Voices en Español

If you’ve been listening to advanced-level Spanish podcasts for awhile, it’s likely you already know Luis Rojas. Luis, who is originally from Peru, lives in St. Paul, Minnesota where he and his wife Joan run Rojas Spanish, a multi-faceted culture and Spanish language training company.

Last September, when I initially met Luis, I asked him to record the intro to the short story reading “Cine Prado“, which he gladly did. At the time the U.S. presidential campaign was still in full swing and Luis said he thought it would be nice to do a joint podcast about Barack Obama and his educational policies. I thought we should wait to see who won the election first, but Luis was pretty confident that Obama was going to win.

In any case, we did wait until after the election to record this conversation. Since Luis and I both have podcasts, we decided to split the interview into two parts. In Part 1 he talks about his professional background, how he came to be a U.S. citizen and the growing interest Americans have to learn Spanish. This part is available for download here on his blog. Next week I’ll post the second part of the interview here at “Voices en Español.”

In addition to the podcast, Luis and his wife Joan offer an instructional video program called “Viajando en español con Luis y Joan.” These premium videos feature Luis and Joan in various Spanish-speaking countries where they interview the locals and offer cultural and language insights. Joan also has a blog where she writes from first-hand experience about the joys and challenges of learning Spanish. Additionally, Luis is also planning to offer Spanish language classes via Skype, so even if you don’t live in St. Paul, there will soon be a way to have Luis as your personal Spanish teacher.