Free Spanish classes for Orihuela Costa residents

ANYONE living in the Orihuela Costa area who is not yet fluent in Spanish can improve their skills – or learn the language from scratch – free of charge in a month-long course starting after Easter.

Taking place every day from Tuesday, April 19 to Thursday, May 19 inclusive, classes are two hours long and tailored specifically to the needs of residents who are concerned with learning to communicate in ordinary, on-the-street situations that they face daily, whilst providing the background and structure to the language to enable them to get creative and expand their conversation under their own steam as they get confident.

A greater variety and scope of topics and more complex conversation will be introduced for higher levels.

For those who are starting out from zero, or near-zero, classes run from 14.00 to 16.00 every weekday.

Those who feel they would not benefit from a beginners' class and want to start learning to say what they want to say, not just what they are able to say, can join the upper-elementary and pre-intermediate class which runs from 16.00 to 18.00, Monday to Friday.

And for those who want to perfect an already sound working knowledge, the intermediate and advanced session is from 18.00 to 20.00 – evenings, so that those who work and want to improve their Spanish for their jobs can join lessons after they clock off.

After a month's worth of daily, two-hour classes, even the least-confident and most-cautious learner will make considerable progress, by default – most adults grappling with a new language are worried about their ability to remember what they have been taught, but the key to fluency is constant repetition.

If memory is an issue, you might have to repeat each new bit you learn more often, or over a longer time, and these new bits might have to come in smaller chunks, but the process eventually becomes habit-forming – no differently to learning any other skill, knowledge or set of vocabulary, such as how to use Facebook or SmartPhones.

After all, none of us knew what an 'App' was 20 years ago, or a QR code, or a USB port, or what downloading or uploading meant, and this terminology is now part of our everyday speech.

Typically, the point at which you're seriously considering giving up because you think you're not getting anywhere is exactly the moment you'll be on the cusp of grasping it – force your way through these doubts and keep going, then it'll suddenly all click into place when you least expect it.

And practise constantly – post-it notes all over the kitchen, talking to yourself, and accepting that you will 'make a fool of yourself' now and again when using your Spanish in public, because absolutely everyone with near-native fluency in a language has done so, too, and dines out on the anecdotes years later.

As well as being a conversation-starter, those red-faced moments which become amusing tales years later will help reassure new learners – and Spanish people are not going to laugh at you, since they just appreciate that you're making the effort to communicate with them.

Classes can be adapted for those who are deaf or hard of hearing, or with limited or no eyesight, as long as the organisers are aware in advance.

Now we've wiped out all your worries, excuses and potential drawbacks, all you have to do is send an email to residentes@orihuela.es, which can be in your own language, giving your name and NIE number and which level of class you want to join.