Spanish Courses Blog

One of the festivals we talk about here is Holy Week. It is one of the most popular religious festivals in the south of Spain, it is celebrated in every town and city in Andalucia. The people of Granada dedicate a lot of time to ensure that everything is as beautiful as possible.

Holy Week is also one the most recognised festivals worldwide, in particular the festival of Andalucia and for that reason it attracts many tourists to the region from all over the world.

In this article we’re going to give you all the information you need to enjoy the Holy Week celebrations.

To start here you have the official guide to Semana Santa whyou can find the times, routes and explications of each procession.

http://www.hermandadesdegranada.com/pdf/guia2013_Federacion.pdf

For photos, videos, news and more check out this website:

http://semanasantagranada.ideal.es/

Plan ahead.

Thousands of people line the streets during processions, all trying to get a look at the floats as they pass by. If you want to get a prime spot for some processions you could have to arrive as much as two or three hours before. But don’t worry! Escuela Delengua is situated very close to the Cathedral which all the processions pass through meaning there will be plenty of chances to see the floats.

If it rains…

The people of Granada have grown up with these rules for what to do if it rains, but for a foreign student who is studying Spanish in Granada it can be difficult to know what you should do in case it rains during a procession.

If it rains, one of two things can happen. The float will either return very quickly to the church it started at or it will continue on to the cathedral as fast as possible. This means that things can become a bit chaotic and so we have these rules.

Keep calm!

Stay where you are and wait while the procession either returns to the church or continues on to the Cathedral.

Don’t open your umbrella during the procession – it can add chaos to the situation. The people surrounding the float who are wearing hoods can’t feel the rain and so start to get very nervous when they see umbrellas.

After about an hour you can go to the church or the Cathedral to see the float. It’s important to remember that it is a solemn occasion and so you shouldn’t make noise inside the churches.

Have you been to Holy Week in Granada? Do you have any advice for people going to the processions?

Geir Zahl in his native Environment

One of the best things about being a student at Escuela Delengua, studying Spanish courses in Granada is that you get to meet lots of different people from very different backgrounds doing lots of different things, but last summer one student in particular really took the biscuit when it came to unusual professional occupations. This student was Geir Zahl, one of the founding members of successful Norwegian rock band Kaizers Orchestra. Having released around 8 albums, 18 singles, 6 EPs and having played at many large European festivals such as Sziget, Hurricane, Southside, Lowlands, Frequency and Roskilde, they are undoubtedly a very successful band, with a following of almost 90 000 fans on Facebook; enough to make a fairly decent sized army. So it was unsurprisingly a bit of shock to anyone who asked Geir “what do you do then?” when he would reply with the very modest response of “oh, I just play in a band” and later discovered that it certainly wasn’t just any band.

Geir (left) with his fellow Delengua Students

It was Geir’s second time taking a Spanish course in Delengua at the end of last summer and it certainly didn’t take long for him to be nicknamed and frequently referred to as “el rockstar”. After asking Geir why he chose to do a Spanish course, he responded that he had always had a soft spot for the Spanish language and said that he was also surrounded by Spanish speakers from time to time and one day just decided to act upon an impulse and come to Spain. As a self-professed die-hard tennis fan, he most certainly chose the right place to take a Spanish course as Granada in the summer is one of the best places to be outdoors and is certainly not short of places to go to catch up on the sport.

It’s not every day that you meet someone pretty famous in another part of the world completely out of their context of fame. In Geir’s own words Granada is a beautiful place and he is hoping to come back to rejoin us at Delengua in the near future.

The unique thing about the Delengua ‘comunidad’ is that all the students taking Spanish courses here get to know each other rather well, as it is quite a small school, and the variety of people you meet here really helps to add that little extra flair to the Delengua experience. Geir is a good example of how diverse the school´s students can be, and here in Delengua, meeting someone interesting just becomes part of our everyday life.

Anyone who has studied a Spanish course at Escuela Delengua will able to tell you how much of a unique and fulfilling experience it is. The atmosphere and environment in and around the language school helps many students achieve what they came to achieve and also to experience many things that, prior to visiting Granada, they would have never have even given the slightest thought.

Firstly, Granada is a very unique and popular city even though it is relatively small. It has an incredibly rich history which is apparent in the Moorish architecture of the Albayzín and the extent of Arab influence in the culture of modern Granada. However, despite appearances, Granada is still a very modern city with a very vibrant nightlife and generally a lot going on. Its location is also a huge advantage as it is, in terms of travel time, equidistant from the ski slopes as it is from the tropical beaches of southern Spain.

Through the old Moroccan style streets of the lower Albayzín amongst the many artisanal shops and Arab cafés, you find Escuela Delengua, the perfect place to do a Spanish course. The first impression of Delengua is always one of intrigue and excitement, as it is set in an old renovated classical Granadina building and you immediately feel welcome by the warm and friendly environment presented by the staff and students. One great advantage that Delengua has over most, larger language schools is that the teaching is on a much more personal basis and that everyone in the school knows you by your name and not by your inscription number. On an average week Delengua has around 40 students in the whole school and right away you feel part of the “comunidad” that brings so many of the students together and really motivates them to progress in Spanish very quickly. The school’s daily activities also ameliorate this, as students explore and discover new things about this fascinating city and simultaneously learn, communicate and make friends completely in Spanish.

Owing to Granada’s beautiful scenery, rich history and culture and vibrant modern life, it is the perfect place to undertake a Spanish course and learn this wonderful language. Owing to Delengua’s top quality teaching and facilities, friendly atmosphere and convenient location in the centre of Granada, it is the perfect school in which to do it.

A Spanish course at Delengua is an experience no one would like to miss out on!

(Translation into Spanish can be found in the ‘comments’ section)

Many people travel abroad to improve their language skills for many different reasons, some are practical and others are because they simply enjoy learning new skills, but their inspiration to learn is often their best kept secret. At Escuela Delengua we find that the range in different inspirations is as varied as the people that attend it and the differences between them can be most interesting. For example, one of the first students I talked to about his inspiration to come to Granada and study Spanish replied simply that he had always found Spanish culture fascinating and in his line of work he was surrounded by many Spanish speakers. For this reason he decided he wanted to understand what they were saying and be able to engage with them, so he decided he would head to Granada after a recommendation by a friend for Delengua.

Many other students I spoke to say they are studying in Granada for practical reasons, either because Spanish is an essential part of their university course or because they have decided to live in or travel around Spain. But although they might see the process of learning Spanish as practical, there is still the inspiration behind their choice to either come to Spain or choose Spanish at university. Another student I spoke told me of her very brave decision to try something completely new and sell almost everything she owned in her home country and move to beautiful Granada to encounter something new and exciting in this stage in her life. Another student told me of how he was fascinated with Granada and its beauty and how he saw learning Spanish with a close group of likeminded people as a way of enhancing his experience here and how it allows him to see more than just the surface of the city.

The differences between different people’s stories really helps to form unique atmosphere to learning Spanish in the school but, although they may be different, the recurring theme seems to lie in the attraction of Spanish culture and Spanish language is obviously an essential part to engaging with life in Granada.

For the students at Escuela Delengua, the inspiration behind their choice to learn Spanish varies incredibly from person to person, highlighting the range of different people that attend this school, but these differences help formulate the unique, exciting and vibrant atmosphere that learning Spanish in Delengua is able to provide.