As sunrise broke on the 25th July 2011, the fresh morning air cultivated El Puerto’s stunning scenery and a new era had dawned in Spanish language learning for El Puerto, the era of Spark. The serious yet fun business was about to begin, learning Spanish!!
The missionaries spreading the Spanish gospel were Gema, Evelyn, Maria Jose, and finally Nico and Almudena. In a productive, interactive, enjoyable and interesting four hours, some students (like myself!!) learned the basics such as Hola and Como estas ? (which I’m still not quite sure means!!) while others with a foundation in Spanish already, engaged in more complex Spanish language problems.
After four enjoyable hours of learning Spanish, classes were wrapped up. Then at 14:30 the time had arrived, the time to trek to the one place most people who visit Spain venture to first – The beach!! Students had lunch on the beautiful beach Puntilla where they were encouraged to try Spanish and generally enjoy themselves. The beach being a place where most Spanish people go in the summer isn’t exactly a bad place to try some Spanish with people. After practically excavating the beach!! and hopefully avoiding being sunburned (unlike myself!!) evening time had arrived.
Now it is time for the Spanish Pub Quiz night, with questions and answers exclusively in Spanish, students mixed into their appropriate levels. Questions will vary from culture to politics to sport… all Spanish related. Great craic ( not crack cocaine but good fun…… ask an Irish person) is being had by all and sunder… and lest Spark is nearly finished its first day doing God’s work, helping people learning Spanish !!
If day 1 is anything to go by, Spark should have a colourful future. With enthusiastic teachers, eager learners and a cultural and social events calendar to match that of one of Hollywood’s finest – A perfect equilibrium between classroom learning and social learning appears to exist!!
