Our group arrived promptly at 5pm for the first ever Intercambio event at Café La Perla Rosa in Puerto Calero, not really knowing what to expect.
We joined a table with a mixture of Spanish and English people, we agreed between us to talk in Spanish for the first 30 minutes and then swap to English for the second half hour. There were different levels of experience, some were just beginners and other’s really fluent but wanted the practice to gain confidence. Before we knew it there was standing room only! There must have been close to 80 people attending, there was a lovely atmosphere, Marc & Sandy were wonderful hosts supplying drinks and moving the tables and chairs to accommodate the new arrivals. A glass of wine was provided by the Bodega Stratvs.
Each of us put our name, contact details, preferred location and level of Spanish / English on a list so that we could be grouped to contact each other in the future. We met some really interesting people, Javier had just finished working at the airport in La Gomera which was fascinating to talk about, Maribel is a school teacher with a lovely sense of humour - she had an English exam coming up which was important for to pass for her job and Celia worked at the academia.
We did have a laugh about some expressions such as Holy Cow! Brass Monkeys and the difference in our regional accents. I learnt a new saying which was ¡Que pelete! its said when you’re really cold and relates to the verb to peel (pelar). Its these extra points when learning a language that really help to make your conversations much more natural rather than text books official version. I also liked that if you said something wrong we gently corrected each other as to the right way to say or pronounce it. The evening was a fantastic success and I’m looking forward to the next one. I think Ian’s already agreed a date so keep an eye on the blog site for more information! |
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