Carolina Mery is the founder of Pura Buena Onda, a Spanish school that combines conversation, community, and real-world experiences to help learners speak with confidence.
Hola! I'm Caro. Chilean by birth, Californian by zip code, and the founder of Pura Buena Onda, an online Spanish school for adults who want to speak Spanish, not just study it. Back in 2007, I started PBO because I was living proof that classes alone don't make you fluent. When I first got to the US, I could point at anything and tell you what it was called in English. Actual conversation? Different story. So I built the school I actually needed: real conversation from the 1st class, mistakes welcome, judgment banned at the door. Fast forward, and PBO is now hundreds of students and a whole squad of native Spanish teachers from Latin America and Spain, cheering you on every time you butcher the subjunctive (we've all been there). It still feels like the community I grew up with in Chile, just with way more practice speaking and way less stress about getting it perfect.