# Learning Spanish



## Bolehill (Mar 10, 2016)

Hi there expats. I'm a newbie. I've just bought a house near Cartagena. Only for holidays at the moment, rather than to live in full-time, but I'd like to learn Spanish. I've heard that if you own a house in Spain it can entitle you to attend free classes in Spanish. Does anyone know if that is true and, if so, how do I find out about classes in my area?

Thanks


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## xabiaxica (Jun 23, 2009)

Bolehill said:


> Hi there expats. I'm a newbie. I've just bought a house near Cartagena. Only for holidays at the moment, rather than to live in full-time, but I'd like to learn Spanish. I've heard that if you own a house in Spain it can entitle you to attend free classes in Spanish. Does anyone know if that is true and, if so, how do I find out about classes in my area?
> 
> Thanks


:welcome:

Some local councils hold free Spanish lessons for residents. Owning a holiday home wouldn't qualify, I'm afraid.


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## Bolehill (Mar 10, 2016)

Thanks for the welcome, Xabiachica . Disappointing re. the free lessons, though. I was told that it didn't matter whether you lived there full-time or part-time - if you were paying council tax etc then you qualified.


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## xabiaxica (Jun 23, 2009)

Bolehill said:


> Thanks for the welcome, Xabiachica . Disappointing re. the free lessons, though. I was told that it didn't matter whether you lived there full-time or part-time - if you were paying council tax etc then you qualified.


It's usually if you are registered on the padrón. You only do that if you spend more than half the year at the property, in which case you'd be tax resident as well.


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## Bolehill (Mar 10, 2016)

What's the padron?


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## Chica22 (Feb 26, 2010)

I would check with your local Town Hall. The 'free' classes where we live are free and there does not appear to be any requirements to register on the Padron. In fact there are people that start the class in October and leave to go back to the UK in February.

However this could be due to the fact that there are only a small number of Foreigners who attend the class, and therefore there is plenty of space available.

But if you are only using your property as a holiday home....ie only here for a few weeks/month, there would be little point in joining a one hour weekly class, that commences at the end of September and finishes in June. eg if you are a beginner you would find it difficult to join the class in for example November.

If you are determined to learn Spanish, maybe paying for a private tutor whilst you are here would be a better option.


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## Lynn R (Feb 21, 2014)

I agree that joining a class, whether they be publicly funded free ones or private, would not be very useful for someone who only comes to Spain for holidays. You would miss so much of what the class would have covered in your absence, and the teacher would not be able to go over everything to let you catch up, as that would be unfair to the rest of the class.

A one to one arrangement with a teacher would probably be better, but you would still have the problem of how to practice when you were back in the UK, because if you don't use what you've learned, it doesn't tend to stick very well.

Do you have an Instituto Cervantes anywhere near where you live/work in the UK, as if you currently spend more time there it might be better to start learning there to give you more continuity?

http://www.cervantes.es/uk_ireland/learn_spanish_en.htm


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## Bolehill (Mar 10, 2016)

Thanks Chica22 and LynnR. I've had a look at the Cervantes institute website and it looks really good, but the travelling to Leeds and back would be too much. Maybe I'll look for a class in Sheffield and just try to be very gregarious when I'm in Spain!


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## Maureen47 (Mar 27, 2014)

I go to free classes and the only info for Spain I had to fill in on my form was my NIE , no mention of Padron although we are on the Padron. The classes are good if you have done very little Spanish before , I go to these and also have a private lesson once a week and attend an intercambio session once a week. I also do 3-4 hrs at home with books , DVD's, online resources. It is a big undertaking learning a new language especially as you get older , the night school I did in UK before we moved certainly helped too , Good Luck ;-)


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## Pesky Wesky (May 10, 2009)

and


maureen47 said:


> It is a big undertaking learning a new language especially as you get older , the night school I did in UK before we moved certainly helped too , Good Luck ;-)


It certainly is, and going to class for 2 or even 3 or 4 hours a week will not be enough to learn or make progress in a language. People will see much more progress if they do as you do - work at home, go over class work, practice, practice, practice


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## Bolehill (Mar 10, 2016)

Thanks Maureen and Pesky . Yes, I'm sure it will be hard work. I teach English as a second / foreign language in the UK, so the boot will be on the other foot. Should make me appreciate how much effort my students put in!


