Pueblo Ingles is a program that is based out of Madrid. How the program works is, English speaking kids from, England, Ireland, Canada, the U.S., or any other English speaking countries sign up ahead of time. If they get accepted then they buy a ticket and head to Madrid for the program.
My program was a 2 week program, and my parents program was one week. So I had to show up in Madrid 1 week before they had to. I arrived at the hotel which is the hotel that Pueblo Ingles works out the kids from. I checked in and met my roommate for the night. After all of the bag dropping and room checking, we headed onto the bus and took a tour of 4 of the most famous squares in Madrid (names of the squares not known). After the tour we got back onto the bus and went to the hotel for dinner, after dinner we got our orientation on the program and got into our groups for the different camps. The next morning I had to be up at 7:00 am and downstairs ready to go at 7:30. After breakfast we got our bags and got onto our different buses. We then picked up the Spaniards that were going to the same camp as us. The bus ride was seven hours long; it was the longest ride to any of the camps.
Since I cannot tell you about everyday at the camp I will just tell you the schedule for a day at Priego(our camp name). First we got up at 8:30am and had breakfast at 9:00, after breakfast we would go for a warm up activity at 10:30am, a warm up would consist of stretches or a funny dance. After a warm up of 15 minutes we would have our first one to one at 10:45am. A one to one is when you take one Anglo, one Spaniard and the Anglo, and Spaniard just sit and talk for about 45 minutes. After the one to one was over we would have pool time. Pool time is, well pool time is pool time, and you go get your swimming trunks on and jump in. When pool time was finished we would have a group activity. At the camp we had different color teams, I was the yellow team, and in a group activity you would get an assignment, like to do a skit. The skit had to be in English, so the Spaniards had some tough times. Then after group activity was finished we had lunch. When lunch was finished we had free time which consisted of an hour and a half of anything the kids wanted to do. You could swim you could go onto the internet, you could have a nap or you could sit and talk with your friends. The next thing on the agenda is 2 more one to ones. After, we had a free choice activity. A free choice activity is when all the counselors have an activity, (your team gets points in the group activities or in every day life at camp for mixing with Spaniard and talking English all the time, but the Spaniard always got minus points for speaking Spanish) then how many points your team gets depends on what activity you yourself get to choose. If your team has the most points then you get to choose first if not, then you have to go in the order of how many points each team has from biggest to the least. After, we had dinner. When dinner was over we had a night activity which was from 10:00-11:30pm a night activity was something like capture the flag.
Every day at Priego was long, but tons of fun. By the end of camp most of the teens did not want to go home and were really sad to have to go, a lot of the girls cried. I met a lot of new people at that camp, and a lot of different people. But I know that I can keep in contact with them, and I know for sure I will try to go back to Pueblo Ingles again.
- Tim
Pueblo Ingles July 23 – July 30
Where do I start, we signed up for a program called Pueblo Ingles. Basically it is a program where native English speakers volunteer to spend a week with Spanish speakers trying to improve their English skills. We would be staying at a remote hotel in Spain (near Granada for us) with a group of Anglos and Spaniards. Other than that, I had no idea what to expect.
Since Karen and I spent the week before in Portugal, we decided not to drive back to Madrid to take the bus back down south (where we already were), so we drove ourselves and arrived about an hour before the group. We were a little nervous since the address for the hotel did not show up in map quest and the nearest spot it gave us was 40 minutes from the hotel. Needless to say, I drove a little too fast on a single lane mountain road to make sure we got there on time. No harm, no foul.
The program is not for the timid. From the moment we arrived until we left a week later, our time was spent with people conversing. Each day began at 9:00 am with breakfast (each table had two Spaniards and two Anglos), after that there would be one hour sessions that would range from one on one’s (you and a Spaniard to talk about whatever you wanted), two on two’s (same but more people), conference calls, telephone calls or presentations by the Spaniards. My favorite was the presentations. They were amazing, creative, informative and much more. At 2:00 pm we had lunch and then a siesta time until 5:00 pm (pool time for Karen and I). 5:00 – 8:00 was more activities (some group, some individual) and then 8:00 – 9:00 was entertainment (plays, presentations, etc.) . 9:00 pm- 10:00 pm was dinner and then 10:00 pm – 2:00 am was cocktail hour. Quite the busy schedule.
Over the course of the week, some close friendships developed. I enjoyed meeting and talking with all the Spaniards. We don’t get much time to talk to the Anglos, but enjoyed them as well. There were several people that I especially felt a connection with. I enjoyed talking rugby with Manuel and he even managed to talk Karen into letting me play when we return home (if I find an oldies team). I also spent a lot of time talking with Chema, Chema, Ignacio and Hannah (from London). They must have been ok with me hanging out as well since they made me an honorary member of the “tall” club. The last day I was overwhelmed by their generosity. Ignacio went to amazing lengths to buy me a Spanish World Cup Champions shirt and Manuel gave me a rugby shirt from his rugby club in Granada (which I have gotten many comments on since). I forged many more friendships than the examples mentioned above, but the entry would be too long if I mentioned them all.
I certainly went with the intention of helping people learn English. I might have helped a little, but instead I spent the week learning about the Spanish passion for life and living it to the fullest. Listening to everyone talk about their family and friends and how important they are to them made me think about how we have lost a lot of that back home in America. They also live enjoy themselves. They play games, eat out at restaurants and party much of the weekends. The night we had a dance, I thought this could be lame. I was thinking in the context of a group of Americans thrust into the same situation. Not for the Spanish. The music began and so did they. Everyone sang and danced. Not only danced, but danced incredibly well. The women (Graciela especially) were fantastic dancers, but it was the men that amazed me. Thank god more Spanish men did not visit the states when I was young, I would never have met anyone. Spending the week with everyone at the program has reinforced what I have been learning on the trip, I have changes to make when I get home. It is time to live life! Thanks to everyone for sharing with me and teaching me more than I taught you.
Campeones, Campeones Ole! Ole! Ole!
~Jeff~
Pueblo Ingles …. A fabulous program, thank you Bridget for giving us information about the program. As Jeff said it was a very intense week but one that we will not forget. I had wonderful time getting to know Spaniards and most of the Anglos. Many new friendships were formed and we hope that we will have visitors in Seattle.
Jeff explained the structure of the program to you so I shall let you know a little more detail. Most of the Spaniards want to improve their English for work opportunities. We had accountants, lawyers, a doctor, business executives, teachers and university students, the group was very diverse. I found that most of the Spaniards were far more comfortable writing rather than speaking. Apparently they learn English in school but only to the point of being able to read they really do not practice pronunciations. As we all know the pronunciations are not always as we think they might be, so we helped and explained some of the rules we use in English. Verb tense was also difficult for them, some words in Spanish are used for both male and female and they therefore have difficulty when speaking English using he/she correctly.
I continue to help as I am corresponding via email with some, correcting their use of words and verb tense. Pueblo Ingles is truly a wonderful program; it has taught us a lot about people and languages, how we are not really all that different in our desires in life but how we choose to live our lives.
I would recommend this program to you if want a different style of holiday, one in which you truly meet the people of the country. You can look the program up online at www.morethanenglish.com or www.puebloingle.com
Adios ~ Karen
No comments:
Post a Comment