Spain Issue 30- Learn your lesson August 2004
Struggling to learn Spanish in night classes, SIMON BIRCH was getting
nowhere. But after a week-long course at a language school in Barcelona he's
finally cracked it.
Photos by PACOGUERRERO
SPECIALIST TRAVEL
I HAVE experienced a miracle. Really. You see, after 10 long, fruitless years
of trying, I have finally mastered how to speak Spanish.
For a long time friends had told me that only by learning Spanish where the
language is actually spoken on the street would I unblock the barrier to language
learning that only the British seem to have. Foolishly, I'd ignored their wise
words and ploughed on regardless with my evening classes.
But after a hard day's slog at the office, who really has the staying power to trudge across town on a cold, wet January evening to tackle the horrors of Spanish irregular verbs?
My motivation for evening-class Spanish finally came to an abrupt end earlier
this year thanks to a particularly grumpy Spanish teacher - Snr Grumpy Boots
- who called me "estupido" in class because I couldn't answer one
of his questions. Enough was clearly enough.
Which was why six weeks later, on a sunny Monday morning, I found myself on
the steps of a Spanish language school in the heart of Barcelona ready to begin
a five-day intensive language holiday.
This increasingly popular course consists of 20 hours of teaching from 9.30am
to 1.30pm, leaving students with the rest of the day to swan around Barcelona's
fabulous cafes and bars putting their new-found language skills into practice.
But before I could get cracking and prove to Snr Grumpy Boots that I was far from being estupido, like all the new entrants that Monday morning I had to take a placement test to gauge my proficiency - or otherwise - in Spanish.
Shamefully, the oral and written tests established that, despite my on-off attempts
to learn the language for 10 years, I was still at an elementary level and was
assigned to a class of six others who were judged to be of a similar level.
And what a cosmopolitan lot we were: there was Gila and Uri from Israel in their
early thirties; Driek, a 20-year-old Belgian student; Ronnie, a 24-year-old
accountant from London who was taking six months off to travel and work around
Europe; Shoeb, a 27-year-old student from Toronto and Sam, 29, from Phnom Penh
who was learning Spanish so that he could lead Spanish tour groups around Cambodia.
No sooner had we begun to introduce ourselves than Marta, one of our two teachers
for the week, came into the classroom. With a gentle close of the door and a
broad smiling "jHola chicosT, my week of intensive Spanish had begun.
Alarmingly, Marta immediately began to speak to us all in Spanish. Since few
of us could understand much Spanish we looked at each other with blank faces.
Undeterred, Marta carried on and acknowledged our puzzled looks with a warm
smile.
Apparently, the whole point of intensive learning is that English is generally
not spoken in the classroom as students are encouraged to listen, learn and
speak Spanish right from the start. I'd heard about this total immersion technique
of teaching in England and, to be honest, I'd always been somewhat sceptical
about itsuse. Amazingly though, after just a short while, it did all begin to
make sense. Gradually and patiently, Marta was giving us the building blocks
that made up the foundations of the language. Plus, crucially, she was getting
us to speak Spanish to each other - simple things such as our names, ages and
where we came from.
This English-free approach continued with Rosa, who was to take the last two
lessons every morning. In no time Rosa got us learning the Spanish alphabet
by pointing out objects that lay around us such as the tables and chairs and
then writing these words down in Spanish.
To help my fast-track programme, I'dchosen to live with a Spanish family for
a week rather than live with other students in a school-run apartment. Everything
had been arranged by the language school agency back in the UK and I couldn't
have asked for a more welcoming and friendly home.
For five days I lived literally as one of Anna Maria's family in her large and
comfortable top-floor flat, high above the Gran Via, the main tree-lined boulevard
that runs through Barcelona and which was just around the corner from the La
Sagrada Família, one of the city's most famous landmarks.
Being on the top-floor meant the family had a wonderful roof-top terrace with
stunning views across the city and this provided the perfect spot for me to
do my homework and swot up on the course. The family was made up of Anna Maria,
her husband Ricardo, their two teenage sons, Ricardo junior and Daniel, and
her elderly mother Josefa. There were two other students staying with them,
17-year-old Gwen from Bonn and 24-year-old Priscilla from Brazil, who was also
at my school.
Anna Maria couldn't speak a word of English but this didn't stop her from chatting
happily away to me in Spanish over dinner. This, in fact, was just what I needed
as it really forced me to concentrate on what she was trying to tell me and
it got my ears used to the rhythm and sound of Spanish.
With the help of Gwen and Ricardo, who both spoke English, I was able to work
out what Anna Maria was telling me and I soon got into the habit of having my
notebook with me as I didn't want to miss a chance to write down a new colloquialism
or word that sprang up over dinner. This was the big benefit of staying with
a Spanish family - I got a real feel for the language as it is actually spoken.
By the fourth day of my course, I was really flying. Never before had learning
a language been so straightforward, easy or enjoyable and both Marta and Rosa
were so encouraging that my confidence received a major boost.
It's said that when people learn a language by total immersion, they often experience
a 'eureka' or breakthrough moment when everything just clicks into place. Incredibly,
I had one of those moments - though in my case I prefer to call it my miracle
moment.
It happened one morning when I found myself, for the first time, asking a question
in word-perfect Spanish and discovering that I could understand completely the
reply that Rosa gave me - also in Spanish.
In an instant a decade's worth of disappointment disintegrated and I was left
with the revelation that, far from being estupido, I could actually learn Spanish.
Sure, after just one week I'd barely scratched the surface of learning the language,
but the truth is that I learned more Spanish in five days than in 10years of
trying to learn it in the UK. Simply by living and learning in a Spanish city
I couldn't help but be bombarded by the language and I was forced to use what
I'd learned virtually every minute of the day. And while Catalan does dominate
in Barcelona, it wasn't really a problem as everyone speaks Spanish too.
Suffice to say, my week in Spain gave me confidence, enthusiasm and the determination
to carry on learning. The only downside to the course was that I was only taught
the present tense — but hey, who wants to live in the past? And as for
the future, well I think that will definitely involve a return trip to language
school.
DETAILS
One week of 20 lessons intensive Spanish at the
Enforex school in Barcelona costs £149. Six nights with
a host family (half-board) costs £130 and six nights in a
student-shared apartment (self-catering) costs £130.
For details contact Cactus Language, (01273)725200:
www. cactuslanguage, com
GETTING THERE
A number of carriers fly direct to Barcelona from the
UK including British Airways, Iberia, easyJet, bmibaby
and Monarch Scheduled.
See page 157 for flight details
CAR HIRE
A week's car hire with Holiday Autos from Barcelona
airport starts at £103 including online discount, insurance
and taxes. Tel: 0870 400 0010: www.holidayautos.co.uk