Originally designed for English speakers living in Spanish speaking countries, but also of interest to intermediate level Spanish learners.
The "tips & trucos" course offers strategies for improving communication and understanding, as well as warning of common pitfalls and suggesting ways to increase vocabulary and exploit simple grammar to greater effect.
Course Outline:
Introduction Understanding the problems:
Comparing & contrasting Spanish & English
Pronunciation The accent question
Pitch and intonation
Communications strategies Getting your point across
-
Why it's better to receive than to get
- Fillers & frases hechas
Understanding others
- Listening strategies
- Closed questions
Expanding your vocabulary Diminutives & derivatives
Suffixes & prefixes
Mind maps & word lobsters
Other mnemonic techniques
A little bit of grammar won't kill you Word order
Gender - why it's important & potential pitfalls
Agreement
Person & pronouns
Two ways of being (ser, estar)
Having and taking (haber, tener, tomar)
Other verbs
- Structure
- Tenses and their uses
- Reflexives
Conclusion Where to go from here
- Monitoring & auto-correction
- Reading, writing & other practice
If you've ever found yourself asking for a Neapolitan male to dunk in your café con leche, got embarrassed and claimed to be pregnant, and never realised that el problema is always masculine, this course is for you. If you can't tell a bee from a sheep, if you suffer from "subjunctivitis", or find that verb forms make you tense or moody, don't despair at how much you don't know: learn to make the most of what you do know.
Mentor
Gwyneth Box writes poetry and non-fiction in both Spanish and English and is an experienced commercial and literary translator. She has had photo-reports and articles published in international magazines and has won a number of UK poetry awards. As well as translations for web, screen and stage, she has translated ten children's books for the independent Spanish publisher, Topka, who have recently published her own bilingual children's picture-poem book Bubbles / Pompas. She is a qualified teacher, a Swanwick Writers' Summer School tutor, and a member of the Society of Women Writers and Journalists.
