Review of DQ in Madrid

I spent a week in April at the Don Quijote School in Madrid after the GME, so finally I have got round to writing up some comments about it.

The Location

Centrally located (on first floor with lift) near Gran Vía, so it’s an excellent location for sightseeing.

There is a Starbucks on the corner, and a café directly beneath the college that serves very nice tortilla española…mmmm – I was dangerously addicted to Starbucks Vanilla Frappucinos when I was there.

The school facilities consist of many classrooms which can seat around 10 people, a rest area with vending machines and a computer area with about 8 computers. The pcs are always in use during breaks or lunchtime, and they are switched off promptly at 7pm. Internet connection speed is slow – I did try to connect wirelessly with my laptop but that was ULTRA slow – also they told me that I could not recharge my laptop up at the school so the surfing time would be limited in any case.

The Course

I opted to do the super-intensive class – 4 hour normal/grammar class and 2 hours conversation.

As a new starter, you are asked to come to the college 8am on Monday morning where you take a short written test – multichoice, then a short paragraph about the reasons you want to study Spanish, then you have a brief interview with one of the teachers – very relaxed not at all pressurised at all. Then after about a 30 minute wait they assign you to your classes. I got put in a class which was near the end of the B1 level – in fact on Thursday we took a test to go up to B2 – but of course I was only there one week.

Depending on your level your classes are either 0900 to 1300 or 1500 to 1900. My grammar class was the morning.

Then the conversation classes take place between 1300 and 1500 so then your class times would be 0900 to 1500 or 1300 to 1900. Only problem with afternoon is that you don’t get time to eat lunch (which I discovered is crucial for survival if you stay with a family).

In my interview I had asked to review the subjunctive so the class I was put in was just at the right level for me, they were just going through situations where you would use subjunctive. There were 7 in my class – a frenchman, a brasilian (although Japanese ethnically), a swede, a belgian, an italian, an irish man and me! Well you couldn’t get more global than that. This really added to the atmosphere in the class and I learnt a lot about the cultures and habits of the various countries.
I think the great thing was that only a 2 of them spoke English, so the ONLY way to communicate with them was in Spanish. And the great thing is that if you are all communicating in a second language no-one is particularly judgmental and you just communicate! You don’t’ feel particularly intimidated because none of you speak Spanish natively.

They also run a Culture Class which lasts one hour and starts at 7pm. After 6 hours of classes plus the fact that my classes finished at 3pm I was really not in the mood to go to a lecture style class – my flatmates went but the standard was variable – I think you should be at an intermediate level of understanding before you embark on this class otherwise the level of language might be hard to follow.

Overall standard

I thought the teaching standard was excellent, and the character of the different teachers really came out in these small groups. The 4 hour class was taught by 2 teachers, one pleasant but quiet and the other vociferous and noisy – so it made the grammar a lot easier to stomach because we had a lot of strange and funny conversations. I learnt a lot of vocabulary and when we didn’t know the words, sometimes the teachers translated it into English – too bad for the French, Portuguese and Italian speakers in my class! I guess they mainly have English speakers coming to learn Spanish.

The only downside was that because we were at the end of the level, Thursday was spent doing the test and reviewing it, then Friday was revision. Fine for me, but probably boring for those that were there previously.

The test was not impossible and the first teacher gave lots of hints about the test the day before – she tried very hard to reassure us that it was not a big deal. I think everyone who was there the next week, progressed to the next level.

We had about 15 mins between teachers and 15 mins till the conversation class – so eating was a problem…I ended up getting a few snacks for these breaks (perhaps a frappucino) and then eating properly after 3pm.

The conversation class was good except I felt I should have been in the class above (along with the Irish man) – as the rest of the class (5 of them) were struggling with the vocabulary and structures that I was using. Also there were those that “hogged” the class and took about 15 minutes to say 5 sentences…not their fault but it was a little frustrating. If I was there for longer I would have asked to move up a class (I knew there was only one girl in the class above).

In the conversation class, we discussed topics like nuclear energy, television, Franco (yikes! The teacher was an aficionado and so was the Irish man so it became more of a lecture), travels…a good mix.

I definitely want to return to DQ but probably I will go to Barcelona next time for 2 weeks.

The accommodation

I realise now that a lot of Spaniards do this as a money spinner so although the accommodation is spotlessly clean and physically fine, there doesn’t appear to be any soul or spirit in the place – it’s more like a private hostel. Also, perhaps I was unlucky, my owner was very stingy with the food and also always watching us – checking out the bathroom after we used it, locking her room and her bathroom. We were not encouraged to use the kitchen at all.

The two women who were staying there made all the difference – an Italian and a German. If they weren’t there (and the owner’s son) it would have been pretty dire in terms of company.

But it served its purpose – next time I’ll go to Barcelona and get into the student hostel above the college.

