Beginner
Prerequisites
None
Class Time
2.5 hours/week
Group Size
4-10 Students
Location
ILC Carmel
Details
Dates:
01/14/27-04/01/27
(End date may change due to class needs)
Time:
6:30pm-9:00pm
Cost:
$430.00
(Includes $30 one-time enrollment fee. Does not include text books and optional tuition insurance)
What You’ll Learn
Everyday Introductions: Confidently greet others, share personal information, and ask basic questions.
Describing People & Life: Talk about appearance, personality, and daily routines using the simple present.
Time & Schedules: Tell time, discuss weekly plans, and ask about others’ schedules.
Home & Living Spaces: Describe rooms, furniture, and locations using “there is/there are” and prepositions.
Getting Around Town: Ask for and give directions, name common city places, and make simple suggestions.
Shopping & Dining Out: Ask about prices, make polite requests, order food, and express preferences.
Health & Well-Being: Describe common symptoms and understand simple advice in everyday situations.
Past Events & Social Plans: Talk about past activities, invite others, and participate in short real-life conversations with growing fluency.
Weekly Itinerary
Each week includes speaking practice, games, cultural context, and real-world role-plays. You’ll use everything you learn — right away.
Week 1: Introductions & personal info — greetings, names, countries, nationalities, exchanging basics.
Week 2: Describing people — physical appearance, personality words, simple present “be” statements.
Week 3: Daily routines — simple present, adverbs of frequency, asking/answering “Do you…?”
Week 4: Telling time & schedules — clock time, days, weekly routines, conversational questions.
Week 5: At home — rooms, furniture, describing living spaces, “there is/there are,” prepositions.
Week 6: Around town — directions, places in the city, giving suggestions for getting around.
Week 7: Shopping & prices — numbers, money, polite requests, “How much is…?”
Week 8: Food & restaurants — menus, ordering, polite expressions, likes/dislikes with “I’d like/ I prefer.”
Week 9: Health & feelings — describing symptoms, simple advice, common doctor’s-office language.
Week 10: Past weekend — simple past of “be” + regular verbs for conversational storytelling.
Week 11: Social plans — inviting people, accepting/declining invitations, making simple arrangements.
Week 12: Review & conversation circles — integrated speaking tasks, role-plays, and final dialogue.
Meet Your Instructor
Jim
Languages: English, Spanish, Portuguese
Jim was born and raised in the suburbs of Chicago but had the good fortune to live in Costa Rica in his late teens.
Costa Rica was an eye-opening experience for Jim, not only for bringing him up to native levels of fluency in the language, but also giving him a deep understanding of Latin culture and a fresh perspective of what it means to be outside his homeland, looking in. This experience drove Jim to pursue his undergraduate degree in Spanish Translation and International Business at Northern Illinois University. While at NIU, Jim lived in the Foreign Language Residency Program and was even slated to be a “native speaker.”
Throughout his time at NIU, Jim tutored in both Spanish and Portuguese for both Foreign Languages and Literature and the Athletics Department. Upon graduation, Jim joined the world of Life Sciences / Pharma and worked in several roles requiring deep engagement with Latin America. Travel to Puerto Rico, Mexico, Venezuela, Argentina and his “second home,” Costa Rica were common.
Jim lives with his wife, who is from Guadalajara, Mexico, and his bilingual daughter, who is now a student at Indiana University’s Kelly School of Business. Most importantly, Jim looks forward to sharing his passion for language with his students. Having been a tutor, a TA and having been immersed in warm cultures that encourage language learning, Jim knows what it’s like to start with an empty cup and fill it over days, months and years.