Intensive spanish courses for adults

Choosing an intensive Spanish course if you are a mature adult

A quick search on the World Wide Web confirms that there is a large offering of schools if you wish to study Spanish in Barcelona. Many of these schools offer intensive Spanish courses for adults which are more specifically targeted at students in the eighteen to twenty-five years old age bracket.

Most of the clients of these schools in this age band have just finished their university studies, or are in the process of completing them. Their senses, minds and bodies are accustomed to long periods of being alert in a study environment, to absorbing large amounts of information, and to sitting attentively in a classroom situation. They are also used to two to three hours of quiet study by themselves after lessons each day so as to go over the new information gained. An intensive Spanish course for adults like these will invariably take place in classes of anywhere between six and ten persons.

Language programs in Barcelona for these young adults also offer more after school social activities. This age group is keen to discover the world, and avidly takes up options offered by schools with activities such as Spanish performing arts, cooking, visiting museums, tours to local sights of interest, and after lesson socialising. For many of the participants on this type of intensive Spanish course for adults, the after lessons aspects are probably more important than the language knowledge acquisition: they may be taking a gap year or a shorter break in their studies, and are looking for a more relaxed study ambience.

For professional or business people considering an intensive Spanish course for adults, the situation is somewhat different. Typically in their late thirties to early forties (though our school also regularly receives people in their fifties and sixties) they no longer have the ability, or indeed the patience, to sit attentively in a classroom situation, absorbing large amounts of vocabulary, grammar and syntax, and then sitting at a desk for two to three hours of intensive revision and homework each evening. Moreover, these participants in Spanish language courses in Barcelona are not ideal students for classes in groups. Their different ages and objectives, their different learning degrees, their different foreign language abilities and finally their varying ear listening capacities mean that they are ideally suited for intensive Spanish language programs that only offer one to one lessons, that is to say, just one teacher and one student in each class.



Intensive spanish courses for adults

As a language teaching institution, we only offer one to one programs. We recognise that a person who chooses an intensive Spanish course for adults does not have as much time available as those students in the eighteen to twenty five years bracket. Moreover, these persons will be studying with a very specific objective in mind, very often related to their professional or business activities, though also personal hobby motivations can be important. In the classroom situation, they will want their lessons to be structured around these objectives, as well as taking into account their Spanish language level. A lawyer studying Spanish for use in his or her practice, or a business person wishing to polish up his or her Spanish presentation skills, will probably not be as interested in the art and history of Spain as a person recently retired to the country who is keen to acquire knowledge in these cultural aspects of his newly adopted home country. These different learning objectives can only be adequately dealt with by separating each mature adult student, and teaching them individually.


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