Feliz Navidad desde Spark Spanish!

Yes it’s that time of year again! We are getting into the Christmas spirit here at Spark and we have created a special seasonal quiz. Test your knowledge of Christmas in Spain with these “nutcrackers”…

We recommend you watch our Christmas video where you will find some answers to the questions below!

Once you have finished or if you get stuck you can view the answers to our quiz.

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Need a little help? Check out our Spanish Lesson on Christmas in Spain.

Respuestas

Answers

1. ¿Qué día se abren los regalos de navidad tradicionalmente en España?

El 6 de enero. En España los regalos no se dan hasta el 6 de enero. Tiene un origen cristiano, ya que es el día que los 3 Reyes Magos llevaron sus regalos al niño Jesús.

 

2. ¿Cómo se le llama en España a ese señor viejito, gordo y vestido de rojo y blanco que nos trae regalos en Navidad?

Papá Noel. Aunque Papá Noel no es muy típico en España, cada vez más familias se dan, al menos un regalo, el día de Papá Noel.

 

3. ¿Qué reciben los niños tradicionalmente como regalo si han sido malos?

Carbón. Es muy típico en España que los padres digan a sus hijos que si no se portan bien sólo recibirán carbón el día de los Reyes Magos, aunque al final siempre reciban regalos.

4. ¿Qué se tiran desde las cabalgatas de reyes?

Caramelos. Se celebra el 5 de enero, un día antes del día de los Reyes Magos. Es un paseo en carroza que hacen los Reyes Magos para que los niños pueden verlos antes del día 6. Mientras pasean por la ciudad tiran caramelos a todos los niños.

 

5. ¿Qué se celebra el 28 de diciembre?

El día de los inocentes. Es un día para gastar bromas. Normalmente se pega un muñeco en la espalda de amigos y familiares sin que se den cuenta. El objetivo es que vayan a trabajar, a la calle, etc. con este muñeco en su espalda. Además se gastan muchos otros tipos de bromas.

6. ¿Qué comen los españoles cuando suenan las campanadas de fin de año?

12 uvas. Una uva por cada mes de año para traer suerte.

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Christmas in Spain QuizEt oui nous voilà déjà à cette période  de l’année que nous aimons tant ! Déjà dans les préparatifs de Noël à Spark ! Et spécialement pour vous, voici un quizz spécial ! Testez vos connaissances sur Noël en Espagne !
Une fois que vous avez fini ou que vous ne savez pas répondre (ne vous inquiétez pas, on ne le dira pas !), regardez les réponses à notre quizz.
(Nous vous recommandons de regarder notre vidéo de Noël de notre adorable Amelia où vous pourrez trouver quelques réponses aux questions du quizz !)

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Vous avez besoin d’aide ? Jetez un coup d’oeil au cours en ligne d’Amelia sur Noël en Espagne.
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Respuestas
Réponses
1. ¿Qué día se abren los regalos de navidad tradicionalmente en España?
El 6 de enero. En España los regalos no se dan hasta el 6 de enero. Tiene un origen cristiano, ya que es el día que los 3 Reyes Magos llevaron sus regalos al niño Jesús.
2. ¿Cuál de las siguientes frases contiene el verbo PONER en tercera persona del singular de pretérito imperfecto de indicativo?
Ponía el árbol de Navidad. Del verbo “poner”. “Pon-aba” tiene la terminación de los verbos que acaban en “ar” en pretérito imperfecto pero en este caso es “er”. “Puso” es pretérito indefinido.
3. ¿Cómo se le llama en España a ese señor viejito, gordo y vestido de rojo y blanco que nos trae regalos en Navidad?
Papá Noel. Aunque Papá Noel no es muy típico en España, cada vez más familias se dan, al menos un regalo, el día de Papá Noel.
4. Elige la opción correcta:
Si no has sido bueno en 2012, los Reyes Magos te traerán carbón. Es la única opción correcta. La 1º sería “gusta” (singular); la 2º sería “cena” (3ªpers. Sing.).
5. ¿Qué reciben los niños tradicionalmente como regalo si han sido malos?
Carbón. Es muy típico en España que los padres digan a sus hijos que si no se portan bien sólo recibirán carbón el día de los Reyes Magos, aunque al final siempre reciban regalos.
6. ¿Qué se celebra el 28 de diciembre?
El día de los inocentes. Es un día para gastar bromas. Normalmente se pega un muñeco en la espalda de amigos y familiares sin que se den cuenta. El objetivo es que vayan a trabajar, a la calle, etc. con este muñeco en su espalda. Además se gastan muchos otros tipos de bromas.
7. ¿Qué se tiran desde las cabalgatas de reyes?
Caramelos. Se celebra el 5 de enero, un día antes del día de los Reyes Magos. Es un paseo en carroza que hacen los Reyes Magos para que los niños pueden verlos antes del día 6. Mientras pasean por la ciudad tiran caramelos a todos los niños.
8.  El día de la Inmaculada, el 8 de diciembre…
Las familias decoran sus hogares con motivos navideños.

