learn.speak.use Spanish!

Tuesdays 8-10pm at 457 Bathurst Street (south of College)

Starts January 17, 2006

Anybody can learn a language. This course hopes to make Spanish more accessible to those who want to learn it by providing the necessary tools and information to understand it and an environment where the language can be spoken, heard and discussed.

Many people try to learn a language studying from books or tapes but I think you really need to use it to keep learning and stay interested. I want to offer this course to help people learn Spanish in a casual interactive way that works for them.

We will be covering Castellano, which is spoken in Spain and throughout Central and South America. This course is not intended for any specific level of experience. We will start with basic principles for those who have no previous knowledge of Spanish, how advanced the course becomes depends on how fast and what the class wants to learn.

There will be readings for each week explaining pronunciation, vocabulary and grammar to be discussed and practiced in class. We will also use movies and music if possible, or poems or simple readings with translation to see how people actually speak and write Spanish.

I have no official language teaching background or qualifications and things will not be explained in a very academic way. I have planned out the first few classes because there are basic things you need to know first but the course will be very much shaped by what the class wants to learn and what works for us. As facilitator I will do everything I can to make class an open, productive, and comfortable space.

If you have any questions please email me Pollie/Paola at pollie@rogers.com

Week 1

Introductions

Discussion and planning of course material

Basic pronunciation (alphabet, sounds and stress)

Ser- to be (conjugation of verb and how to say introductions)

Week 2

Review basic pronunciation

Simple vocab (numbers and time, colours etc.)

Useful verbs (to be, have, want, think, like etc.) and general rules for conjugation

Gendered nouns and appropriate forms of a, the, it, etc.

Week 3

Review of gendered nouns and appropriate forms of a, the, it, etc.

How to ask questions

How to describe or compare things (adjectives and connecting words)

Simplest way to talk about the future

Future week's topics to be announced