The Language House

My name is Virginia Talley and I am the founder of the Language House. My first trip to Spain in 1997 completely changed my life. I was 19 years old and I had the good fortune of walking the medieval pilgrimage, El Camino de Santiago, across northern Spain with Sewanee’s summer study abroad program. From that point on, I was completely hooked on the Spanish language and culture, and I could not wait to go back to Spain.

I returned in my junior year to live with a family in the Basque Country and to study in Sevilla. I went on to complete my Master’s and Ph.D. in Spanish language, literature, and culture at the University of Virginia. My curiosity for learning more about other cultures led me to study and live in Southern France, Chile, and Argentina.

Following my passion for teaching, I spent four years as a Lecturer of Spanish at the University of Richmond, in Virginia, and seven years teaching middle school and high school at St. Stephen’s Episcopal School in Austin, Texas. I taught at Austin Community College with high school and adult learners for two years before opening the Language House in 2019. My love of teaching, travel, and Spanish and Latin American culture has been a natural fit for leading numerous trips to Spain and Argentina over the past eleven years.

Nowadays I am super excited to devote all of my time to teaching my students about Spanish language and culture! In my spare time, I love traveling, hiking, cooking, coffee, and spending time with my partner and our two dogs, Pepe the Pug, and Emiliano, the hound-beagle mix. We are happy to call Austin, Texas, home and we love traveling the globe in search of new places and friends.