¡Hola desde Tenerife! Teachers Take On Spanish, One Conversation at a Time

For many teachers, the biggest barrier to using a new language isn’t grammar — it’s the confidence to actually speak it. As Spanish continues to grow as the world’s second most widely spoken native language, more and more education staff are choosing to build that confidence directly, through immersion rather than theory alone.

Our “Intensive Spanish Language Course for education staff” (level A1/A2) took place in Tenerife from 23 to 29 August 2026. Participants came from across Europe, including Sophie from École de Massais in France; Diana from Gesamtschule Leverkusen Schlebusch in Germany; Nicole from PGRG13 AHS der Dominikanerinnen in Austria; Petra from Budapest University of Technology and Economics in Hungary; Miranda and Ivonne from Stichting Agnieten College / de Boog in the Netherlands; Adriana from Gymnazium in Slovakia and Matthias from DRS Neuwied in Germany.

The week opened with simple, practical goals: learning to greet one another, introduce themselves, and exchange basic personal information — all in Spanish from the very first session. Practising verb tenses out loud from day one set the tone for a course built around speaking, not just studying.

Every session deliberately combined speaking, listening, reading and writing, so that no skill was ever practised in isolation. Grammar was introduced gradually — present, past and future tenses layered in step by step — giving participants a solid foundation without overwhelming a group that was, for many, taking its first real steps in the language.

Rather than abstract exercises, the group worked through real-life scenarios: introducing themselves, describing their daily routines, talking about travel and past experiences — the kind of everyday conversations they might actually need, whether on a future Erasmus+ mobility or simply travelling in a Spanish-speaking country.

By combining structured progression with constant practical use, the course gave each participant more than vocabulary lists to memorise: it gave them a working set of tools they could put to use immediately, along with the confidence that comes from having already used them out loud, in real conversations, with colleagues from across Europe.