Thanks to all our Spark Spanish students

It is truely hard to take in we are one year on from our founding! It seems like yesterday that Inge wrote our inaugural post announcing to our audience of 4 (Inge, David, Lorenzo and I lol…) that Spark was founded.

Spark Spanish Christmas

Spark Spanish Christmas Photo

Back a year ago Spark was: a building waiting to be renovated, a web domain without content and a lot of ideas about how to attract students to study with us and make sure they had a great time.  Since then Sparkville has been finished and painted orange to represent both our own colours and please our Dutch followers (at least we like kidding that lol…); our web page has risen from 20,000,000 most accessed in the world to 200,000 and we have had 200 wonderful Spanish students through our doors.  We are proud of what we have accomplished here at Spark during the last year but it has only been possible due to our great Spark team, each and everyone of them has been “sparktastic”: Amelia with her smiles, James with his friendly laugh, Nico with his ability to be a jack of all trades, Neil with his artistic touch and Lorenzo with his I.T. wizardry.  Not to mention all our fantastic teachers: Evelyn, Gema, Mari José and the wonderful Almudena from the Spanish side and the amazing Leoni and Adam from the English.  Then a special thank you must go out to Audrey for being there at the very beginning when Spark was just an office in our own home and to Iris and Toni for being Spanish teachers themselves as they keep all sparkling clean.  We have had an incredibly hectic last year but it has been an amazing journey and have truely loved spending it with all our Sparktastic students…. your learning and well being truely has been our great passion this last year and we really hope you have enjoyed your Spark time.

From all at Spark we take this opportunity to not only share our 1st birthday with you all but also to wish you a Feliz Navidad y Feliz Año Nuevo.  Please dont forget to pass on the Spark word as is your recommendation that keeps us going…muchas gracias a todos y todas!

Spanish challenges

Learning Spanish top challenges chosen by our Spark Staff

Spanish is said to be one of the easiest languages to learn and we at SparkSpanish dont for one moment disagree with this.  The pronunciation is phonetic making it easy to read words once you know the sound structure and its vocabulary is very similar to other Romance languages and is also quite similar to English.  Also its articles and verb structure on the whole are much easier to grasp for Spanish language learners than say German or Dutch.

However we decided it would be fun to focus this article on the challenges of learning Spanish, so we asked our Guiri (colloquial Spanish term for non Spaniards) members of our Spark team what were the hardest parts of learning Spanish.  The levels of our team vary from beginner to advanced so our top 3 Spanish challenges encompass all levels.

1.) Past simple tense: whereas English has one form Spanish has two.  The indefinido and imperfecto form not only add extra combinations one has to know but also the past changes for each person (I, you, we etc…), meaning for example whereas walk in the past in English has only one form “walked”, the Spanish equivalent “andar” has 12 (6 each for each person for both indefinido and imperfecto).

2.) Speed of delivery: Most of our learners of Spanish at Spark Spanish complain how fast the locals speak and they are justified to so as according to studies by the time magazine, Spanish is the second fastest language spoken language blowing the socks of it Germanic counterparts (Dutch, German, English etc..).

3.) Subjunctive: among many Spanish language learners the “subjuntivo” is known as the bane of their learning because just when you think you are getting somewhere with the tenses, your Spanish teacher throws the subjunctive at you “ouch!”  The subjunctive which broadly speaking is used: for the “uncertain future”, after certain set verb forms/constructions and in conditional sentences is a very complex verb form to master.

Hope you enjoyed this blog post on learning Spanish.  Keep in touch with more via our Spark Facebook and Spanish Newsletter and please don’t hesitate to check out our online Spanish classes or check out all our Spanish Course information.

