fun and interesting ways to practice and improve your Spanish

Friends Kurt and MariMar own, operate, and teach at their Spanish Language school - Habla.

They come up with all sorts of very cool and interesting things to keep it fun, fresh, and interesting.

They are planning the following workshop, so if you are going to be in the area and need to brush up on or practice here's a super cool idea.

PANDORA'S BOX: Engraving and Collage Techniques 
Come and practice your Spanish!

This course taught by Lilián Rivera, will begin Monday May 7, at 9:30 am at Habla. 

Lilián Rivera Juárez will lead an engraving workshop at Habla, where participants will learn how to use the monotype to create unique one-of-a-kind prints. Participants will create a “Pandora’s Box” reusing documents and sentimentally valuable objects from their own history. Basic knowledge about engraving will be given during the workshop and participants will design a variety of prints they will store in their own personalized boxes.

Lilián Rivera Juárez was born in Mexico City and she lives in Merida, Yucatan since September 2011. Graduated from the National School of painting, sculpture and engraving “La Esmeralda”; Lilián has participated in several workshops in Mexico with the professor Francisco Castro Leñero in 2007 and abroad at the Internationale Sommeracademie für Bildende Kunst in Salzburg. She has received several awards including the Silver Award of Qingdao International Print Bienal in China, in 2000. She has exhibited her work in Mexico, Austria, Spain, and in China. She was selected for the 3rd Beijing Internationale Art Biennale in 2008. Last December she participated at FAVY 2011, “Feria de Artes Visuales de Yucatán. http://lianlirivera.blogspot.com

Dates: May 7-June 13, 2012 (12 classes) Mondays and Wednesdays, 9:30pm-11:30pm
Cost: 2 payments of 700 pesos (basic materials included)Place: Habla Language: Primarily Spanish with some translation to English

For further information please contact us at the mail: contact@habla.org,
Or phone (999) 948-18-72.

We’re open from Mondays to Thursdays from 11:00 am to 1:30 pm and during the afternoons from Mondays to Thursdays from 4 pm to 7 pm. On Saturdays from 10:00 am to 1:00 pm   

Spanish Language and Culture classes in Merida

Many people travel to Mexico, Guatemala, and Honduras to learn Spanish.   And Merida has its fair share of language learning options - There are quite a few well know institutes for language learning here, there are also some excellent local schools, and then we also have a preponderance of individuals teaching Spanish.  

I imagine many of these individuals are excellent, but how does someone not from here find out about these amazing resources?

Well, I'm going to tell you about ONE of them - 

Marina Aguirre -

Marina is an Archaeologist and Ethnohistorian, and she also teaches Spanish.

I have taken a number of Tertulias with Marina.  A Tertulia is sort of a special interest discussion group.  Marina would prepare info, often including handouts and/or a powerpoint presentation and we would have discussions on a variety of topics; always in Spanish.  Whenever an issue of a word, or phrasing came up we would stop and address that as well.


         Anyway, Marina is expanding and now is offering a variety 
                   of language and culture learning options.





                 For those wishing to learn Spanish, 


She is offering Spanish classes starting in February: 

Easy Spanish

with Marina Aguirre

Practical Workshop

Spanish Full Immersion

The intention of the workshop is to offer the necessary tools for the students to develop their skills of communication in Spanish,  and to socialize in this language with naturalness, freshness, and confidence.

The workshop will take place from February 6 to 29 on Mondays and Wednesdays,

and consists of 8 meetings of one hour and a half, a total of 12 hours. There are three levels available: 

Beginners – 9:00-10:30

Intermediate Beginners –10:30-12:00

Intermediate – 12:00-1:30

The classes will be 100% practical and fun.

The number of students per session is limited.

 Limited space

Cost $840.00pesos

Registration will be from January 30 to February 3

For more details contact:

Marina Aguirre   maguirresa@hotmail.com

or Connie Burk   burk.connie@gmail.com, 924-4974

Register at: Calle 54 No. 431 entre 47 y 49 Mérida, Centro

The workshop will be at: Calle 49 No. 499B  entre 58 y 60 Mérida, Centro

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She is also offering a fantastic group of History, Archaeology and Anthropology programs starting in February titled  The Thousand-Year-Old Maya which has eight exciting topics, and just to be even more than helpful she is offering them in both Spanish and English -

       Check out her blog for the full description.

               www.marinaaguirre.blogspot.com

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But Wait - There's More - 

She now is also taking people on wonderful trips to learn the customs, traditions, archaeology and culinary arts of  magical and poetical places in Mexico.

The last trip was in Chiapas.  

Who knows what the future holds - Check back to her blog frequently to see what's new!

all photos were snatched from the web, and were undocumented

Learning Spanish - Aprendizaje de Español

Well I started another Spanish class today!

I am now in Basico 3, yes, I know you are all impressed, only one more level in Basico, then 3 levels of Intermediate, then Advanced - WOOOOOHOOOO!!
The classes are through UNAM which a University out of Mexico City. This tends to make the examples in the book interesting, as well as some of the pronunciations, as they relate to Mexico City and use the Nahuatl pronunciations rather than our Mayan pronunciations. Sort of like sending someone from Savannah Georgia up to Hoboken New Jersey. Sure the words are the same, it's just tricky to figure them out.

I am also taking a Cooking Class through IMSS, which is Mexico's Social Security branch. They offer a lot of classes to help the citizens with things like improving their health; cooking, physical fiteness, mental gymnastics, self-defense, etc. The thing for me about the cooking class isn't the cooking, but that it is attended by mainly Mexicans, and therefore is entirely in Spanish. We foreigners are able to attend, we just don't.

It's just too dificult to live here and not be able to do simple things-today I asked a bus driver in what I know was correct Spanish, and I'm told I have a very good 'local' accent if he passed down calle 70 through calle 77. He kept looking at me like I was speaking Martian. In fact people in hearing range repeated exactly what I said back to him, he still didn't get it, well maybe it wasn't me after all.
So my quest to speak Spanish continues...