Juan Kattán-Ibarra is an experienced teacher of Spanish and the author of a number of best-selling Spanish courses. He graduated as a teacher from the University of Chile (1965) and, with an American scholarship, obtained an M.A. in Education from Michigan State University (1966). A British Council scholarship took him to the UK in 1972, where he obtained a postgraduate Diploma in Education from Manchester University (1973) and an M.A. in Education from the Institute of Education, University of London (1974).
He began his Spanish teaching career in the UK in 1975, working at a number of higher education institutions over the years and acting as an examiner in Spanish for the University of London School Examinations Board and the London Chamber of Commerce and Industry. In 1986 he moved to Spain where he lived for many years.
Juan Kattán-Ibarra's first Spanish language course was published in 1978, as one of the first stages of a writing career which continues to this day. His current titles in the Teach Yourself series include Spanish, Latin American Spanish, Spanish Grammar and Phone Spanish (Hodder Education) and he is the co-author of Teach Yourself Speak Spanish and Spanish Grammar in Context (Hodder Education), Modern Spanish Grammar and Modern Spanish Grammar Workbook (Routledge), Sueños - World Spanish 2 (BBC). Some of his books in the Teach Yourself series have been successfully adapted for use in other countries, among them France and Germany. His publications in the United States include Conversational Spanish, Perspectivas culturales de España and Perspectivas culturales de Hispanoamérica (McGraw-Hill).