Hola desde Somerset

[Andy Woolley]

Hola desde Somerset, Gran Bretaña.

I took a GCSE as an adult learner about 12 years ago and have since attended a two week language course in Buenos Aires where I stayed in a house with a family who had twelve students of all ages and nationalities, some university students, some doing an internship and some starting Spanish from no previous knowledge - a really great few weeks in a wonderful city where my Spanish enabled me to enjoy it so much more. Amazing football, tango, veggie food was good and wine excellent.

I also visit Spain a lot and support the Segunda División team Club Deportivo Tenerife and have run a website in English about them for 12 years (www.andywoolley.zen.co.uk/ (http://www.andywoolley.zen.co.uk/)) with the latest news page updated with reports of games, etc. I see the team play live several times a year (sometimes in Tenerife and sometimes in the peninsula) and use Spanish website reports to give information at other times so this helps keep my level of fluency up).

Anyone else interested in Spanish footie or living in the Somerset area who knows of any conversation classes or opportunities which don't need the sort of regular commitment that A level night classes would (work patters don't fit in well with such regular commitments) please get in touch.

[Ben]

Hi Andy, great site! Do you get to see Dep. Tenerife play often?

[rod]

Yes, great site! Particularly the English-Spanish football vocabulary. I've been compiling one for myself as I come across new words while reading Marca, but never found the Spanish phrase for 'clean sheet'. Any ideas?

[Andy Woolley]

Thanks - I saw 5 matches last year (cleverly managing to be in Tenerife the only time they played home games two weeks running). Holidays in Spain tend to coincide with away games if possible so I got to the first game of the season away in Almería this year and then a trip to the local "derbi" in Las Palmas followed by a home game against Ciudad de Murcia last month.

I find that having a specific interest helps with my Spanish language skills (along with listening to the podcasts on the way down the M5 to my office in Exeter of course !!!).

The aim is to watch at the Santiago Bernabeu if we get promoted again. I did see us get promoted at Leganés in 2001 and also another game there the year before plus one at Getafe and one at Atlético when they were also in the Segunda Divisíon.

I met a Tenerife fan working in Madrid at Getafe and now we are in e-mail correspondence and meet up at games. Hopefully, he and his wife are going to visit us early next year so that is another bonus from having a real interest in something in Spain.

[Marina]

Hi Andy and welcome to the forums!

I see that having a real interest in something Spanish is a great way to keep the motivation in learning the lenguage up.

I'm also amazed by howmany times you've been in Spain over the last year, which one is your favourite?

[Andy Woolley]

Hi Marina,


Well, we go to Tenerife most October school half-terms (my wife is a headteacher) and usually once or twice at other times in the year. This year we also went after Easter.

We also went to the Valencia area early in the Summer for a week and to Almería later on. The flights can be very cheap if you book well in advance so it is nice to have two separate weeks rather than two together.


I have really enjoyed everywhere I have been in Spain including Madrid. This time we stayed for two nights in a really nice hotel in Murcia called the "Nelva" which is brand new and very smart but by British standards very cheap. The breakfast is excellent and has lots of things for vegetarians and the hotel has a lovely swimming pool.


If anyone is going to Murcia or needs a stopover (we drove down to Almería from Alicante as the flights to there were more convenient and cheaper) I can recommend it. It is not a resort type hotel and it is a 20 minutes walk (or cheap taxi) from the centre on the ring road but is well soundproofed and really nice.


I think one of my favourite places in recent years has been Toledo - we have stayed there twice. Once in a small hotel opposite the station and once in the Parador. The views from the latter over to the Alcazar when it is floodlit are spectacular and sitting on the terrace with a glass of wine is a wonderful experience.

We went over Semana Santa and the processions were amazing - we are not religious but it was a really interesting thing to see.