The Course
Learn Spanish in Peru

Arrival and Orientation

Students need to arrive in Arequipa on the first or third Saturday of each month. From Lima, you can fly (one hour) or take a bus (13 hours) to Lima, where you will be met by the GVI project manager. There will be two transport pickup times from the airport on the Saturday: one in the afternoon and one late at night, to cater for the different arrival times of the flights. It is preferable that you arrive in the afternoon. On arrival, you will be transferred to your host family. On Sunday, you will be shown around the important areas of Arequipa, including the internet, banks and other necessities, then you will be left to explore. That night, we will all meet up for a welcome supper in the Plaza de Armas.

The following is an example only, based on a beginner student taking four weeks of Spanish in Arequipa:

First Week

The first week will focus on basics and personal identification, paying close attention to the phonetics of the language and pronunciation.

Areas of grammar to be covered are the following:

• The alphabet
• Gender and number
• Definite and indefinite article
• Nouns and plural of the nouns
• The adjective
• Simple affirmative and negative statements
• Simple present of Ser, Estar and Haber
• Possessive adjectives
• Simple present tense of regular verbs.

You will learn vocabulary covering the following subjects:

• Short dialogues, expressions and introduction
• Parts of the house
• Cardinal numbers
• Days, months, seasons
• Colours
• The family
• Parts of the body
• Animals.

Second Week

The second week reinforces areas covered in the first week and we start with short conversations.

Areas of grammar to be covered are the following:

• Simple present tense of irregular verbs
• Reflexive verbs
• Simple past tense of regular verbs
• Direct and indirect object pronouns
• Forms of the verb Gustar
• Simple past tense of irregular verbs.

You will learn vocabulary covering the following subjects:

• Articles of clothing
• The city and bank
• Food and drink
• Buying and selling
• Family relationship
• The weather
• Ordinal numbers.

Third Week

This week we will make a review and apply the grammar focusing the oral expression with short compositions and dialogues.

Areas of grammar to be covered are the following:

• Imperfect preterit tense
• Differences between the indefinite and imperfect tenses
• Past perfect tense
• Pluperfect past tense
• Future tense
• Conditional

You will learn vocabulary covering the following subjects:

• Geographic directions
• Transportation system
• How to make and receive telephone calls
• Banks, schools, churches, stores, libraries etc.
• Sports
• The nature and environment.

Fourth Week

The fourth week the students will be able to speak and understand a basic Spanish.

Areas of grammar to be covered are the following:

• Imperative form
• Prepositions a/de/con/por/para
• Simple present of subjunctive
• Imperfect subjunctive tense
• Past perfect subjunctive form.

You will learn vocabulary covering the most common idiomatic expressions.

For those who are intermediate or advanced level, the lessons above will briefly be covered and further focus will be on Latino-American Literature.