Inspiring Conversations with Emily Daniel of Spanish Lessons with Emily D.

Today we’d like to introduce you to Emily Daniel.

Hi Emily, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
I started Spanish Lessons with Emily D right here in Nashville, TN back in 2011! Over the years I personally have worked with students ranging in ages 1-99 years old. Between myself and my all star team of teachers that work with me teaching my conversational curriculum, thousands of students have come through the Spanish Lessons with Emily D program and have had amazing results.

After graduating with a Bachelor’s Degree in Spanish, I felt frustrated and disappointed with the obvious and significant gap between my “head knowledge” and my conversational abilities “in real life”. I had studied in school a total of 8 years between high school and college and specialized in the Spanish language yet I felt like I did not have much to show after all that time. I was determined to bridge the gap for myself and I moved to Honduras for a year to immerse myself in the language and highly motivated to become fluent in Spanish!

I got a job teaching English to 2nd graders at a bilingual school in Gracias Lempira, Honduras and made $1 an hour (which I was told was a good paying job there)! Those 2nd graders were the cutest and best Spanish teachers I ever had. Everything that I was teaching them in English at a 2nd grade level, I would learn in Spanish. We taught each other so much. I learned basic and practical things and speaking skills that were skipped in my formal higher level education. I experienced rapid results being in a language immersion setting and needing to communicate with my students as they did not speak any English when I first started with them. After school hours and on weekends, I worked incessantly in Spanish books self-studying and forced myself to practice speaking with native speakers in the town. It was a painful and embarrassing process at times and I was definitely laughed on multiple occasions when I was trying to communicate and failed. After some time went by, I was able to see the significant results in my language abilities and in my 2nd graders English abilities and it amazed me what we all learned in just 10 short months. I returned home proficient and confident in my skills and felt like I had reached my goal of “becoming fluent”.

Upon returning from Honduras, I was in my mid twenties and applied for teaching jobs in high schools because that is what I thought I was supposed to do. I was not excited about working in an American school, waking up early, grading papers, following state and national standards and repeating the cycle of learning and working in a system that honestly did not work very well or effectively for me (and many others). Although I enjoyed the social aspect, as a creative and “out of the box” kind of person, academically I never fit well into a traditional school environment.

Although I had no business background or experience, I’ve always had an entrepreneurial spirit and I’m a bit of a risk taker. I decided to bootstrap my own business and offer personalized Spanish lessons for adults in Nashville and and virtually. I created a program to help adults learn Spanish in a effective, practical and fun way that I wish I had when I was learning.

It’s always a joy and very interesting to see how students use their Spanish in their lives and how many unexpected opportunities and people come their way because they have dedicated themselves to learning a new language!

I wholeheartedly believe that anyone can learn no matter their age or learning style and they set their own pace. I love working with adults because they are motivated to learn and understand the investment they are making in themselves through the process of learning Spanish. Private and small group lessons provide a space to have a personalized experience tailored to each student and their unique reasons for learning. I have witnessed extraordinary results by countless students in my program and that always is rewarding and deeply satisfying for me.

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
The biggest obstacles and challenges for me over the years have been my lack of business education and experience outside of just learning what I have as I go along. As a creative, I struggle with administrative tasks, organization and time management. I used to really beat myself up for that, but I’ve come to accept that I am who I am and I just try to do my best to delegate my areas of weaknesses where I can so that I can maximize my areas of strength. I am grateful that Nashville is a remarkably supportive and friendly city to young entrepreneurs.

Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about Spanish Lessons with Emily D.?
Spanish Lessons with Emily D. offers guided 1 on 1 lessons, small private group classes and on-site and virtual corporate classes or workshops with an expert teacher in Nashville and via Zoom.

Along with our hour-long weekly lessons, students get worksheets, audio study guides and a summary email after each class with guided instructions for what to do for “homework” in between lessons and more.

We provide the roadmap, support, accountability, feedback and speaking practice. The amount of time and effort that students invest is TOTALLY UP TO THEM and they determine their practice and studying habits outside of lessons. The pace and intensity is determined by the student and their needs, preferences and capacity. We are not a traditional school and there are no grades. In our program we are focused on progress, confidence and working on a solid foundation that builds up proficiency little by little.

Any big plans?
My team and I are hard at work behind the scenes creating an online video course where students can learn at their own pace and we hope to launch in 2026. We will soon be offering a monthly membership where students can come together in an online Spanish Club community meeting each other and practice speaking with other Spanish learners like themselves! We’ll offer fun weekly challenges and multiple different types of live workshops with our amazing Spanish teachers. The future at Spanish Lessons with Emily D. is very bright!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.SpanishLessonswithEmilyD.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/spanishlessonswithemilyd/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SpanishLessonswithEmilyD
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/emily-daniel-32371062/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@SpanishLessonwithEmilyD
• Other: https://www.google.com/localservices/prolist