Spanish Department Staff & Teachers at our Language School in Boquete, Panama

Erica Tapia Tapia

34 years old
Married
College degree in Liberal Arts with specialization in Spanish
University degree as a Spanish teacer
Our Spanish Department's current Academic Coordinator
Our most experienced teacher
Chilled out and easy going (she is also our Latin Dance instructor)
An extremely smart and patient teacher

Erica can handle students of any level and teaches all our courses except Spanish 4 kids. A natural leader she also keeps track of our student's advance throughout our level system and supervises the creation and classification of new teaching and working material for all of our Spanish courses.

Janeth Martínez

30 years old
Single
College degree in Spanish
University degree as a high school teacer
Highly dynamic and interactive teacher

Janeth is our most dynamic, fun and interactive teacher. She will always keep your brain moving in class. She can teach students of all ages and levels as she is one of our teachers with the highest academic level. A very special person that is also a nature lover and enjoys excursions with our students during the weekends.

Bladimir Víquez

33 years old
Married
College degree in Liberal Arts with specialization in Spanish
University degree as a Spanish teacer
Masters in Liberal Arts with specialization in Spanish teaching
Fluent in French
Cultured free thinker

Our specialist in advanced students, Bladimir also teaches intermediates. He will make you work a little bit harder and will push you to advance as fast as you can. A well read teacher with a high cultural level who has written several award winning poems and short stories. He will always provide enjoyable and interesting conversation within the classroom.

Lorena Pitti

30 years old
Single
College degree in Liberal Arts with specialization in English
Fluent in English
Extremely patient

Our expert with beginners and retirees, Lorena has received more gifts from students than all the rest of the staff put together. Her students simply adore her and see her as a true friend. She also teaches low-intermediates. She is very patient and will be with you until you master every specific topic.

Nevele Chambers

36 years old
Married
College degree in Liberal Arts with specialization in Spanish
University Degree as a high school teacher

Recenlty hired, Nevele is currently giving classes to children and beginners.

Vielka Alvenis Miranda Espinosa

36 years old
Married
College degree in Liberal Arts with specialization in Spanish
University degree as a High School Teacher with specialization in Spanish
An extremely effective Spanish teacher

One of our best Spanish teachers, she got an offer to work with the government and we were not able to retain her full time but during the summers she still works with us and remains as an external consultant for academic matters. She can also handle any type of students. Vielka is very smart, always looking for new ideas and continually seeking excellence in what she does.

Julio J. Santamaría B.

Co-founder of Habla Ya at age 23 and CEO of Tourism Generation, Inc.
Engineering in Electronics & Telecomunications by ITESM in Monterrey, México
School Director and Manager since January 2008
In charge of Strategy Planning, Marketing and Sales (as well as partnerships with agents)
Customer Service and Human Resources
Webmaster, Content Writer and Search Engine Optimizer

If you need anything, look for Julio. He is here to do what it takes so that you can have the best Spanish learning experience. Have a question? He has an answer? Have a problem? He has a solution. Let him exceed your expectations.

Carlos Raúl Cabrera Toledo

After finishing university he joined his best friend and founded Habla Ya Language Center. Currently he is still part of the management team of Habla Ya Language Center and has gone on to initiate an Ecotourism & Adventure Tour Operator.

Co-founder of Habla Ya and the school's first Director and Manager at age 23
Industrial Engineer by la USMA in Panama City
Responsible for hiring most of Habla Ya's current teachers
Still handles Habla Ya's finances
Vice-President of the Board of Directors of Tourism Generation, Inc.
In charge of the Ecotourism & Adventure Program, the Latin Cultural & Spanish Immersion Program and of Habla Ya's Get-Togethers on weekends
Currently the Director of Explora Ya, Ecotourism & Adventures

If you want to party, have fun, go out dancing, play some soccer or go on a hiking trip, Carlos is your guy. He always knows what is happening in town and even if you are not a student he is always looking for people to go out and have fun with.

Irma Changmarín Isaza

Irma Changmarín, an industrial engineer that discovered that teaching was her vocation, had 5 years of experience in teaching Spanish as a foreign language in Panama City when she went to Sevilla and took the renowned course for teaching Spanish as a foreign language at the famous institution CLIC IH Sevilla in Spain.

Joined Habla Ya at age 34 in January of 2006 during 1 year.
Engineering in Industrial Engineering
Masters in Business Administration
Diploma for teaching Spanish as a foreign language in Spain

Irma trained most of our current teachers in the latest advances made in the Communicative method for language teaching and together with the rest of our teachers designed and built our initial level system and syllabus.

Lucía Alvarado Cantero

Lucía joined Habla Ya on a temporal contract during 3 months to do the training of our first teachers. Our first teachers had Spanish degrees from local universities but no previous experience in teaching Spanish to foreigners. She did not stay any longer due to immigration reasons.

Joined Habla Ya at age 25 in August of 2005 during 3 months.
Degree in philology in 2003 from Universidad de Costa Rica, San Pedro de Montes de Oca, San José.
Previous experience at Costa Rican Language Academy, Forester Instituto Internacional and WAYRA Instituto de Español.

Panamanian Spanish Schools are very recent in comparison to their counterpart in Costa Rica. In Costa Rica you can find more than 70 or 80 language schools throughout the country and several of them have been around for more than 30 or 40 years. In Panama you may find at the most around 10 or 15, most of them founded in the last 10 years. This is why we decided to import Lucía's experience from Costa Rica.

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