Guidance For My Students
Since I launched Hello To Spanish in 2016 the shape, content and flow of my first ever free taster class and the organisation of a six-week course all from scratch was a success when it came to life.
My course has evolved and gone through many adjustments since my first class, always ensuring that what I offered wasn’t too daunting, but it wasn’t either too easy to not make it a valuable experience for you.
I am well aware of the challenges of learning a new language. The difficulty to string a few sentences together and the endless times you’ll probably remind people to slow down. The method I developed is simple. I help my students feel at ease by facilitating a simple formula to effectively remember Spanish pronunciation.
The two levels of courses I have designed have taken years of development to become user-friendly. Learning Spanish doesn’t need to be overwhelming, but rather fun and engaging. Welcome!
Make The Most Of It
During my classes, I’ve had the chance to witness a particular aspect when learning Spanish: the ability “to go with it”.
You’ll learn practical Spanish; therefore, we’ll spend more time putting into practice your knowledge in small and simple conversations. There will be some information I share with you that I consider relevant for your understanding. I’d suggest you fully commit to your course and do your best to not miss any of the classes, so you make the most of it.
If you happen to miss a lesson, please take the time to watch the recording of that week and complete your “weekly challenge” to not fall behind with the rest of the group.
Learning to speak Spanish takes some courage. Although I understand the nerves, I always make sure that all attendees have just begun their journey; therefore, we are all at “the same level”.
As we progress each week, I also make sure to go back and review past lessons.
Suppose you stress out because remembering stuff isn’t your strength; don’t be discouraged. The only aspect of the course you are expected to remember is the basic sounds in Spanish. We review them every week.
Engage With The Content And Your Fellow Students
Given my courses are available online, its more comfortable to simply click a link and take your course, regardless of the weather, distance or parking space!
2020 has shone a brighter light on technology and keeping up with it is highly recommendable. Who would have thought that you could book a virtual tour or attend a concert without living your sofa. (I know we can’t fake the real thing but still, is a head scratcher, don’t you think?).
Once you get past the initial mental barrier of having to do any of these things online, you are literally on the other side.
What I’ve seen with online lessons is that although we don’t interact physically (a tough aspect to bit), I notice people relax more in their own environment.
I had people in the past connecting to my classes from their cars or their holiday resorts! My motto is that while you learn enjoy it! Take yourself lightly and have fun. Taking anything in life too seriously, including yourself will give you more wrinkles and get you to a place where there’s hardly any room for growth, not to mention less spontaneity and ability to learn.
Worried About The Technology?
If you thought technology wasn’t your thing, take a moment and look back; identify the areas of your life where you get organised almost magically, like your online grocery shopping.
Remember how you used to dedicate a few hours a week to do your shopping?
The peace at which we are all having to adapt to this times of technology is crucial, and if you still glitch at this fact and struggle to understand (I’m one of those), there’s plenty of help with tutorials on YouTube on pretty much anything you can think of.
When booking your place to one of my courses, it isn’t different. I use a Zoom platform, which is similar to Skype, but with suitable options to run a course more effectively.
Zoom is user friendly and to put your mind at ease, you don’t need to create a Zoom account to be part of my classes. I’ll provide a Zoom link for your registration; make sure the data you enter is correct, particularly your email address and phone number.
Before committing to anything, we’d rather have a little taste, right? Because in the end, what if we don’t like it? So I’ve created free taster classes before the beginning of every six-week course.
You can check the dates here and make your payment online too.
So what to do? Once you see the Zoom link to sign up, follow the steps, and I’ll do the rest.
My classes and my courses’ content are adult-oriented, I love kids, but I don’t teach kids.
Embrace The Challenge
If you are pursuing to learn Spanish, go and get your planner and check the dates for my future free taster classes or my 6-week courses.
The aspects that people point out about my classes are that I’m a patient person; each lesson’s flow is smooth. They find a nice balance between enjoying the class and challenge.
If you are like me, I enjoy a good dosage of challenge to fuel me up and to set up on my mind the target. When you learn Spanish with me, the challenge will be there.
I’m aware we all learn at a different peace and take in new things in our own time, right? So take a seat I’ll share with you a list of challenges my students had to go through. Which ones will you be tackling?
- Technological issues
- The first online class ever
- Feeling self-conscious and awkward
- Social interaction a bit rusty
- Distractions
- Staying motivated
- Lack of in-person interaction
These are things we’ll all have to learn to deal with at some point, and I am no exception but know this: I value your trust, and I understand those barriers. You are not alone.
I am here to help you, and if there’s something I can do or say to ease your experience, do not hesitate and let me know!
My Recommendation For Class-Time
When you are learning online you’ll be required to find a place that’s well lit up, where the noise is kept to a minimum, where you’ll have to switch off your TV or radio and put your mobile on silent mode.
Have a glass of water or your favourite drink next to you (ideally not alcoholic as it doesn’t blend very well with the class!).
After each lesson you’ll have access to the pre-recorded version, take your time and watch it. Each lesson doesn’t go longer than 15 or 16 minutes. Watch these lessons as many times as you’d like, bring your questions to the next lesson if you have any and do your best on each weekly mission.
Our time together doesn’t go for too long, make the most of it!
Age and Remembering
Since I started teaching I’ve seen that a good amount of my students are above the age of fifty.
They came to the point where they wanted to make an effort and speak to a neighbour or a Spanish speaker as they felt tired of the thought of “I can’t do that”. These students are a delight to teach, they not only recognise that uselessness of that thought but also they are willing to give their 100{55a9bcc2d5bbe0d4dcec6df83061060b8d8d5a83f2ec7f4272ff24dced6bdce1} and more to prove that thought wrong.
I’ve had the pleasure to meet so many lovely people and many remarkable. There was one time this guy I’ll call “John” that had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease and came to learn with his brother-in-law. It was fascinating to see how much he participated and engaged playfully with the exercises, he had a straightforward sense of humour and came up with ingenious jokes which infused in the rest of us a sense of lightness. In one of the lessons he drew a comical story and at another occasion he even wrote a poem!
I love seeing people making the most of my courses but I mostly enjoy when I see them enjoying themselves.
You are not alone
Those nerves when you get the chance to speak some Spanish are very comprehensible the good thing I see is that we love to hear you speak!
Take this the right way when we smile or laugh at something you said, because it’s new to you, it’s different and you simply don’t know. Right?
In Spanish we have slightly over 20 different sounds, all of which once you know and master you can pretty much read anything because Spanish is a phonetic language. I designed a very simple method to help you get much better at your pronunciation.
When I was in school learning English it took me far too long to grasp the 44 different sounds and then remember the correct grammatical order. Simply years of study. With me you’ll learn practical skills only. The kind of things you are very likely to use and hopefully not forget! I’ll encourage you to give it a go and speak while we are on the class. It’s very important that you hear your own voice, the only guarantee is that you will only get better and better the more you do it. Feeling confident is very important. So if you are learning with me, you’ll definitely get to speak more.
On a very personal level
If you are searching for an effective and practical tool to help you change your relationship with your mind, anxiety, anger, uncertainty, lack of purpose or meaning, visit this website: www.thebrightpath.com You’ll find plenty of blogs, videos, books that will point you in the right direction.