Spanish
5-week Fast Track Course

Course Description

• 20-hour course over 5 weeks, two 2-hour class per week
• More intensive learning experience
• Maintains strong learning momentum throughout
• Ideal for accelerated progress and building confidence quickly
• Dynamic, enjoyable classes
• Special: Now also includes Language Mini - ¡Hola!, downloadable podcast lessons and PDF exercises.

Class Times: Mon+Wed 6:30-8:30pm

Start Dates Available: Nov 2010 , Feb 2011 , Jun 2011

Average Class Size: 8

Minimum Age: 18

Course Materials: Included in the course fees

School: Cactus London Holborn-Russell Square / Map

Location: London - Holborn-Russell Square

Language: Spanish

Course Type: 5-week Fast Track Course

Cactus Curriculum

Cactus part-time language courses are typically offered at seven levels, from Cactus Level 1 to Cactus Level 7, suitable for students with and without prior knowledge of the language. Studied in sequence, the seven levels are designed to progress students from beginner level through to advanced. The programme can be picked up at any level, according to existing language skills. Each level can also be studied as a one-off course in its own right to build or refresh language skills at the chosen level.

Courses run consecutively throughout the year with breaks for the Easter and Christmas periods. This provides the opportunity for continuous training, allowing students to progress and move up to higher levels as their skills develop.

What level am I?

To help you decide which level is right for you, please look at the course level descriptions and take our online language level test.

Course level descriptions

Cactus Level 1 Cactus Level 2 Cactus Level 3 Cactus Level 4

What will I learn?

The course outlines give an overview of the content and learning framework of Cactus part-time group courses and include themes, grammar and vocabulary you can typically expect to cover. These are intended as a guide only and our teachers may at times adapt the course content to suit the specific level, aims and interests of the class.

Read the Spanish course outlines for all levels

All of our courses are carefully structured and designed to cover a wide range of topic areas, grammatical structures and skills. Cactus Foreign Language Courses include the following elements:

• Spoken communication to build confidence in interacting with native speakers
• Listening and comprehension skills to improve understanding
• Grammar and sentence structure
• Everyday language for use in real-life situations, both spoken and written
• Core vocabulary
• Pronunciation
• Reading practice and written communication

All of our teachers are fully qualified and experienced foreign language teachers with a specialised background in adult education.

What progress will I have made by the end of the level?

The Learning Pathway provides a guide to what you can expect to achieve by the end of your course at any given level and also shows what progress you can expect to make if you stick with it and carry on studying subsequent levels

Cactus Level 1 pathway Cactus Level 2 pathway Cactus Level 3 pathway Cactus Level 4 pathway

The School - London Holborn-Russell Square

This school is housed in a prominent 100 year old building in the heart of London. Completely refurbished and modernised, is is equipped with some of the best and most up-to-date language learning resources available. Classrooms are modern and spacious.

Nearest Tube: Russell Square

More on Cactus London Holborn-Russell Square School

The Teachers

Our teachers are qualified and experienced language trainers, and are all native or bilingual speakers. They have been interviewed by our full time Academic Team, and have had their references followed up. We assign classes according to the strengths of our teachers and work with them to ensure the quality of course delivery is excellent at all times. We have also introduced a comprehensive Teacher Development Programme at Cactus, which incorporates a range of seminars, classroom observations, same-language teacher forums, regular newsletters, and information on methodology and hands-on teaching techniques. Our teaching philosophy is based on looking at ideas, asking questions, and meeting challenge.

Course Materials

For all Cactus Foreign Language Courses you will be supplied with course materials, which form the basis of your study. Now also includes Language Mini - ¡Hola!, downloadable podcast lessons and PDF exercises.

• 0.4 miles / London Tottenham Court Road
• 0.6 miles / London Soho

Student Feedback - See what students have said

At the end of your course you will receive a questionnaire. Your feedback enables us to maintain the quality of our language courses and ensure you're getting the maximum out of your chosen course.

Read the feedback here

Course Feedback

• Yes, very good - we started with 14 of us in a room, but splitting into 2 x 7 groups made it better! Good teacher, good bunch of fellow students, thoroughly enjoyed the first two sessions.

  (John, Jul 2006)

• The lesson went great thanks!

  (Michael, Apr 2006)

• Yes, everything was fine. Thank you.

  (Gabriel, Apr 2006)

• Everything was great – I really enjoyed my first class!

  (Kevin, Apr 2006)

School Feedback

• I really enjoyed the elementary course as the teacher was amazing and I really progressed in my knowledge of French.

