A Week In La Alberca with Pueblo Ingles

We have had a highly enjoyable week in the little town of La Aberca with Pueblo Ingles. To review, Pueblo Ingles is an organization that arranges week-long trips for Spanish natives wishing to improve their English through conversation with native English speakers. The Spaniards either pay for the week themselves, or are sent by their companies (A week at Pueblo Ingles is very expensive). The English speakers, or “Anglos” as the program calls them, are volunteers who receive resort-like accommodations and three hearty meals a day for their services. There are many locations for Pueblo Ingles in Spain and a few in Italy.

Our program was located in a lovely mountain resort in the town of La Aberca, close to Salamanca. We arrived at the location on Friday afternoon after traveling from Madrid for three hours by bus with the group. We immediately settled into our rooms, met the other Anglos and Spaniards, and had an orientation about the week ahead. We learned that a normal day consisted of breakfast buffet at 9:00, one-to-one conversations between Spaniards and Anglos at 10:00, 11:00, 12:00, and 1:00, lunch at 2:00 (3-courses with choice two choices for each entrée), free time from 3:00-5:00, group activities from 5:00-6:00, one-to-ones at 6:00, 7:00, and then a final group entertainment meeting from 8:00 to 9:00. And then of course dinner at 9:00,which is another 3-course meal with choice of entrees. This schedule is a rough outline, as each individual involved has variations in their schedules. For example, I might have only 3 one-to-ones in the morning and then listen to a group of Spaniards make oral presentations about their work or hobbies. Or instead there might be two-to-twos discussing various topics, instead of one-to-ones.

We were a little apprehensive before we began wondering how we would fill an hour each time we had a one-to-one conversation with a Spaniard. It turned out to be easy, as the conversation topics seem endless when conversing with someone from a foreign country. We talked about work, families, politics, sports, hobbies, travel, country comparisons, and anything else that sparked our interest. Basically what it came down to was a week full of conversation for Trisha and me. We constantly talked with Spaniards throughout the day to help them improve their fluency. And we loved it!

It was most interesting getting to know these people on a more personal level. Each Spaniard was fun, warm, and enjoyable to converse with. Some Spaniards had fairly strong fluency skills, while others were at an intermediate level (the program does not allow for beginners as it is not an instructional program). All of the Spaniards attending Pueblo Ingles have learned English for many years, but need to improve their fluency for their work, as the international business language is English. The Spaniards were not allowed to speak any Spanish during the week, even with other Spaniards. It became very difficult for them as the must constantly translate in their minds to make English work. We corrected them on some things, but not everything, as we did not want to discourage them. They asked many questions about grammar or common expressions for their own understanding.

During the middle of the week, we were informed that Pueblo Ingles has another program outside of Barcelona in a 5-star resort. The program is even more expensive for Spaniards and invitation only for Anglo volunteers. Well, we were invited. A couple dropped out at the last minute and they needed two people to fill their position. Trisha and I mulled over this decision for about 24 hours, as we would have to alter our Portugal plans somewhat and get ourselves to Barcelona. In the end we decided to do it, and took the night train from Salamanca to Barcelona on Saturday. We begin the new program tomorrow. We will still be heading to Lisbon for four days next week, however we will be cutting out a few towns we initially planned for. Being that we loved the first Pueblo Ingles week, and as this is a step up in everything, we thought we better take the offer. Hopefully we will have better internet access during this next week to keep everyone informed about out next Pueblo Ingles experience.