Learn the lingo

We've said it many times on this blog before but it does bear repeating. "we believe that If you have a home here in Spain, you should at least make some effort to learn the language".

Being able to communicate with people, even if it is only with a few well chosen sentences, makes life here a whole lot easier and much more rewarding.

The Ayuntamiento is advertising their Español para extrajaneros course for 2008/9. It is the course that we attend which ran last year on Tuesdays and Thursdays 4pm till 6pm; taught by a university trained teacher of the language.

In our opinion, you can't learn a new language by absorbing a series of 'off the shelf' phrases'. Nor can you communicate effectively if you don't learn to construct complete sentences. You need to learn the basic structure of the language and then build upon it.

Courses which use CDs and text are useful for tourists who visit Spain for a couple of weeks but not for those living here who need more than these courses usually offer. Knowing how to ask for a cup of coffee and the menu or for a room with a bath won't get you very far in everyday conversations.

We believe that you need a properly qualified teacher who can guide you through the process of developing your language skills just as you were guided through the acquisition of skills in English when you were at infant and junior schools. Being able to speak a language does not necessarily qualify people to teach it.

Ana, the teacher on our course, provides a wide variety of tasks suited to the ability of her students. She mixes oral and aural work with exercises in reading and writing. Ana also uses a range of resources to reinforce those concepts of the language that have already been acquired. Her lessons are lively and interesting which makes the two hours seem more like minutes.

As a bonus, students on the course get to visit places with the ladies from the other classes. You will find that these are some of the nicest and most helpful people you will meet here in Bigastro.

All you have to do is go down to the Town Hall before the end of the month to enrol.

Puedo hacer una inscripción para el Español para extranjeros cursa por favor.