Coffee Break Spanish FAQ: General
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Who is Coffee Break Spanish aimed at?
Coffee Break Spanish is aimed at anyone who wants to acquire a basic knowledge of conversational Spanish. Although primarily aimed at independent adult learners, the materials are entirely suitable for younger learners. Indeed, many of our listeners are high-school students who are supplementing their in-school learning with our lessons. What type of Spanish is taught in Coffee Break Spanish? Will I be learning the Spanish of Spain or of Latin America?
With Coffee Break Spanish we try to cover all types of Spanish, and we highlight differences in both vocabulary and pronunciation used in Spain and other Spanish-speaking parts of the world. The vast majority of words are identical and if you speak the Spanish used in Mainland Spain you will have no problem making yourself understood by a Spanish speaker from elsewhere in the world. There is often a misunderstanding that the Spanish of Mainland Spain is significantly different from that used in other parts of the world. There are obviously differences in some words, just as there are between American English, English English, Scottish English, Australian English, etc. With Coffee Break Spanish we aim to equip you with a grounding in the language and you will be understood wherever you go. It's also worth pointing out that even referring to a generic Latin American form of Spanish is incorrect as there are a number of regional differences between, eg. Peruvian Spanish as compared to Colombian Spanish or Mexican Spanish. Do you teach the "lisping" variety of Spanish used in Spain?
First of all, Spanish speakers from Spain don't "lisp", unless they actually do have some kind of speech impediment. In Spain, the za-, zo-, zu, ce- and ci- sounds are pronounced as "tha-", "tho-", "thu-", as in the English work "thought". In most parts of Latin America this sound is pronounced as "sa-", "so-", "su-" etc., giving the impression that Spaniards "lisp" their "s" sounds. However, in Spain the letter "s" is still pronounced as "s", eg. "salida" is not pronounced as "thalida". The principal pronunciations of words on Coffee Break Spanish uses the Mainland Spanish pronunciations. However, we always try to give "Latin American" pronunciations too, ie. the "s-" versions. Consider the words caza (a hunt) and casa (a house) . In Spain, caza would be pronounced "catha", and casa would be pronounced as "cassa". In most Latin American countries both words would be pronounced exactly the same. Which topics are covered in Coffee Break Spanish?
As Coffee Break Spanish is a conversational course, we deal mainly in the types of language areas you need when travelling in a Spanish-speaking area. Lessons 1-10 teach you the language you need to talk about yourself: we firmly believe that if you're travelling around and you're keen to develop your Spanish then one of the most important things to be able to do is talk to people and make friends. To do this, you need to be able to talk about yourself, your family, your likes and dislikes, you job, etc. Lessons 11-20 deal with transactional language, eg. finding your way around the town, buying things, ordering drinks in cafes, ordering meals in restaurants, etc. Lessons 21-30 continue to deal with the types of situations in which you would find yourself while on holiday, and lessons 31-40 feature dialogues recorded in Spain in a variety of situations. Our longer term plans aren't yet fully clear, but we intend to develop each area in more detail in future lessons, and cover a number of subjects which listeners have suggested in our forum. Can you make a lesson about a particular subject?
In the Coffee Break Spanish discussion board a number of subjects have been suggested by listeners. We give careful consideration to all suggestions. We hope to include some of the topics in future lessons. However, for the time being our future plans at least until the end of the "transactional" units are quite firm. After we have completed episodes 1-40 we will consider creating content linked to the other topics suggested. We have also been developing an additional podcast which is based on listeners' questions, the Cafe Cortado. Does Coffee Break Spanish teach grammar?
Yes and no! If you're looking for a traditional learning experience involving chanting verb conjugations and in-depth discussion of adjective agreements and such like, then perhaps Coffee Break Spanish in its current format is not for you. However, in virtually every episode we introduce some element of grammar in context, eg. adjective agreements, different verb forms, etc. We'll be continuing to do this. In addition we also have some plans to do some "grammar specials" in the future. If I follow the course, how much Spanish will I learn? Will I learn to speak Spanish fluently?
It all depends on how much you're willing to put into the course and your whole Spanish-learning experience. If you listen to the programmes once and don't do any further revision in the course of a week then it's very unlikely that you'll learn a huge amount. However, if you listen to the programmes repeatedly, practising the language and checking your pronunciation by repeating after us then you'll make better progress. Equally, if you want to get further into the language you can use our additional materials available as part of the Premium Membership. We do go into the language in much more detail in our PDF guides and there are also bonus items of vocabulary in the guide for each lesson. Given that Coffee Break Spanish at this stage is aimed a beginners in the language it's unlikely that you'll achieve fluency from our content alone. However, you can become extremely confident in what we're teaching you by practising it and using it regularly. Fluency in any language is something which takes years and a huge amount of dedication to achieve. However there's no reason why you can't become very confident at a reasonable level. I study Spanish in school / college. Will Coffee Break Spanish help me?
Absolutely. If you're learning a language, the more exposure you get to it, the more confident you will be in using it for real. One thing you may want to keep in mind is that your teacher may pronounce some things differently. This doesn't mean that Coffee Break Spanish is wrong, or that your teacher is wrong: there are different Spanish accents and ways to pronounce certain words in different parts of the world, and teachers tend to teach what they've experienced themselves. I would suggest that you mention to your teacher that you're using Coffee Break Spanish and I'm sure he or she will be delighted that you're eager to learn more! Who are the presenters of Coffee Break Spanish?
Coffee Break Spanish is presented by an experienced teacher, Mark, who teaches student Kara during the lessons. Mark has taught Spanish and French for many years and has been involved in a number of languages and technology projects. In addition to French and Spanish he also speaks Italian and has learned some Norwegian, German, Catalan, Japanese and Mandarin in his time! Kara is currently studying Spanish and hopes to continue her studies of languages in the future. She has been studying French for several years and speaks French confidently. She also has experience of Norwegian, Japanese and Mandarin. Both Mark and Kara are based in the west of Scotland. Is this Spanish with a Scottish accent?
No! The English used in Coffee Break Spanish definitely has a Scottish accent, but the Spanish used is very much Spanish Spanish! Mark has lived in Salamanca in Spain and has also travelled extensively throughout Spain. As a learner, Kara's job is to try to emulate the teacher's pronunciation and it is hoped that by listening to another learner our listeners will learn more about pronunciation and feel confident enough to try emulating the accent themselves. If Kara is a student, does this mean I'll be repeating incorrect or imperfect pronunciations?
As mentioned above, Kara is a learner of Spanish. Listeners are encouraged to repeat along with Kara, or in the space provided after Mark says the word and before Kara repeats it. In a "real" classroom situation it would be normal for the learner to listen more to the teacher than to the accents and pronunciation of fellow students. It has to be said, though, that Kara's pronunciation has been improving as we've been working through the programmes! How long is Coffee Break Spanish going to run for?
"For the foreseeable future!" We are very much enjoying working on Coffee Break Spanish and although we have identified 4 units of 10 lessons each in our first section of the course, we do have plans for further lessons concentrating on different types of language and grammatical concepts. It's impossible to say if we'll still be doing this in 2010, but if you're reading this and it's 2010 then I guess we are! How often is Coffee Break Spanish published? When will the next programme be available?
Coffee Break Spanish is normally published on a Monday. It's published every week. There are sometimes exceptions to this if things are very busy, but we do try to get each episode out at the beginning of each week. In between units there is normally a 2-3 week break. If your question is not answered here, please
contact us and we'll get back to you.