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## Rockpea (Sep 11, 2015)

Pesky Wesky said:


> and
> It certainly is, and going to class for 2 or even 3 or 4 hours a week will not be enough to learn or make progress in a language. People will see much more progress if they do as you do - work at home, go over class work, practice, practice, practice


That's so true! I'm almost at the end of my second term of night class here in Bristol. The first term, I did my homework and would look through my notes from the previous class a little bit, but that was it. I felt completely in over my head and as though everyone else was miles better than me (which they were! - I was the only COMPLETE beginner).

This term, I've thrown myself into it and feel so much more positive! I study every day for at least an hour (2 or more if I can) and do my own research/revision on the topics we're covering. I watch YouTube classes, have got several books on grammar, and it's all slowly starting to come together. I feel so much more confident and am no longer the 'worst' in the class! 

I think the trick is that you have to make learning the language a part of your life - thinking about it often, running words through your head, making time to study. You can't just dabble at it - as I found to my detriment! 

I've also found an app for my phone called 'anki app' and I make flashcards of the new words/phrases that I want to memorise, and can then read them on my phone whenever I have the time - on the bus, in a queue for a coffee etc. Sounds simple but it makes a difference!

I WILL get there!! I doubt I'll ever get even close to fluent but I really want to be able to have easy simple conversations where the words flow rather than having to think and stumble over every word!

Rp


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## Calas felices (Nov 29, 2007)

The best thing I did was to do intercambio with a Spanish speaker who was about the same level as me. Every week we converse for two hours - we cover every subjects and do the first hour in English, the second hour in Spanish. We have tremendous fun and I hope we learn something.


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## Maureen47 (Mar 27, 2014)

Bolehill said:


> Thanks Maureen and Pesky . Yes, I'm sure it will be hard work. I teach English as a second / foreign language in the UK, so the boot will be on the other foot. Should make me appreciate how much effort my students put in!


I have a TEFL qualification and the grammar knowledge and understanding from this has certainly helped with learning Spanish ;-)


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## Maureen47 (Mar 27, 2014)

Calas felices said:


> The best thing I did was to do intercambio with a Spanish speaker who was about the same level as me. Every week we converse for two hours - we cover every subjects and do the first hour in English, the second hour in Spanish. We have tremendous fun and I hope we learn something.


I am really enjoying intercambio , its a relaxed opportunity to be able to practice , practice , practice as mentioned by Pesky !


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## Maureen47 (Mar 27, 2014)

Rockpea said:


> That's so true! I'm almost at the end of my second term of night class here in Bristol. The first term, I did my homework and would look through my notes from the previous class a little bit, but that was it. I felt completely in over my head and as though everyone else was miles better than me (which they were! - I was the only COMPLETE beginner).
> 
> This term, I've thrown myself into it and feel so much more positive! I study every day for at least an hour (2 or more if I can) and do my own research/revision on the topics we're covering. I watch YouTube classes, have got several books on grammar, and it's all slowly starting to come together. I feel so much more confident and am no longer the 'worst' in the class!
> 
> ...


Its amazing how quickly your level of understanding increases when you are here , there is little English spoken in the area we live in so we have no choice. Even in the almost 5 months we have been here my Spanish has improved so much , I have much more confidence to at least try and can now have a reasonable conversation with my Spanish neighbours and confidently go about my business. The telephone on the other hand I am finding much more difficult but will persevere. The only other thing helping when Spanish fails here is that there is a lot of French spoken and my French is way better than my Spanish at present.


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## Chica22 (Feb 26, 2010)

Bolehill said:


> Thanks Chica22 and LynnR. I've had a look at the Cervantes institute website and it looks really good, but the travelling to Leeds and back would be too much. Maybe I'll look for a class in Sheffield and just try to be very gregarious when I'm in Spain!


