Carol Shea – 2026
The course was well thought out. Ana’s calm teaching style and positivity. Cynthia’s energy and fun games. And your obvious enthusiasm for grammar and for everyone to succeed.
The group were so supportive of each other. I was disappointed I didn’t get your class in subjunctive. I am hopeful the book you gifted me will help in the future.
Today, I enrolled with the escuela de idioma in Los Cristianos. I first checked that they cover subjunctive! Finally, I was pleased I understood everything been said on the course and realised I knew more Spanish than I realised. (all the hard work was worth it) Your course gave me the confidence to speak.
Thank you. Kind regards,
Carol Shea.
Ann Larsson – 2025
Hola Gordon.
Gracias por el curso de octubre 2025. Me encanta sobre todo el concepto: El curso en una ciudad pequeña sin turistas, cerca del aeropuerto. Un hotel sencillo en el centro y cerca de la estación de tren y cerca de la parada de autobuses. Todas las comidas incluidas en el precio (los almuerzos fueron siempre riquisimos). Y las cenas juntos con algunos nativos. Genial. Y por supuesto las clases contigo y con Cynthia y Ana.
Para mí fue lo más interesante hablar con los otros alumnos. Y descubrir cómo suenan nuestros diferentes acentos (de Estados Unidos, de Inglaterra, de Escocia y claro mi acento de Suecia) en el idioma español.
Estoy muy contenta.
Saludos y un abrazo de mí para ti y para Cynthia y para Ana.
Ann Larsson
Alan Fishman 2025
Antes de nada, dejame decir que el curso en abril era una experiencia de mucho valor. En realidad, más por Miriam que por yo. Quise mucho que Miriam sea reintroducido a la lengua moderna de sus padres desde quinientos años atrás cuándo, como lo entendemos, viviesen en paz con los cristianos y los mudejares. Estoy escribiendo ahora, aunque tantísima tarde, dado que llegamos en casa solo dos días atrás, después de siete semanas por España con poco tiempo allí para organice mis pensamientos y sentimientos, que puedo hacer ahora mismo. Y también por buena fortuna podemos manejar seis franjas horarias entre España y nuestra casa en Florida, con no más que un atisbo de problemas readoptando nuestros cuerpos y mentes.
Nuestro viaje largo empezó en Valencia, siguiendo una ruta por Murcia y Torrejón de Ardoz (Torrijas de Arroz😬). Entonces tres semanas gloriosas por el Norte de España y Francia, caminamos desde Biarritz hasta Hendaye y el frontera de España. San Sebastian, Bilbao, Llanes y Oviedo. El Norte es un lugar en la cara del tierra increiblemente hermoso y precioso con verdisimas paisajes, ambos en la tierra y además dònde encuentran las acantilados del mar. Y por fin, un semana en Madrid otra vez, con un día entero en Alcala de Henares y una extraordinaria visita en El Escorial y El Valle de los Caídos y Cuelgamuros.
During our final farewell I pulled Gordon aside to privately share some personal thoughts and concerns, and also wanted to adequately speak of my feelings about both of you and your professional journey. It was heartwarming to me that Gordon was so receptive to my emoting as I did. You see for me, Cynthia, this class reawakened a desire to push myself further toward competency in the language. Less as a pleasant pastime but rather as a priority for our forecasted future. At the outset of my interest in the course last June, I had mentioned that my Achilles Heel was my continued loss of hearing over the past decades.
I do believe that my oral skillset, although at times a bit tongue-tied, is sufficient to navigate the Spanish speaking world. However my aural limitations will forever be my true weakness. Even in my native language, which I have practiced for 70 years and counting, I still fail at times to understand the spoken word with any true sense of clarity, particularly in situations where ambient noise exists. Fortunately, I’ve been at it so long that most of the time, when I hear clearly enough, I can guess and discern correctly between the “p” and “t”, the ‘f” and “s”, and so on. Not nearly so in the language which we wish to adopt when we plan on moving to Spain in the latter half of 2025.
If anything, what I found most valuable about my experience in the course was identifying that my relatively extensive vocabulary in Spanish, much of it long dormant and buried, rose to the occasion, and I was often able to pull the correct (or close to correct) word from the depths of my memory banks. One example was recalling the Ferris Wheel as noría, which connected me to tiovivo, montaña rusa and parque de atracciones. This was an ongoing brain exercise during the week, and most clearly demonstrated to Blanca both in the classroom as well as several offsite conversations between we two.
I quickly realized that, for the most part, I felt outflanked by my classmates, whose skills and ease with the language relegated me to somewhat of a caboose status. And I was completely okay with that, as I probably would have not been sufficiently satisfied in the intermediate level class. In many classroom situations some bubble to the top and some bring up the rear, as it is a natural order of “just how goes”. Although I do not think that is a fair estimation of what I really offered, and doing a disservice to what my contribution was. Again, I was okay fulfilling that role.
Again, I was happiest with Miriam’s experience, she initially being a little reluctant when first discussed last year, but in the long run, gave her the desire to at the very least, begin shifting her ladino studies to castellano. As she is smarter than me, a better student and a more focused learner than I am, has a facility with foreign languages, and can hear a whole lot better than I can! I haven’t a doubt in the world that she will excel at a rapid pace. And that makes me quite happy.
Thank you,
Alan Fishman
Colum Meekin 2025
Hola Gordon, Cynthia, Ana (and whoever else.) Thoroughly enjoyed the course in Torrejón last month- a great experience and would like you to put my name down for September next year ( if it’s not too soon)
Thanks-Colum