"I want to speak Spanish: Quiero hablar español.
In the past I have attempted to teach myself, attended evening classes. Neither was satisfactory. My brother has lived in Spain with his Mexican wife and family for nearly 30 years. To my shame we always spoke English, and of course my nieces and nephew are bilingual. All their friends speak English. But I felt I was missing out. I needed to understand what was being said on the television, what I read in magazines and newspapers. Perhaps when I had more time, when I retired?
Just at that moment a leaflet came through the letterbox from SameSky Languages advertising local language classes. Spanish lessons in the daytime in the local community centre. How could I refuse?
Two years later I was able to surprise my family on my recent visit to Madrid. Not fluent, of course, but understanding so much more and able to communicate. We are a small group, learning Spanish for different reasons, we enjoy each other’s company, and our hour-long class invariably goes off at an interesting tangent. And why not? We want to learn to speak Spanish, to communicate in another language, each person for his/her own reason, and we are doing just that with a great deal of fun and enjoyment and a few social events thrown in. Don’t just think about learning another language, give it a go."
Celia, Intermediate Spanish group, Twyford, Berkshire
This picture shows Celia and other members of the Spanish group at the lovely Duke of Wellington pub in Twyford*, where Sarah and the rest of the staff have been so welcoming to us.
* "The best pub in Twyford", TripAdvisor
With the onset of Covid, we were forced to take our lessons onto Zoom, but one little silver lining of the pandemic is that it forced us to acquire this life-skill, and has given us the option to continue with online lessons; many people even consider that the benefits outweigh the drawbacks. However, members of this particular group in Twyford prefer the face-to-face nature of lessons and so we (usually) meet here.
The SameSky team is expanding, and we are always looking to set up new classes – maybe there’s already one in your area, or we could look into starting a new one.
We teach French, German, Spanish, Italian, Mandarin, Japanese, and we are well set up to cater for any level of proficiency. You can get in touch with us here to find out about what is the best option for you.