About María Fernández, BA, MSc

  My past, present and future

Learning foreign languages has been my hobby, career, business and passion for over thirty years. I started with English, then French, German and Italian. I then went for Portuguese and in March 2007 I started studying Japanese. My mother tongue is Spanish. Knowing foreign languages is a precious asset for me. I use them at work on a daily basis!

I have learned foreign languages mostly on my own, but also with private tutors and in small group courses. At University I did History in Madrid (Spain) as a first degree, and then I did a masters in English Literature in the UK.

I set up in business in 1994. At first I taught Spanish and did Spanish translations. Then, while still teaching, I wrote two language learning publications: Learn Spanish At Your Own Pace (book + 2 CDs) and Spanish for Beginners CD-ROM.

In 2003 we launched our first website, www.spanish-online.co.uk. Soon the language-bookworld.com cluster of websites was developed and I now work full time on our seven sites, forum, blog and Squidoo lenses.

Our current task is to develop all of them and include detailed book, dvd, cd and children product reviews; Spanish podcasts and lessons on interactive pdf; a selection of language courses at home, online and abroad; as well as adding useful free information to my blog on a regular basis. I am also setting aside an hour every day to learn Japanese.

Apart from foreign languages, other interests I have are travelling, reading, piano and flute learning/improving, BTS and cooking.

  The aim of my blog

Learning a foreign language can be exciting and fun, but it can also be frustrating and boring. My blog gives you tips on how to enjoy learning the language you have chosen, as well as how to make the most of your study time, improve steadily and stay motivated.

If you are reading this, you are probably learning a foreign language or planning to learn one. If at any point you need help with any aspect of the language you are studying (grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation, etc.), why not visit our foreign language learning forum and post your queries there? We regularly post useful replies on our forum.

Did you know?

The main official languages of Spain are:
Spanish, Catalan, Basque and Galician.