Life
Our Mallorcan Life:
Como se dice...?
By Lucy Hawkins
Is it possible to go from beginner to conversational Spanish in just a few weeks? Writer Lucy Hawkins and her husband James (as the guinea pig) put Robert Venter's revolutionary new method to the test.
One of the biggest hurdles in moving to Spain is not being able to speak Spanish. I’ve been learning it since living in Mexico 17 years ago. I’ve spent years in Argentina and Spain, attended Spanish night school when not in Spanish speaking countries and done 10 minutes of apps most days. And I’m still not fluent. Infuriating! I don’t even know how to say infuriating. (Just looked it up, it’s ‘exasperante’!)
But I’m not afraid of speaking Spanish to Spanish speakers which is half the battle. I don’t doubt I’m getting it wrong a lot of the time but I’ve found that most don’t mind, so neither do I.
James, my husband, is just starting out and he really wants to speak to the other dads at school drop off and make friends like the kids and I are, but until recently he thought he just wasn’t capable. He came to that conclusion after an experience with a fabulous, but not particularly patient, teacher in Australia presenting him with pages of verb tables and sticking post-it notes on the fridge. (Me).
When we moved to Mallorca I saw an intriguing post on Facebook that read:
“Hi, I’m Robert. I moved to Mallorca from South Africa 5 years ago with my wife and 3 kids.
We moved because of our love of the outdoors, for a safe environment and wanting to give our kids the Spanish language.
I’m a language nerd who speaks 6 languages and have developed a special method to get conversational quickly (since no simple, straightforward one exists – I’ve tried so many.)
Since being in Spain I’ve been able to help many of my expat friends unblock their Spanish – ones who didn’t think they could do it. Then they started telling other expats.
It’s been so enjoyable for me to see people finally ‘getting’ Spanish that I actually decided to start a Facebook group to share this method.
I look forward to meeting you all and being of value to the group.
Rob”
He sounded so genuine I got in touch. James and I went to meet him and the two of them really hit it off as Rob described how he wants to help people learn Spanish, “A few years after moving here I had a lot of expat friends. I noticed that even though they'd lived in Spain much longer than me, they couldn't say basic everyday things, they believed it was too hard. I often thought to myself; ‘Actually there are just a few key ideas you need to unblock your Spanish. If you would give me just a few weeks, I could break it down for you in a way that makes sense.’
“By this time I spoke English, Afrikaans, German, French and Spanish. My 2nd language had taken 18 years to learn and my 5th one took 18 months. An improvement in efficiency but I still felt I had spent the vast majority of that time on fluff I didn't actually use in the real world. The point of learning a language is to speak, to interact with humans. Spanish has 90,000 words but we only use 1,000 different words per day. The big revelation is, 80% of those are the same 300 words over and over. I couldn't find a single course for any language that didn't leave me thinking, shouldn't I be learning something more useful first?”
It was at this point that Rob decided to create his own course. “I noticed that no one ever gives you a clear goal when you start learning a language. The advert is always ‘learn Spanish’. If you never know when you've reached the target, of course you’re gonna give up. This is so important and why I clearly pave the way from beginner to a 10 minute conversation.”
So what does the course actually entail? “I can see 7 distinct steps to get there. Any person can master these steps in 20 days if they dedicate their time to it. It can be done in as little as 90 minutes per day, broken up into 15-30 minute chunks so that your brain can refresh and you can get on with your normal day too.”
“The 20 most powerful words are of course the ones that make up common phrases. Greetings, stating a bit about yourself, asking for food. You can memorise these along with their common replies and you can do this without knowing how the language works under the hood. That is level 1 and 2 of the course.”
“If you want to talk more, you will need to look at basic structure. Level 3 gives you this ability in the simplest way possible. Level 4 is when the language really unlocks for you because it shows you how to easily use the action words you need for every single sentence. I don't start with run and swim like other courses. I start with want and have, because if you want to have a conversation you simply can’t avoid these words. I also keep it super simple, because while these verbs give you by far the most power, they are also the place where most Spanish students quit. The truth is if you can get this, you will unlock your Spanish and actually speak.”
“Level 5 shows you how to describe things, Level 6 is a very easy future tense, Level 7 a basic past tense, now all you need is to talk to people more. Lucky for you, you now know how.”
Rob’s a like-able person and within half an hour of talking, James was in. We said goodbye to Rob and were genuinely excited to start the course.
Right from the off James tackled this with an enthusiasm for learning Spanish that I had never seen before. Perhaps because he was actually in Spain now, meeting real life Spanish speakers, perhaps because he was in a class with other students and didn’t want to fail publicly, or perhaps because of Rob.