Spanish challenges

Voici quelques défis qu’il faut surmonter pour apprendre l’espagnol (par notre équipe Spark).
L’espagnol est connu pour être une des langues les plus faciles à apprendre et à SparkSpanish, nous ne le désapprouvons pas. La prononciation phonétique rend plus facile la lecture des mots et son vocabulaire est particulièrement similaire aux autres langues romanes et à l’anglais. De plus, les articles et la conjugaison sont beaucoup plus simples à intégrer que ceux de la langue allemande ou néerlandaise.
Cependant, nous trouvons qu’il est amusant de se concentrer sur les défis que représente l’apprentissage de l’espagnol. Nous avons donc demandé aux membres Guiri (non espagnols) de notre équipe Spark où sont les principales difficultés dans l’apprentissage de l’espagnol. Les niveaux d’espagnol de notre équipe varient de débutant à avancé donc les défis que nous vous proposons sont valables pour tous les niveaux.
1.) Les temps du passé simple : avec les (trop ?) nombreux verbes irréguliers, on en perd la tête.  Et quand il s’agit de faire la différence entre le preterito ou l’imperfecto, on patauge !
2.) La rapidité à laquelle les Espagnols parlent : La plupart des étudiants de Spark Spanish se plaignent de la vitesse à laquelle parlent les habitants de la région. Et ils ont raison ! Selon le Time magazine, l’espagnol est la seconde langue la plus rapide, et coupe largement le sifflet aux langues germaniques (hollandais, allemand, anglais…).
3.) Subjonctif : tous ceux qui apprennent l’espagnol dans le monde se sont mis d’accord, le subjonctif est définitivement le point sur lequel ils pêchent. Quand on pense qu’on a enfin réussi à faire quelque chose de bien avec les temps et que ça y est, on est bon et bien non, le professeur d’espagnol nous lance le subjonctif à la figure ! En gros le subjonctif est utilisé pour un futur incertain, après certains verbes ou certains groupes de mots et dans des phrases conditionnelles, facile non ? Et bien pas tant que ça !
Nous espérons que vous aimez cet article sur l’apprentissage de l’espagnol. Restez informé de nos derniers articles grâce à notre page Facebook et notre newsletter et n’hésitez pas à jetez un coup d’oeil à nos cours d’espagnol en ligne ou à toutes les infos sur nos cours d’espagnol.

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Spanish Course options 2012

Chefchaouen Morocco Spark Spanish group trip

Spark Spanish Trip to Morocco

Spanish and Morocco: Ever fancied going to Morocco? Well with Spark you can.  In 2012 we will be combining our Spanish Courses with a fantastic weekend trip away in majestic Morocco.  We would leave straight after Spanish classes on Friday in our own Spark van with our wonderful Nico asyour lovely driver and escort and then take a Friday ferry from Algerciras to Tangiers where we would pass an exciting weekend in unforgetable north Africa.  Included  would be a day trip to the lovely blue town of Chefchaouen.  Full details coming soon!

Spanish and Paragliding:To add a little spice to our programmes we are teaming up with a paragliding provider in the sierra of cadiz where we will be offering paragliding crash course ending in the wonderful activity itself.  Seeing a bird-eye’s view of the world is at your finger tips as you mutter those newly learned Spanish word…wow!

Spark Paragliding

Spark Paragliding

Español TOTAL: this is our star addition to our Spark programmes and would involve a weekend away in the wonderful sierra de cadiz but the secret to this special programme is each student who signs up will be providing us with a written promise that they will only speak in Spanish throughout the two days and wont be using a word of their native tongue.  This programme isnt for the faint hearted as it isnt an easy thing to achieve but with our star Spark team there to guide you on your way via a host of exciting activities, it is an achievable goal and one which will make a great difference to your overall Spanish learning.

Spanish and Cycling: during this weekend we will set ourselves the challenge of doing a 73km cycle ride along the wonderful via verde de la sierra de cadiz.  The via verde is an route through the centre of the Cadiz mountain range which was laid down originally for a railway track with 25 tunnels being completed but the Spanish Civil War broke out and the rainway track was never placed.  10 years ago it was made it a tourist route and it is truely an outstanding experience and marvellous way to see the Spanish countryside.  We will be starting from Puerto Serrano and doing the 32,5km to Olvera where we will spend the night having a marvellous well deserved meal and then on Sunday will do the easier 32,5km back to the start.

Via Verde Spark Trip

Via Verde Spark Trip

These are just some of the exciting programmes we will be running in 2012 but please dont forget about Carnival programme in February, Semana Santa at Easter and Feria in April/May, not to mention other great Spanish and Sport  and Spanish and Dance programmes.

Check out our Spark Calendar to see all the events already scheduled and also check out our cultural events page for great local events going on so you can have the perfect Spanish Language Holiday.

If you wish for more information on any of these programmes, please dont hesitate to contact us via chat box in bottom right hand corner of page or to request a call back.

> Enroll now.

Your learning, Our passion

Spark Languages at the forefront of language technology

Spark has always been at the forefront of language technology and has continued  to develop new ways to enhance the language learning experience.In recognition of this, Spark is proud to have recently been showcased by our CRM partners BatchBlue.

Batchbook CRM is a web-based application that has become an essential part of our business  and helps us to manage our contacts and handle many aspects of the interaction and communication with them. We have also been able to create a chat system on our website along with an online enrollment form and shopping cart to make a helpful and easy process for our customers to start their language learning. Thanks to Lorenzo Vigentini, our IT wizard based in sunny Scotland, we have been able to integrate Batchbook with our IT infrastructure and web presence.

