If you would like to learn some basic Spanish, but don't have the time or money for college courses, please read on.
These courses are intended for those who are complete beginners in Spanish and for those who want a thorough review of the basics before moving on.
Truly practical vocabulary and elementary grammar will be presented using a fun textbook and instructional handouts.
The small class sizes and large number of simple exercises will allow plenty of speaking, reading, and writing practice minus tests, grades, or lots of homework.
Even the classroom atmosphere is different. At the Auraria Library, the students sit around a large conference table, rather than at individual desks. The Monday and Saturday classes are held in my comfortable living room, where I also have a large dry erase board - so it's like a classroom, but with leather couches. There's plenty of parking on the street in front of our house.
Pronunciation and spelling, plus the placement of accent marks, will be thoroughly covered at the beginning of each course.
The practical, everyday topics include greetings, colors, numbers, days of the weeks, months of the year, seasons, the weather, the home, health and illness, family members, shopping terminology (clothing and food), and much more.
Grammar topics include adjectives and adverbs, basic sentence structure, definite and indefinite articles, the gender of nouns, negation of verbs, subject and object pronouns, various prepositions, estar vs. ser, para vs. por, and more.
If the word "grammar" makes you nervous, rest assured that I make every effort to explain it as simply and clearly as possible. I've been working as a private tutor for 20 years, and also have a broad range of classroom teaching, translating, and writing experience. For details, please see here and here.
1) The 22-week daytime course - downtown Denver, Auraria Library
Pay by cash, check, or PayPal: leonore@csd.net
2) The 10-week afternoon and evening courses - in my SW Denver home
Note: I'll be happy to continue the Monday evening and Saturday afternoon classes in January 2009 for another 10 weeks if at least 2-3 class members want to go on. That way, the Monday and Saturday groups would eventually learn all that the Auraria group will be learning.
SPANISH THE EASY WAY, 4th Edition, by Ruth J. Silverstein, C 2003 by Barron's, $14.95 pbk., ISBN 0-7641-1974-5
You can purchase the book in stores or from Amazon. I also have a few new copies to sell for $15 each.
The book includes illustrations, humorous dialogs, chapter vocabulary lists, grammar explanations, exercises with the answers in the back of the book, and end vocabulary lists (Spanish-English and English-Spanish, for help with doing the exercises).
You will need the textbook in class. I'll also provide numerous handouts that I'm writing. These include additional vocabulary, simple grammar explanations, and exercises, most of them with the answers.
HARPER COLLINS SPANISH CONCISE DICTIONARY (Spanish-English, English-Spanish), Third Edition, Harper Collins, C 2004, ISBN 0-06-057578-6, $15.00 pbk, available in bookstores and online. I like this dictionary because it contains many pages of information on verbs and grammar in the back. However, if you already own another Spanish dictionary, feel free to use that.
A 3-ring binder capable of holding at least 150 pages (for the handouts that you will receive during the course) and a spiral or bound notebook for taking notes in class.