It’s week one and after we’ve finally got the kids down we sit on the couch and I test him from his revision sheets. This is not the James I know and love, he doesn’t do revision sheets. But all of a sudden he’s up for it and he has remembered most of the words on the 3 A4 pages. I try to explain some of the sentences, breaking them down for him, which bit means what. The next day James comes out of his group class and says, ‘Rob tells you to stop doing that.’ Fair enough.
James says he was nervous about being embarrassed, but the others in his group feel the same and as soon as they admit it they all relax. It seems like there’s great camaraderie, James looks forward to the lessons.
Each day James logs on to his ‘classroom’. The day’s work is clearly laid out: There’s a revision sheet, a voice note recording of Rob pronouncing the words and phrases and some days there are links to YouTube videos that Rob’s made explaining what they’ve been working on. Some days are just revision days and there’s no new material.
He’s also been given an ‘Anki’ app on his phone where’s he’s able to test himself on what Rob’s taught and mark each word or phrase, ‘fail’, ‘hard’, ‘good’ and ‘easy’. Rob suggests only moving on when he reaches 80%.
In the group class the 3 students will each spend 10 minutes with Rob asking questions in Spanish and the individual student replying whilst the others listen. They’re all building up to being able to have this golden 10 minute conversation.
James logs on for 15 minutes in the morning, does the half hour group class at lunch and spends 45 minutes revising each evening.
End of week one and James has taken Georgie to a birthday party all by himself. He’s greeted everyone, established who the mum of the birthday boy is and later told her that, ‘My parents are here from Australia so we have to go.’ Bit rude but he was so proud of himself everyone forgave him.
2nd week and he’s feeling overwhelmed. He’s been testing himself on the Anki app and he’s having mental blocks when it comes to remembering everything.
He’s encouraged by the fact that some terms like, ‘Encontado de conocerte’ - 'Nice to meet you' - have stuck when he found it impossible to remember it a week ago. I think it helps that James can ask questions, it’s interactive.
James’ biggest issue with Spanish is that he is so worried about saying something to a Spanish speaker and then not understanding the reply. I too worry about that but think James is in the favourable position as everyone knows he doesn’t speak Spanish so when he tries he can very easily say, ‘oh sorry, ‘no entiendo’. Whereas people think I do speak Spanish so it’s more embarrassing for me when I don’t understand.
Or at least it was embarrassing until I realised it’s ok to not understand and to say so. It’s actually quite liberating to say, ‘I don’t understand’, and now I say it when people are telling me things in English! We feel like we’ve got to know everything, or come across like we do, but I’m telling you right now, I have no idea what a tech start-up is (!)
Week 3 and he’s still very dedicated, he’s appalled at the idea of skipping a lesson, it’s a very important part of his day! He’s deflated because he's been asked to go over ‘day two’ words and phrases whilst the others are way ahead. But at the end of the week one of his group says, ‘James, you’re making sentences! Such a difference from when you started.’ And Rob tells him he’s killing it and he emerges from his office with a spring in his step.
Every text I receive from him now is in Spanish. It’s not scintillating conversation but his enthusiasm is contagious. He decides to try the language app he had been using daily for a year in Australia and he breezes through the level he was stuck at 6 months ago and gallops ahead. Something has clicked.
Week 4 and he’s been down to the girls’ school and bought them new uniforms and he’s made friends with Felipe from the delicatessen, bonding over albondigas and jamón. And he finishes the course with a full ten minute conversation with Rob. He speaks Spanish! It’s basic, but he speaks Spanish.
So this method has worked for him and he wants to keep going. I’m proud of him. And the kids see us all trying and they don’t feel any injustice that it’s just them that have to learn another language. It’s only a matter of time before they and James start correcting my Spanish, which will be irritating, but wonderful!
The 4 week hands on course that James did is €997. It’s a half an hour group class 4 times a week for 4 weeks. There is also a course for €29/month that takes you from beginner to a 10 minute conversation and then weekly follow-on modules to continuously grow from there. It also includes conversation classes twice a week worth €120/month.
You can contact Rob at, www.gonespeaking.com
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About our Columnist -
Lucy Hawkins is a writer and artist who lives in Mallorca with her husband and two young daughters. She studied Journalism at the University of the Arts in London and worked at Cosmopolitan Magazine and The London Paper in the UK as well as newspapers and magazines around the world. Her original artwork, prints and homewares are sold in stores across Australia and her children’s book, The Salvager’s Quest, is available through online book retailers worldwide.