Summary

Well worth it, my spoken Spanish definitely stepped up a level after this week – however, the course structure is pretty traditional – and if you struggle with learning grammar for grammar’s sake you may find it tedious. Also, a lot of students reverted back to English as soon as the classes finished so it’s up to you to keep plugging at your Spanish if you want true “total immersion”.

Any other questions, just contact me!

Hola!

Yes I'm back, at last!

Spanish meetup next week on 15th May will be quiet, but intimate. Spanish speaking test on Wednesday - yikes!

Here's a good RADIO link : http://www.cope.es/

Listened to it whilst I was at work on Thursday and it's a mix of chat and news.

Hasta la próxima!

Found a great resource!

Via this link

http://www.realsimple.com/realsimple/gallery/0,21863,1591814-1,00.html

I found

http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/index.htm

if you search for Spanish you get a whole load of free resources for learning Spanish - fantastic!

enjoy!

Gringrich speaks Spanish....?

http://spanish.about.com/b/a/257480.htm

What do you reckon?

Gina Lollobrigida propels handbag at journalist

I wish I could find a video of this but Por La Mañana played this clip over and over again...was absolutely hilarious

Gina Lollobrigida propina su bolsazo a un periodista.

Propinar - to hit - however, it looked like she was propelling it towards her...if I find the clip I'll post it!

hasta luego!

Chiswick Spanish Meetup

Hi there! Welcome to my spanish blog if you are a first-time visitor!

Here are some hints & tips for making our Spanish evening as enjoyable as possible. Look forward to seeing you all there!

You can also browse round the rest of the blog, I have been adding things about Spanish intermittently over the last year or so. Oh and in January's blog you'll see a picture of me at the top of the Sagrada Familia.

Firstly and most importantly - don't panic - just enjoy yourself! It's not a class nor a test. Please just relax and enjoy. Everyone is usually nervous at first - ME in particular...

Two exceedingly useful questions:

1) Cómo se dice "i'm"? - how do you say "I'm going on holiday"?

2) Qué significa "tulipán"? - What does tuplipán mean?

The best 2 questions I learnt - why they don't teach that in the very first lesson of Spanish I don't know - I spent years trying to work them out.

Things you might like to look at:

Introductions - meeting people
Hola! Qué tal?
Estoy bien/cansada/muy ocupada en mi trabajo...
Me llamo Liz, cómo te llamas? (or se llama)
Mucho gusto - nice to meet you
Encantado/a de conocerte/le - nice to meet you
Estoy aquí por el Meetup español

Social questions - in particular review the tú verb conjugations - I still get in a muddle when asking questions.

e.g.
Dónde trabajas
Dónde trabajaste cuando estabas en el norte de Inglaterra

Useful phrases

Tener que + verb - to have to xxx
e.g. Tengo que ir ahora - I have to go now
Tengo que practicar más - I have to practise more

Poder + verb - to be able to (I can, you can etc)
e.g. puedes ver la película en el viernes - You can see the film on Friday
puedo dormir en la classe español porque... - I can sleep in the Spanish class because...

Querer + - I want/would like to
e.g. Quiero vivir en España en futuro

or if you are a bit posh

Quisiera vivir en España en futuro.

Gustar, encantar
me gusta jugar al badminton - I like playing badminton
me encantan los operas de Wagner

REALLY useful verbs

Poder
Decir
Hablar
Tener
Hacer
Llevar
Vivir
Estar
Ser
Saber
Conocer

As for conjugations - you can usually get by (but better to learn all of them of course!) with just the first three i.e. I, you (familiar) and he, she, it. If you use the preterite make sure you put the accent in the right place otherwise it will be confusing - i.e. hablo - I speak, habló - he spoke

Haber if you will use Past Perfect

Dare you use subjunctive???? arrrrgghhh...

Useful things in a bar or restaurant

Quieres beber algo?
Quieres comer algo?
Dónde están los servicios?

I'll add some more stuff when I get the chance.

p.s. if you find mistakes please let me know...thanks!

My del.icio.us Links

http://del.icio.us/lollykins/language?page=1

I've started social bookmarking with del.icio.us - this link will take you to all the language links I've collected so far...

Enjoy!

Really Learn Spanish website and podcast

Go and check this out - it's really good

www.spanishpodcasting.com

I have been listening to Number 5 (April 2005)

It has a transcript of a portion of Hugo Chavez's interview and you can see a tiny speaker near the calendar which is the link to the podcast.

Here is the video on Google video

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5832390545689805144

Enjoy!

Another great link that's growing and growing

Notes in Spanish is superb

http://www.notesinspanish.com/

It has loads of hints and tips, a forum, and you can print the transcript off as a worksheet at a £1 a go.

It's an offspin from Notes From Spain.

Hola - finalmente!

Hola

He volvido.

Aquí hay unos enlaces utilizandos.

http://spanishconversation.blogspot.com/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Spanishconversationworldwide/links

Espero que continuar esta blog, pero estoy ocupada y olvido siempre!

Sigh...

Nos vemos