About me
Hi, I'm Franco Liotta Tidoni, a Spanish teacher from Buenos Aires, Argentina. Since 2020 I've taught Spanish online full time to hundreds of students of all ages, from all over the world, in more than 8,000 lessons. For me, teaching isn't just a job: it's a passion.
Languages run in my family
My love of languages began at home. My grandfather, Domingo Liotta, was a cardiac surgeon who worked for ten years at the Texas Heart Institute in Houston, where he spent years developing the artificial heart that, in 1969, became the first to be implanted in a human. A doctor with a humanist's curiosity, he studied philosophy with Ángel J. Battistessa, the Argentine philologist, critic and university professor who translated Dante's Divine Comedy into Spanish. Through him I discovered that medical vocabulary is full of words from Latin and Ancient Greek, and his passion for history, languages and knowledge became mine from a very young age.
As a child, I read the classics from his library: Cervantes' Don Quixote, Shakespeare, Dante, Homer, Victor Hugo, Voltaire, Dickens…
My father grew up in Houston during those years, and he taught me English, so I grew up bilingual. Later I began studying French, German, Italian, Chinese and Russian on my own, and at university I studied Ancient Greek, Latin and Sanskrit.
Teaching students from all over the world
In 2020, during the pandemic lockdown in Argentina, I started teaching online on italki and soon I was working full time, from 7 a.m. until night. My first students came from Indonesia, Ukraine, China, the United States, Germany, Russia, France, Canada, Thailand, Tanzania, Norway and Switzerland. Teaching people with so many different native languages taught me to adapt every class to each student, and it sharpened my own skills as a linguist. In 2022 I also taught in Duolingo Classes, Duolingo's live class program. It helped me understand the problems Duolingo learners run into and what they need to add to their studies, because the app alone isn't enough to learn a language.
The real faces of progress.
Behind every dot on the map is a person with a story, a goal, and a unique way of speaking the language.
Romain
Lyon, France
Glory
Arusha, Tanzania
Jeremy
San Francisco, USA
Ran
Tel Aviv, Israel
Ciarán
Plymouth, UK
Dana
Vancouver, Canada
Education and research
- I began by studying Philosophy, but my passion for grammar, syntax and languages led me to switch to Letras (Literature), with a focus on Classics, where ancient languages and syntax are studied in much greater depth. Philosophy remains a complement to my literary studies.
- BA in Literature, University of Buenos Aires, with honors.
- Classical languages: Ancient Greek, Latin and Sanskrit.
- Adscripto (research assistant) at the Chair of Medieval Spanish Literature, University of Buenos Aires.
- Member of UBACyT research projects linked to the Sanskrit chair at the University of Buenos Aires.
- Certified teacher of Spanish as a foreign language (ELE).
At university I took courses in Spanish linguistics, and also in the linguistics of other languages, which shaped and improved the way I teach. I also studied historical morphology and the changes Vulgar Latin went through on its way to becoming modern Spanish.
Languages have patterns and rules. Seeing and learning them makes learning easier and faster. Without them, learning is slower, messier and more tedious, and it is much harder to unlearn something learned badly than to learn it well from the start.
Why I built this site
This year I built francospanishschool.com to bring together, in one place, all the materials I use with my students: grammar lessons, conjugation charts, readings and exercises, free for everyone. But resources alone aren't enough. You can learn on your own, but it's slower and harder without someone guiding you: a teacher who sees how you use the materials, corrects you and shows you what to do next. And sooner or later you need to speak with a native speaker, ideally an experienced teacher.
What I teach
- Spanish for adults, teens and kids, from beginner to advanced, neutral Latin American Spanish and Argentine Spanish.
- English for Spanish speakers.
- Latin, coming soon.