If you are a beginner who needs to learn Spanish, you have definitely found the right place. If I could choose my ideal student, I would pick an absolute beginner every time — one with a few words of vocabulary if I was being really picky.
I’m James and you’re probably worried that you are not going to understand the grammar, or that you’ll have boring grammar lessons, or be judged in a big class, fail to learn the pronunciation correctly, or go along at the pace of the slowest or the fastest person in the class. Well, you can forget all of that.
My experience teaching Spanish for 25 years has shown me that every course — from town hall lessons to lessons in a bar or a CD course — can work, but finding the correct course for you is what stops the massive drop-off that comes with all of those other options. I save you the time and the frustration.
My course is a full 100-lesson package designed to take you from zero to confidently conversational. You start with the 50 core learning lessons. This is where you build your rock-solid foundation. We focus entirely on the structure and logic of the Spanish language, but without the complicated jargon and grammatical terms. You didn’t learn the grammatical terms when you learnt to speak English, so you don’t need them now to learn Spanish. I explain things in plain English, comparing Spanish to what you already know. You’ll be surprised how much easier it is when you just learn the how and the why of saying things in Spanish.
Once the structure is solid, you move on to the 50 spoken Spanish practice lessons. As you will find out, speaking Spanish is relatively easy. The hard part is understanding what comes back. These intensive video lessons are designed to tune your ear. You will get thousands of real-world scenarios to practise your comprehension, and because you can watch them again and again until they stick, it really works. My goal is simple: for you to finish the course with the conversational skills of an eight-year-old. This course focuses entirely on getting you conversational, so we skip the technical names required for academic exams like DELE or Cervantes.
The course is 100% online, giving you zero pressure and 24-hour-a-day, seven-day-a-week access. The course never expires. This allows you to truly personalise your learning. We introduce crucial pronunciation rules at lesson six to ensure that you are making the right sounds from the start.
And to help you memorise and retain vocabulary, we have WordAmigo — helping with your pronunciation, assessing which words you are saying incorrectly, and helping you permanently retain vocabulary with a range of study aids. WordAmigo is included free with the full course.
Why would you want to be taught by an Englishman? Because I am a true hybrid. I grew up in Spain and my first language is Spanish, but I have watched English speakers struggle for decades. I know your mistakes before you even make them. Plus I throw in a lot of humour and banter, because studies show that if you are laughing when you are learning, you learn more. We also cover essential cultural insights so you can fit in straight away.
If you want to move to Spain and converse — not to pass an exam — and enjoy the learning process, this is the course for you. Most students go straight for the 100-lesson pack because it is the cheapest per lesson and you can pay for it over six months. If you are unsure, just start with the first 10 lessons today. Your journey to being fluent and conversational starts now.
In more detail
Click here to watch free demo lessons https://jamesspanishschool.com/discover-more-2-form-home-v2/
For anyone who has never had a Spanish lesson in their life, James Bretherton of James Spanish School has a straightforward message: you are exactly the kind of student he wants. Not a consolation. Not an encouraging platitude. A genuine preference, and one grounded in 25 years of teaching experience.
The reason is simple. Students who arrive at JSS without prior Spanish lessons arrive without prior bad habits. They have not spent years being taught to memorise vocabulary lists without understanding the structure that holds the language together. They have not developed the anxiety that comes from being corrected in a classroom, or the frustration of sitting through grammar explanations filled with terminology they never needed when they learnt English. The absolute beginner is, in James’s view, the easiest student to teach well — because nothing needs to be unlearnt first.
JSS — James Spanish School — is a 100-lesson online Spanish lessons – a course designed to take English-speaking adults from zero to confidently conversational in real-world Castellano. It is structured in two distinct phases. The first 50 lessons are core learning lessons focused entirely on the structure and logic of Spanish, explained through English with no grammatical jargon. The approach is comparative rather than technical: students learn how Spanish works by understanding how it relates to what they already know as English speakers. There are no lists of verb conjugations to memorise in isolation, no grammatical terminology to master before anything useful can be said. Students are constructing correct sentences from lesson one.
The second phase is 50 spoken Spanish practice lessons. This is where the focus shifts from production to comprehension — the skill that, as James explains, is the genuinely hard part of learning Spanish. Speaking is relatively straightforward once the structure is in place. Understanding what comes back, at native speed, across different regional accents, is what defeats the majority of adult learners. The spoken Spanish lessons are built around thousands of real-world exchanges, and because the course is entirely on demand, students can return to any lesson as many times as they need until the comprehension becomes automatic.
Pronunciation is introduced at lesson six, early enough to establish correct habits before they have time to solidify in the wrong direction. This is a deliberate structural choice: JSS does not leave pronunciation as an afterthought or expect students to self-correct after months of speaking incorrectly.
Vocabulary development is handled through WordAmigo, the AI-powered vocabulary system included free with the full 100-lesson course. WordAmigo assesses pronunciation, identifies the words a student is consistently saying incorrectly, and provides a range of study aids — flashcards, audio playlists, quizzes — designed specifically to support long-term retention. This is particularly valuable for adult learners, for whom vocabulary memorisation requires more deliberate effort than it does for children absorbing language through immersion.
The course is 100% online, available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, with no expiry date. There are no classes to attend, no timetables to keep, and no classroom dynamic to navigate. Students work entirely at their own pace, personalising their learning around their own schedule and their own points of difficulty.
James Bretherton is a formally qualified, dual-native speaker of English and Spanish. He grew up in Spain from the age of four, completed his entire education in Spanish, and has spent over 25 years teaching the language — first in a Spanish state school, then in his own private language school, now through JSS online. His teaching method is built on a precise understanding of where English speakers go wrong with Spanish, developed not from academic study but from decades of direct observation. He also brings deliberate humour to his teaching, on the basis — supported by research — that students who are laughing during lessons retain more of what they learn.
The full 100-lesson course is the option most students choose, both because it offers the best value per lesson and because it can be paid in up to six monthly instalments. For those who want to try before committing, the first 10 lessons are available as a standalone starting point.
James Spanish School has been helping English-speaking adults learn Spanish for over 25 years. JSS was founded by James Bretherton — who came to Spain at four, completed his entire education in Spanish, and carries both languages as a genuine native speaker.
James explains Spanish through English, unpacking the logic of the language rather than asking you to memorise rules you do not understand. Students who have made little real progress through evening classes, apps, or town hall lessons consistently find that with JSS they finally understand Spanish rather than just repeat it.
The full 100-lesson course is available on demand, 24 hours a day, from anywhere in the world, with no expiry date. It includes WordAmigo free — an AI vocabulary system with over 12,000 word pairings, native-speaker audio, and colour-coded pronunciation feedback.
The first 10 lessons are €55. The full course including WordAmigo is €399, payable in up to six monthly instalments. Cast-iron guarantee: for any lesson you honestly feel you learnt nothing from, you receive a free spoken Spanish lesson in return.
Start learning today: https://jamesspanishschool.com/shop3