SPANISH CLASSES FOR FOREIGNERS

Twenty Six of Torrevieja's mostly older residents have taken the plunge and signed up for the latest official Spanish language course in the city.

Torrevieja Councillor for Foreigners, Pedro Valero accompanied by Graham Knight, the Director of the Foreign Residents Office OARI, officially opened the twice-weekly classes on March 1st, 2011.

The three month long course for foreigners is taught by Professor Arancha Corbi and is an officially recognized basic language course offered by the Miguel Hernández University and taking place at the Centro Cultural Virgen del Carmen.

Unlike the Spanish courses offered at the official language school, which are taught only in Spanish, this specialist course is taught in a bilingual fashion, in both English and Spanish.

The basic course deals with practical modules dealing with everyday life situations, offering students a vocabulary and understanding of words, phrases and verbs that are necessary to function in normal, everyday life, in Castilian.

These Spanish courses for foreigners have been developed by Torrevieja's Department of Immigration for the last eight years.

They have gained great acceptance among the international citizens living in Torrevieja, especially the British but although the class is taught in English, it's also popular among students of other European nationality.

From the twenty six on this course, a couple are repeating the module, having found the intermediate course a little too much for them, others have never taken ‘proper' Spanish classes before, the few who are under fifty years old are there for mainly business reasons, while the majority are retired but see the course as a way to integrate with their Spanish hosts.

Anyone interested in participating in the next course needs to wait until after the May 22 election, when contact details and class schedules will be announced.