Barbara Acuña Kaneb, Spanish Academy of the Rockies

So nice to meet you! First off, what’s your name? Tell our readers a bit about yourself—where you’re from originally and where you live now.

My name is Barbara Acuña Kaneb, but everyone calls me Barb. I’m from Constitución, a beach town south of Santiago, Chile. I came to the United States in 2015 after meeting my husband, who was studying Spanish abroad in Chile. I studied marketing and communications there, which has helped me enormously in growing my own business. When I first arrived in the U.S., I didn’t know what I was going to do, but I had always been passionate about teaching. I applied to many Spanish schools, and finally a school in Denver hired me, trained me and opened the door to the career I had wanted since I was a little girl. Today I live in Castle Pines, Colorado, where I’m the director and lead instructor of Spanish Academy of the Rockies.

Tell us one thing you love about where you live now.

I come from the south of Chile, the south of the world, and I love the sense of community that southerners have. I’ve found that same feeling here. I also love the landscape of Castle Pines, with its hills that rise and fall. They remind me of my own hometown in Chile.

Tell us a little more about what your company does and how it started. How does it help your customers?

Spanish Academy of the Rockies is a Spanish school in Castle Pines serving the south Denver metro area: Highlands Ranch, Castle Rock, Littleton, Centennial and Parker. We now also have many students in Denver, with a teacher who travels to them. We teach children, teens and adults, from complete beginners all the way to advanced conversational levels, in private, small-group and family classes, and we also work with homeschool families.

After several years working in Denver, my husband and I decided to move to Castle Pines and start our family. I had my two children here and devoted myself completely to being a mom for a few years. But I needed to get back to teaching. I began in 2022, teaching a couple of friends. At first I simply called it “Spanish with Barb.” As it grew, we changed the name to Spanish Academy of the Rockies, and we just opened our own, larger teaching space in Castle Pines.

Our classes focus on real conversation from day one. Students learn by using Spanish in real-life situations rather than memorizing rules, so they gain the confidence to actually speak, whether for travel, work or family.

If someone wants to start a business, what advice would you give them?

Don’t be afraid to jump into the deep end. It’s the only way to grow. Every big step in my business felt scary at the time, and every one of them taught me something I couldn’t have learned by waiting until I felt ready.

But being brave is not the same as being impulsive. Know your numbers. Before I make a big decision, I sit down and work out what it costs, what I need to earn to cover it, and how long it will realistically take to get there. If the plan only works when everything goes perfectly, it isn’t ready yet.

Loving what you do matters, but passion alone doesn’t keep a business running. Take your time with the decisions that are hard to undo, and let the numbers, not the pressure of the moment, tell you when to jump.

What is one piece of feedback from a happy customer or client that you won't forget?

One student told me she had tried language apps on and off for years and never felt she was really learning to speak. After working with us, she said the experience was “completely different” and that she looks forward to her lessons every week. Another student, a business owner, told me he can now hold real conversations with his Spanish-speaking employees.

But the ones that stay with me most come from students who grew up in Spanish-speaking families without learning the language. When they tell me they can finally talk with their grandparents, their parents or their cousins in Spanish, I know we gave them back something much bigger than a language.

One story I will never forget is a gentleman who didn’t speak any Spanish. His elderly mother developed Alzheimer’s and, as the disease progressed, she forgot how to speak English. Spanish was the only language she had left. To be able to talk with his own mother, he had to learn it. Helping him do that is why I do this.

Where do you see your company in the future?

I see Spanish Academy of the Rockies with locations all across Colorado, and even in other states. Our new space in Castle Pines is the first step: a full schedule of group classes and a growing team of native-speaking instructors. We are also developing a recorded beginner course.

What is the biggest misconception about your industry?

That an app is enough, or that adults are “too old” to learn a language. Apps are great for vocabulary, but you learn to speak by speaking with a real person who listens, corrects you and adapts to you. And adults learn very well when the class connects to their real lives.

The same is true for children. Kids learn when classes are built around the things they care about. That’s why we take the time to get to know each of our students and create activities around their interests.

What has been one of your biggest struggles building your business, and how did you deal with it?

Growing beyond myself. For a long time the business was just me, driving to students’ homes and teaching every class. There are only so many hours in a day, so to grow I had to bring in other instructors, add small-group classes and finally take the leap of opening our own space.

The hardest part of all that was letting go. When you build something from nothing, it is very difficult to hand responsibilities over to someone else and leave things in their hands. That’s why choosing the right people for your team matters so much. Everything depends on trust. I dealt with it by taking my time to find teachers who care about our students the way I do, and then learning, little by little, to step back and let them do their work.

Who was your favorite music artist and athlete growing up?

I can’t pick just one! For music, I grew up listening to Shakira, Soda Stereo, Los Bunkers and Maná, the soundtrack of Latin America. For athletes, I’ve always cheered for my fellow Chileans: tennis players Marcelo Ríos, Fernando González and Nicolás Massú, gymnast Tomás González, and soccer players Alexis Sánchez and Arturo Vidal.

Any shoutouts you want to make?

First and foremost, to my husband, Halden Kaneb, who taught me how to manage my finances and has helped me grow my business. Without his support, we probably wouldn’t be what we are today. To Andrea, Johanna, Patricia and everyone who works with us or has worked with us along the way. And to my former boss, Silvia Vélez, who taught me how to teach.