Want to practise your español? Join us for Spanish Language Meet-ups!

Hola Everyone,

I’m hosting Spanish language meet-ups on Saturdays 😊🇪🇸

I realise some of my Spanish Dance students and people in my mail club are interested in learning, but don’t have much social occasion to put it into practice. Hence, I thought I offer to host the sessions.

This is open to any one, not just my dance students.

Some of you might be are already learning in the Spanish language schools.
Some of you were learning in the schools but stopped.
Others travelled to Spain or Latin America and had a brief encounter, missed the language and culture.

Whichever the case, the best way to learn is to put it into practice.

I first studied Spanish as my major in university in Australia. It gave a very good base for me to understand. However, when I got to Spain to study flamenco, I wasn’t yet fluent verbally.

It was difficult to follow the locals when they spoke, especially amongst themselves. 😳 Why? Because I was in Southern Spain, Andalucía. There, they speak ‘andaluz’, dropping the consonants and parts of a word! 😅

Anyway, over the years (yes, it sure takes time), my ears got more accustomed and now I can understand my maestros and the artists I work with! 😆

So I encourage those who are keen on Spanish language to put it into practice. Don’t worry about making mistakes coz these sessions are going to be super formal.

For those who are learning Flamenco, you might ask: ‘is it necessary to know Spanish language to dance flamenco, sing or play the guitar?’

Well, I won’t say it is necessary because you can still do it without knowing the language.

HOWEVER, it would be a great asset to you to understand what flamenco songs mean. You would have greater knowledge and assurance to interpret the letra (lyrics) and express yourself.

It enables you to deepen your flamenco beyond just steps and choreography. Would you not want this?

On the other hand, the dancer who doesn’t know what s/he is dancing to might be limiting their own experience…

Therefore I also encourage you to learn Spanish as part of your journey into the art and culture.

Suggested Spanish practice approach

It’s best if the group can adopt a self-initiated, self-directed learning approach.

Don’t rely on just 1 or 2 persons to lead.

Be proactive and feel that you have a role in shaping the sessions.

My suggestion is for some agenda, so that participants have a basis to prepare beforehand. The session will likely be better-focussed. Topic examples could be:

Meet-up #1: Focus on greetings and introductions
Meet-up #2: Numbers, counting, buying things
Meet-up #3: Travel vocabulary
Meet-up #4: Food! Ordering in a restaurant
Meet-up #5: Etc

It might be interesting for students to bring their own books or apps, as each of them may have different material on the same topics.