Anonymous Participant's Testimony
Spanish for Adults Program - Nerja
With plusabroad you will really learn!
The current offer of ways to pamper yourself has recently mushroomed into an incredible variety. Never before have there been so many possibilities for people over 50. For instance, the idea that you can become really
fit physically has produced an enormous amount of information on nutrition which has already become a hobby for many people.
But where does our brain fit into this? Shouldn't we also take care of it? Of course we should! Anyways, isn't this something you always suspected? Now a top German newspaper, ‘Der Spiegel has published: “An interesting job keeps one healthy – and early retirement may be a fatal step towards intellectual decline”.
No one likes the idea of intellectual decline but now, happily, we can put a stop to it. We may even become smarter than we already were by studying language. According to the article, “People who learn a foreign language change their brains ... those who increase their vocabulary at a later age considerably increase the density of their brain cells.”
What language could we learn and where? Actually, the most important language worldwide, after English (which most of us know already, anyways) is Spanish. What would it feel like to finally be able to say more than ’Gracias’, ’Una cerveza, por favor’ or ’Buenos días’ when we are on holiday?
How would you feel about being able to have an enthusiastic conversation about football (or flowers and recipes) with your neighbour?
The Costa del Sol, I thought, would be just the thing for me: sun, water, nice people, and delicious food (tapas!). Then on the Internet I found the website of plusabroad, a program that has a pretty-looking place on the eastern Costa del Sol, where there is a language school that looked promising.
In the wide offer – from so-called ‘one-to-one’ to intensive courses and specialised courses focused on things like business, trade or tourism – I found this program to learn Spanish with a plusabroad course geared towards ‘adults’; a two-week special package with Spanish classes in the morning and a variety of activities in the afternoon.
The Internet booking was quick. For lodging, the school’s student hotel: “La Residencia” came included and I thought that contact with the other students would come naturally (as was indeed the case).
The first impression of this small town Nerja, almost lovingly called ‘pueblo’ (village) by its inhabitants, was nearly too good to be true: a small, approachable paradise, that, year after year is put to test in August, when there are summer holidays in Spain as well.
My first impression of the "escuela de idiomas" made me think of a ‘family atmosphere’; the second, however, was one of ‘professionalism’. On the first day, the applicants for the program met each other in the school garden – the new ones feeling a little awkward, the more experienced ones (who had obviously been through similar experiences before) looking more relaxed. One by one, we were called in for the level test and finally found each other split up into two groups: one for beginners and one for a slightly more advanced students. I ended up in the latter group, together with a Finnish lady who, delighted, could not stop talking about the many similarities there are between her language and Spanish, and three Germans with a great eagerness to learn. Our teacher, Francisco, seemed to have identified our strengths and our weaknesses very quickly and was not put out of countenance, treating his group in a very sensitive way.
Three hours a day, we had to concentrate – something which was not all that easy at the beginning. But as we now know that the little grey cells regenerate, it seemed like a worthwhile effort. For two hours – interrupted by a short coffee/refreshment break in the garden/cafeteria, it was about grammar; in the third hour, it was the turn of show-and-tell: we brought newspaper articles to class, which often even led to heated discussions. Honestly, the two weeks just flew by – also because the afternoon activities were, without exception, extremely interesting: whether a flamenco seminar, a visit to Nerja’s impressive stalactite caves, wine-tasting (by Paco, who turned out to be a real expert in the matter), a seminar about bull-fighting, a visit to one of Andalusia's most beautiful white-washed villages, Frigiliana, or the cooking class, in which Daniel, the teacher of the beginner course, gave the job of professional paella cook a try for the first time in his life ... and, according to the public’s unanimous opinion, performed this job quite charmingly and almost to perfection. Speaking of Daniel, he and teacher Laura were also the ‘tour guides’ in charge of the trip on Saturday, which this time was to Seville. More often, these trips are to Malaga or Granada.
Conclusion: Nerja and the "escuela de idiomas" are worth more than one trip. The unanimous opinion of the 'advanced' group, as well as that of the ‘beginners’, was: “excellent” – with a special mention going to the teachers, who were both professional and very relaxed. Next time, maybe we will plan another two-week Club course and combine it with a one-, two- or even three-week ‘cultural holiday’ for further language study, because this whole region is definitively worth seeing, hearing and tasting. We left with the feeling that any time devoted to studying Andalusia is a pleasure for the senses, and the brain! |
