Irene is a Barcelona native and founding member of SLB who does the essential background admin work that keeps the co-op running smoothly. She also acts as our official ‘interventora de comptes’, meaning she checks that our accounts conform to fiscal and cooperative law. As a freelancer with a background in technical marine translations and in marine-related industries, Irene has recently launched her own health and safety consultancy Eiralab.

UK-born George has spent the past decade living in South Korea, Colombia and Spain. He started out as a teacher, before beginning his own lesson sharing blog Designer Lessons with SLB cofounder Neil McMillan. From there George became a materials writer, a full-time editor and a managing editor in a Public Relations firm. He is now the co-owner and Creative Director of Hubbub Labs, a Content Marketing agency for startups and education companies based in Barcelona.

Alice started teaching English in 2010 while working on her BA in Language Studies and TEFL at Swansea University. She worked in the UK, Austria and Germany as a teacher and director of studies. After her DELTA and MA TESOL she started writing exam materials and finally moved to Barcelona where she’s loving the sunshine.
Alice has a keen interest in everything ELT and is a proud member of Serveis Lingüístics de Barcelona.

Simon went to Seville in the south of Spain on a whim in 2013 having only visited the country once before. He arrived as a novice teacher with a brand new CELTA and has since gone on to teach in a wide variety of contexts and countries. In 2020, he obtained a Master’s in ‘Multilingualism and Language Acquisition’ from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona where his final project framed freelance English teachers as workers and investigated their relationships with various work institutions in the city, including the SLB cooperative. After 3 years of living in Barcelona, he has since moved back down south to Andalusia and has shifted his attention to online teaching.

Maciej’s passion is to make learning rewarding and fulfilling. He believes learning is not only about cognitive development, but that it’s a life-long quest for self-fulfilment in the context of mind, body, spirit and impact.
Maciej has spent most of his career teaching English at private language academies and companies around Europe. In 2017 his career shifted towards organisational learning in corporate environments, and in 2019 he set up UPGRADE, his own language school specialised in teaching English in corporate environments.

Mandeep is a highly experienced English teacher and E-learning specialist with a proven record delivering specialised language courses for individuals, institutions and multinational corporations. Her E-learning design portfolio includes consulting for the World Health Organisation to implement online staff training in low resource settingsand her qualifications include a Masters in Applied Linguistics from The University of Birmingham and a Postgraduate certificate from The Open University in the Masters in Online and distance education. Most recently, Mandeep has launched Watch and Learn Online, an app for language learning which exploits authentic video and enjoys a growing number of subscribers.

Neil is an experienced and versatile teacher of English, in addition to a teacher-trainer, writer and translator. He holds a Diploma in TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) as well as a Ph.D in literature from the University of Glasgow, and has over 20 years’ classroom experience working with adults, teenagers and children from all over the world. A native of Perth, Scotland, Neil worked for several years in public education in Glasgow before running a teacher-training project in Guatemala and finally moving to Barcelona, where he now lives. Neil specialises in teacher-training and in Task-Based Language Teaching (TBLT), and runs a course on this for SLB.

Ben loves being a TEFL ‘lifer’ and thinks lifelong learning is a fascinating way of leading an interesting life. Often studying online or distance courses or writing, he has a range of qualifications and a breadth of experience that has taken him to four different countries in the last thirteen years. He completed his CELTA in 2009 and a young learner extension certificate in 2013. He finished a Delta in 2014, and an MA in Applied Linguistics and TESOL in 2016. Living and working in London, he is always interested in collaborating on TEFL projects. Language is a tool for communicating ideas, thoughts, ideas and aspirations. English studied in class cannot be separated from our social responsibilities, and should help us contribute to our communities.

Alan has been living in Barcelona since he qualified in 2006 with the Trinity Certificate in TESOL, and 5 years later the Cambridge Diploma in teaching English to adults. He’s an English teacher, teacher trainer, translator, proof-reader/editor and materials writer based in Barcelona. His academic background is in Anthropology and Linguistics and he’s a keen language learner, having studied six languages in his time – so he understands what his students are going through! Alan enjoys speaking to students, learning about their cultures and lives and helping them to express themselves. He specialises in classes with older learners, in-company English and Exam preparation for Cambridge, among others.

An instructor with nine years’ classroom experience in Thailand, the UK and Spain who researches, revises and refines his classrooms techniques and teaching approach. Delta-qualified with strong course design skills achieving a distinction in Module 3. Also, a Cambridge speaking examiner for levels from B1 to C2.

Currently enjoying participating on the task-based teaching course taught through Serveis Lingüístics Barcelona and looking forward to undertaking a Masters in Linguistics here in Barcelona.

James is a language professional with a BA in Linguistics & Italian and an MA in Applied Linguistics. He has taught English in the UK, Ecuador, Italy and Spain. He specialises in teaching advanced learners, both General and Business English, and has 500+ hours of online ELT experience. He also works part-time, blogging and overseeing social media for a wildlife website. After graduating from his BA at the University of Manchester, James worked in higher education marketing in London and later as an interpreter in the Italian Alps. In 2015 James moved to Barcelona to complete an MA in Applied Linguistics. For his thesis James investigated Spanish speakers’ ability to perceive differences in native English and Spanish accented speech. The study also looked at how perceptual training can increase learners’ sensitivity to these phonemic differences and, in turn, improve their pronunciation. Although he has now completed his studies, James remains an active member of the Barcelona L2 Speech Research Group and continues to follow his interest in this academic area. In our classes we will work together – with the help of original materials, specific to your interests and needs – to develop the fluency, accuracy and complexity of your language. Along the way, you will be introduced to a set of study skills and strategies that will help you become an effective and independent language learner.