Read the Article here: Batchbook Customer Profile: Spark Languages

Interested in studying Spanish in Spain? Visit our Courses page and sign-up to our newsletter for more information.

  1. El Puerto de Santa Maria: “Study Spanish where the Spanish  go on Holiday” = LEARN MORE SPANISH
  2. Our teachers stay in our cultural residence with the students. = SOCIALISE MORE WITH SPANIARDS.
  3. Our passion for education and desire to do things well is huge. = EACH STUDENT FEELS SPECIAL WHEN AT SPARK.
  4. Our accommodation prices are great great value for money. = QUALITY AT AN AFFORDABLE RATE.
  5. We offer free pick ups and drop offs at our local airport and train station. = SAVINGS AND PEACE OF MIND.

Spark truely is a passionate language school that cares deeply about its student learning and well being.  Please check our quick programme links below and dont hesiate to get in touch:

Spanish CourseAccommodationVideos of El Puertowho are we?PricesCultrual Events ProgrammeBrochureNewsletterTestimonialsSpark on FacebookRequest a Call BackEnroll Now

  1. El Puerto de Santa Maria: “Etudier l’espagnol là où les Espagnols partent en vacances” = APPRENEZ ENCORE PLUS D’ESPAGNOL
  2. Les professeurs vivent dans notre résidence avec les étudiants. = INTERAGISSEZ AVEC DE VÉRITABLES ESPAGNOLS.
  3. Notre passion pour l’éducation et notre désir de faire les choses bien sont énormes. = CHAQUE ETUDIANT SE SENT UNIQUE A SPARK.
  4. Nos tarifs de logement sont bons pour le porte-monnaie. = LA QUALITÉ A  UN PRIX ABORDABLE.
  5. Nous offrons des transferts gratuits jusqu’à l’aéroport local ou à la gare. = ECONOMIE ET TRANQUILLITÉ D’ESPRIT

Spark est une école de langues passionée qui tient particulièrement à l’apprentissage de ses étudiants et à leur bien-être. Cliquez sur nos liens ci-dessous pour découvrir notre école sous toutes ses facettes. N’hésitez pas à entrer en contact.
Cours d’espagnol – Logement – Vidéos d’El PuertoQui sommes-nous ?Tarifs – Programmes d’activités socio-culturelles – Newsletter Témoignages – Spark sur FacebookDemander un rappelInscrivez-vous maintenant

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Spanish Course Photos

We are excited to pass you on our great Spanish Course Slideshow with some great photos of our last three months at Spark.  Thanks to all our students for being wonderful to give Spanish classes to and a special thanks to Neil for putting the slideshow together.  I hope you all enjoy it!

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Great Spanish Course Offers: Quality at an affordable rate

To celebrate the successful start of our Spanish programmes we at Spark are offering Spanish Language lovers everywhere the chance to benefit from 50% off their accommodation when they book a minimum two week Spanish course with us.  What’s even better is the offer is applicable to existing offers available on Spanish courses, meaning you can benefit from savings in both areas.  Our discounts on Spanish courses go up to 30% off the course price depending on the length of your stay. For example students staying for 4 weeks in a single ensuite room would save 250€ (normal price 500€) on their accommodation and a further 70E (normal price 700€) off their Spanish Course, giving a whopping saving of 320€!

Got your attention havent we?

But dont just take our word on it, check out what past student have to say about their Spark experience and check out all the fun everyone has had on our facebook page.  Also check out what else is included in this great Spark offer?

Having a great time!

How do i sign up?

If you are interested in studying with us, we suggest you:

1.) Calculate your course price using our price calculator where you can also see price in your currency.  Remember that long stay discounts are applied in this calculator but the special 50% off accommodation is not but would of course at the moment of payment provided you booked up a course before the end of 2011.

2.) Enroll easily and quickly via our online enrollment form.  We suggest you do this asap to gurantee your course week as places are going quickly.

If you have any queries at any moment, know you can check them with a Spark Online Assistant in our chat room, or via skype (Skype.support) or by phone (0034965003300).

Want to know more about Spark and our great Spanish courses?

We suggest you check out the following links: Spanish Classes, accommodation, El Puerto de Santa Maria and videos on location and info on Spark’s special and famous fresh approach to Spanish learning.

Spanish Language School in Spain – Sparkville

The Sparkville residence makes for the perfect place to learn Spanish in Spain. You are immersed to the amazing Spanish culture and you can share your learning experience with like-minded people who are also studying Spanish. You can practice your Spanish together and make some wonderful new friends.

 

Click here for Sparkville photos