English language
Chinese language
German language
French language
Greek language
Spanish language
Italian language
Portuguese language
Russian language
Turkish language
After you have done a course of conversational Spanish or Spanish for beginners and acquired elementary speaking skills, you will have an excellent opportunity to combine two activities: a holiday in a Spanish city or town and a summer course on Spanish.
Why do you first need to achieve a basic level, then go abroad to study?
The answer is simple: in order to build a good house, you need to lay good foundations. These foundations are the system of knowledge and skills given by a tutor of Spanish. You cannot acquire them in a Spanish-speaking country where teachers do not speak your mother tongue and cannot explain difficult grammar rules and draw an analogy between Spanish and Russian set expressions and structures.
On the other hand, nothing can replace an enjoyable holiday which will give you not only a deep tan but also new knowledge, funny stories and a great feeling of being able to speak Spanish, to be understood and understand, though with some difficulty, what other people tell you, catch familiar phrases from news and songs.
After such a holiday you will boost your motivation to learn Spanish, at your first lesson after the holiday you are sure to share your impressions with your teacher. Let us do it in Spanish! This will give your teacher a chance to evaluate your progress and determine the themes and rules to work on more thoroughly. Do not be surprised: short summer courses are designed to improve speaking and listening skills while the theory is slightly neglected. It is acceptable since the main objective of the teachers at the course of Spanish is to motivate students and help them break the language barrier.
If you decide to spend your holiday at home or in the country, it gives you a great opportunity to practise those things you never got round to doing throughout the year: comprehending literary texts, reading and creative writing. You do not have to buy expensive course books or books in the original. Just find a website about a writer or poet, creating in Spanish, print out a few works (or a big one) and take them with you, along with a small Spanish-Russian dictionary. Read the book and write down unknown words onto the margins of your printout, which is a big advantage, because it belongs to you and is being used for learning purposes. So you will not have a guilty conscience about "making the book dirty". Soon you will notice that there are fewer words on the margins. The thing is that each writer or poet has their own special "code" - a number of words which are repeatedly used in their works. The more books by this author you read, the deeper understanding of his or her personal vocabulary you have. First, we recommend reading the poetry of one author: poems are quite short, so they will not take up much of your time. There is one more interesting way to remember and even improve Spanish during a holiday - it is a diary. Keep a small diary in Spanish, write down your secrets, thoughts, events that happened during the days. Your friends and family will hardly guess what you have written about - this is your private space. Do not worry that there is no teacher who could correct your mistakes. You will make mistakes, but you can correct them later. The point is to produce and express your ideas in Spanish.
Wherever you are, you have an PM3 player - download Spanish songs you liked and listen to them on the way home, on a plane, while doing sport. You will not notice that you learn your favourite songs and start pronouncing words more confidently and naturally. Find lyrics on the internet, learn them and sing along with your favourite band, enjoy the music and the way Spanish words sound!
If you like cooking - indulge yourself in a Spanish breakfast that is quite simple. Search for a recipe of the Gaspacho Andaluz or simply fry aromatic Catalonian pan amb tomaquet (pan con tomate), having drizzled olive oil over it, rubbed with tomatoes and garlic, and salted. First, look up a dictionary and find the Spanish equivalents to these words, then at breakfast share your knowledge with your family and friends - let them pick up some shiny, exotic Spanish!
Useful links:
-
Spanish Courses for Foreign Students at Barcelona University
-
-
-
A complete collection of poems in Spanish by Federico Garcia Lorca
-
-
-
If you would like to prepare for your trip more carefully, or if you have internet connection in your country house where you spend your summer holiday, you can always complete our application form and sign up for the course “Spanish for Travellers from Skype-Language”!
