This was the right Spanish course for me!
A conversation with Marieke, a Spanish course student at UvA Talen.
Can you tell us something about yourself?
My name is Marieke, I’m from the Netherlands. I grew up in the southern part of the country but I’ve been living in Amsterdam for 15 years now. I’m a primary school teacher and I’m currently following a Spanish course at UvA Talen.
Why do you want to learn Spanish?
My first encounter with the Spanish language and culture happened when I was around 7 or 8 years old (I think!). My aunt was married to someone from the Canary Islands and his family (adults and kids) came over to visit. I was very curious and fascinated. I actually think it was one of my first encounters with people from abroad, as I grew up in a small town and never went abroad for the first part of my life. I watched the kids and just fell in love with the idea that languages existed!
When I was about 16 years old, I went to Spain with friends (to a party town called Lloret, not particularly for me, but we had fun), and we took a guided tour bus to visit Barcelona for a day. The bus guide was Dutch and she started speaking Spanish with the bus driver. At that moment I knew: I have to learn this, too!
About six years later I took a Spanish course in Argentina. I decided to take a one month course and travel after. It was truly amazing. Argentina is a must visit if you haven't already! I definitely realised how many things happen once you know another language. You can basically read everything you see, understand the culture better, have nice conversations about cultural aspects, and etc. It gives you a more in-depth experience with a country, culture etc.
What course are you following at UvA Talen?
I started with the Spanish Level 4 course (A2). My level was tested and the teacher selected this level. My level of speech was actually a bit higher, but I (definitely!) needed to refresh the pasados (past tense). I felt that this was the right course for me: it wasn’t too difficult and I could slowly refresh everything and get used to going to school again. If it was very difficult, I guess I would have had less fun.
How do you combine work and language courses? What should all potential students know to help keep the balance of work and learning?
It’s important to be placed in the right level and to know if you want to be challenged or just take it easy. There will be homework and you can decide yourself if you’d like to add extra practice or select more ways to improve, for example reading a book or watching shows. I would suggest that you divide it over more than one day. I usually do one part on Wednesday or Thursday, and one block in the weekends. And of course you can leave the extra practice out, it’s only if you feel like it.
As a teacher, I know that when you learn something new, you sometimes have to go through this thing called 'leerkuil' (learning curve), you will definitely experience this when entering a course. It is part of learning and actually quite interesting experiencing it myself now (I even understand my own students better now!).
What’s your favourite word or expression in Spanish?
I love the word ‘Che’, which is from Argentina. (Meaning, dude or bro, you, hey - might be the translation, but not 100% sure if that’s correct). But I don’t use it because it feels a bit strange to do so, but in Argentina you can hear it all the time.
What is your end-goal with learning Spanish?
I hope to reach the B2 level and continue from there. And who knows? Maybe I’ll live in Spain one day!