Hi Bolehill
I originate from Sheffield (until 10 years ago) small world eh!!!! When we lived in Sheffield we were part of a Spanish Association, which consisted predominantely of people of mixed marriages (Spanish/English) but also English people attended who wanted to speak Spanish. I am not too sure if the group still exists, but it may be worth asking around in Sheffield, or checking newspapers etc. for meeting.

There are private tutors in Sheffield who teach Spanish on a one to one basis (a couple of my friends pay for lessons). If you are interested, pm me, and I will get you a name and telephone number


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## Bolehill (Mar 10, 2016)

Small world indeed, Chica22! Actually, a colleague of mine mentioned that Spanish group (I think it's the same one), but I'd have to improve my Spanish before I could join, I think. I'm not really 'conversation ready' at the moment! I can't afford to pay for lessons at the moment, but I shall try to immerse myself as much as possible by using websites, apps etc. I might have a look at that app that Rockpea mentioned...


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## michaelbr51 (Mar 12, 2016)

*free online Spanish courses*

I've found few free online Spanish courses, as any online courses, you don't practice many conversations, but at least you'll learn grammar and vocabularies, and some of them even has an incentive to practice the language on a daily basis. If interested, you can take a look at these sites:
- duolingo (this site I'm using frequently).
- instreamia (this is a great site, but unfortunately it seems abandoned, have lot of bugs and some links/features are broken)
- memrise (stopped using it, I spent a lot of time looking for courses, so I just gave up).

another thing I'm doing to learn the language is to watch Spanish movies in Youtube and soap opera, unfortunately very few has Spanish subs, so you'll have to be medium to advanced to understand it and reading Spanish books.

ps: I'm new so I'm not able to post links, but if you search Google with duolingo, instreamia and memrise you should be able to find them.

Happy learning


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## Bolehill (Mar 10, 2016)

Thanks Michaelbr51  Yes, I'm using duolingo too, but I hadn't heard of the other two, so I've just googled them and added them to my favourites. I've got no excuses now - I just need to get on with learning!!!


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## michaelbr51 (Mar 12, 2016)

I just found out that there's a government TV station rtve, which broadcast historic soap opera, and it has Spanish subtitles, this is a great help for me, sometimes I don't understand the spoken word but written I understand better, just google rtve and you'll find it. For those of you who also likes Spanish history, I would recommend Isabel, Carlos the Empiror, but there are a bunch of other soap operas.


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## Elyles (Aug 30, 2012)

michaelbr51 said:


> I just found out that there's a government TV station rtve, which broadcast historic soap opera, and it has Spanish subtitles, this is a great help for me, sometimes I don't understand the spoken word but written I understand better, just google rtve and you'll find it. For those of you who also likes Spanish history, I would recommend Isabel, Carlos the Empiror, but there are a bunch of other soap operas.


 if your TV is a later model you can put subtitles on everything with your remote.


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## michaelbr51 (Mar 12, 2016)

For those of you who's interested in free Spanish course, there's one given by UPC (Universitat Politècnica de Valencia), it's online and on demand/self paced. The site is edX, unfortunately I'm not able to post the link, I'm newbie here, just google edX, then find Spanish language course, any trouble, please let me know.


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## Bolehill (Mar 10, 2016)

Nice one Michaelbr! Thanks for the tips - I shall definitely be using these websites


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## Simon22 (May 22, 2015)

The EDX site just ended up with this one Learn Spanish


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## Pesky Wesky (May 10, 2009)

Exercises to practice Spanish from Centro Virtual de Cervantes ( the government backed organization for promotion of the Spanish language and culture) from Beginner A1 to Advanced C1
CVC. Actividades del AVE. Aveteca.


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## KristinK (Mar 26, 2016)

Simon22 said:


> The EDX site just ended up with this one]
> 
> I got the course as described. Just had to enrol.


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