Study Spanish for free

International House - where we study Spanish

Well almost free... That is what the course is advertised as. It actually costs 40 Euros. The course runs from Monday to Thursday, two hours per day, for a month. So July is the month that my brother and I are "studying" Spanish. Before signing up, we told the course organiser we knew no Spanish and would need the beginner class. So our first 2 days of "learning" we spent in the beginner class. The teachers in that class spoke only Spanish and were talking about things way above our level. We were at a total loss! We discovered that there is a Preintercipio (Pre-beginner) class and voluntarily downgraded to it. The class is more fun as we do basic and easy things. The other learners in the class are fun and interesting too - more so than in the beginner class. We are at more or less the same level of knowing very little!! None of us knows what is going on half the time though. The teachers also speak only Spanish! The teachers of these Spanish courses are trainee - teachers who are teaching us in order to build up their practical teaching hours.  Before they can qualify as teachers they have to have a set number of practical hours under their belts. They teach in teams of 4 or 5 teachers per lesson. Each trainee teacher teaches for about 30 minutes, and the next teacher just follows on from where the previous one stopped. I like the team teaching approach. It flows nicely. What I don't like is that the teachers do not use English to explain or clarify aspects which learners do not grasp. This is because their lesson crit - who sits at the back of the class, assessing the student teachers, will penalise them for speaking English. Yesterday, one of the student teachers apologised (in perfect English, after the lesson) for not being able to explain clearly what we did not understand in the class. He explained that he is not permitted to speak English during the lessons. Quite bizarre, when there is a class of learners who stare at the teacher and do not know what is being said or requested of them! This makes for difficult learning and lots of confusion, and humour! We laugh a lot because none of us know what is going on much of the time. These teachers!!! Use English please!!!!

Hard at work !

Polish students love Spanish!