Irene Almazán
Irene Almazán
Irene is a translator specialising in technical maritime translations. She has a Masters in Shipping Business and has a wealth of experience in the maritime industry. Her time abroad and her English studies, together with her in-depth technical knowledge of the shipping industry allow her to translate technical manuals, shipping contracts, technical specifications, and more – with a high level of precision and accuracy. It being her specialisation, Irene enjoys translating articles investigating new technologies being applied in the naval sector. She also offers translations to organisations that are committed to the maritime environment.

George Chilton
George Chilton
George Chilton is originally from the UK, but 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 (https://designerlessons.org/) with SLB cofounder Neil McMillan. From there George became a materials writer and then a full-time editor at Wall Street English, later moving on to become a managing editor in a Public Relations firm. He is now the co-owner and Creative Director of Hubbub Labs (https://hubbublabs.com/), a Content Marketing agency for startups and education companies, based in Barcelona Spain.

Alice Copello
Alice Copello
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.

 Maciej Kiszka
Maciej Kiszka
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 Locham
Mandeep Locham
Mandeep is a highly experienced English teacher and E-learning specialist .She has a proven record in writing and delivering specialised language courses for individuals, higher education institutions and multinational corporations. Mandeep uses her knowledge of pedagogy to create motivating classes that help students succeed. Her E-learning design portfolio includes consulting for the World Health Organisation to implement online staff training in low resource settings and writing and moderating on the innovative Tandem Mooc project – an initiative by the Open University of Catalonia that paired language learners from around the world to study together. She has a Trinity Certificate in TESOL, 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. Mandeep creates materials tailored to her students using engaging and relevant sources to make classes fun and interesting. Contact me if you are looking for an enthusiastic teacher to design a specialised course with well defined goals.

Neil McMillan
Neil McMillan
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 15 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 the latter for SLB.
Ben Nazer
Ben Nazer
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 something or other, 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. He has enjoyed various MOOCs, and completed the NILE-ELT course: “Teaching English in Pre-Primary Education.” Ben believes teaching should be intellectually challenging and involve genuine exchanges. Being interested in critical pedagogy, he thinks PARSNIPs are delicious and that debating difficult topics breeds better people. He is interested in ways in which teachers can create spaces that put the students at the centre of their own processes of learning. When Ben is not reading mindless viral media or serious articles about language teaching, he can often be found eating in somewhat alarming quantities, or thinking about what to eat next. He also likes sleeping and playing with his cat. 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 Ritchie
Alan Ritchie
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; Catalan most recently. 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. An important part of this is working on students’ pronunciation and building their vocabulary. He specialises in classes with older learners, in-company English and Exam preparation for Cambridge FCE / CAE / IELTS, among others.

James Venner
James Venner
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.

Simon Courtney
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.