  (Mariia, Apr 2010 )

• Roberto is great as a teacher. I rebooked my current course from the last course because he would be the teacher again.

  (Adrian, Feb 2010 )

• Ottavia is great - she really knows how to teach a language to complete beginners - knows what our problems will be and helps with them. She is fair about getting around to everyone in the room. I appreciate that she writes everything on the board in a clear way so that we can take notes.

  (Alice M., Feb 2010 )

• I am enjoying this course very much, I think Maria is a very good teacher. I would be interested in continuing the course and will book in due course.

  (Karen, Feb 2010 )

• Ugo is a great teacher, who knows how to motivate his students. The course provided a good overview of Italian tense systems, and a good level ofvocabulary. Ugo was always prepared to access our work and provide full and comprehensive notes for us to work on our difficulties individually. The course had excellent content, covering most aspects that would be needed to get by on a day to day basis in Italia. There was a good balance between listening and comprehension, with extra written activities to do at home. Ugo was always on time, and didn't finish the class until the final exercise was complete. We received many handouts and extra guides to grammar. The course book is well devised and covers most situations that you are likely to come across when using the language. Also, every chapter provides an overview of the target language, which has been a very useful reference.

  (Ugo, Jan 2009 )

• Ottavia is a great teacher. Not only does she have a great way of structuring the course in a fun and orginized, but she also uses every single minute of our two hours to teach us as much as she possibly can.

  (Nicole, Jan 2007 )

• Very reassuring, patient and encouraging, Julia is an ideal teacher.

  (Colin, Jan 2007 )

• Christina has proved an excellent teacher so far. Most students in class are absolute beginners and the fact that we've learned so much without Cristina speaking a word of English to us (although a little daunting at first) is testament to her teaching ability.

  (Sarah, Jan 2007 )

• Xana is great - expressive and clear, even when talking Spanish!

  (Antony, Jan 2007 )

• My teacher is great! She's lovely and so patient with us. I was terrified when I walked in and she only spoke Spanish but now there are only a few times when i don't understand her. She makes our lessons interesting and interactive by making us move around the room and write on the board and always asking us individual questions. I feel like I have learnt so much already and hope the next 5 lessons are as good.

  (Emma, Jan 2007 )

• The administration process went very smooth and efficient- staff was very helpful and accommodating. The teacher Ottavia is very helpful, nice and efficient - it is amazing how much one can learn in 2 hours a week and I am already convinced that the course will provide a viable knowledge to built on afterwards.

  (Carsten, Oct 2006 )

• The school is in a good location, the course is relevant and well structured and Ottavia is lovely! The booking process was simple and I was kept well informed of all progress in my booking. Very professional and orderly.

  (Amanda, Oct 2006 )

• Cristina is a very competent teacher and manages to cover a lot in the 2 hours we have with her. She times the lessons well, varies the activities and gives everyone a chance to contribute. I like the fact that she speaks Spanish throughout the whole lesson.

  (AMY, Oct 2006 )

• I love my teacher - Maribel is the BEST teacher ever and the whole reason I am doing the course for a second semester!

  (Zara, Oct 2006 )

• Good value for money, good choice of location and convenient times!

  (Sarah, Jul 2006 )

• Yes, very good - we started with 14 of us in a room, but splitting into 2 x 7 groups made it better! Good teacher, good bunch of fellow students, thoroughly enjoyed the first two sessions.

  (John, Jul 2006 )

• Good time, good day, good for brushing up and being in Spanish situations.

  (Stephen, Jul 2006 )

• Everything was wonderful. Thank you very much.

  (Jaewon, Apr 2006 )

• The lesson went great thanks!

  (Michael, Apr 2006 )

• Yes, everything was fine. Thank you.

  (Gabriel, Apr 2006 )

• Everything was great – I really enjoyed my first class!

  (Kevin, Apr 2006 )

• Yes, lovely thank you very much!

  (Holly, Apr 2006 )

• Everything went fine. The course is progressing quickly but at a good tempo and is being well taught.

  (Abigail, Apr 2006 )

• Isabel was great, will definitely do another course.

  (Chris, Apr 2006 )

• I have enjoyed the lessons, very interesting, course content was very good and varied.

  (Michelle, Apr 2006 )

• The school is in a very good location, the course is good and it's good to have a few weeks off before starting again. Amaya is a good laugh and has helped me to learn Spanish.

  (Chris, Apr 2006 )

• An engaging, well run course with a good teacher.

  (James, Jan 2006 )

Images of the School