Happy First Anniversary Coffee Spanglish

Coffee Spanglish was initiated in 2016 when the Almanzora Group of Friends approached the Ayuntamiento de Albox to discuss how they could work together to integrate their members (the English speaking residents in the area) into the Spanish community.

Maura Hillen, Councillor for Tourism and International Relations, said that the most pressing need for the Spanish residents, wanting to progress in their career, was to practice their English.

Sarah Makin and Shelagh Copeland, from the Almanzora Group of Friends, agreed that a great deal of English speaking residents had expressed a desire to improve their Spanish.

So Coffee Spanglish was born.

We began at the Bar El Saliente on 14th April 2016. Our first Spanish participant was Pedro Chacon who arrived using a walking frame – which then became crutches. Nothing would stop him coming and supporting our group. He has been present throughout the year since we started,

Dolores Naylor (Loli) was our first English speaking participant and has also been present throughout our year. She and Pedro have become the mainstay of the group and when people asked if they could meet on another day as well, Pedro and Loli were happy to accommodate them.

The Language School in Macael also forged links with our group – and the Professoras encouraged their students to come to the meetings, swelling our numbers to 40 at one point..

The emphasis of the group is to improve our language skills and build on the work we are doing at home and/or at classes. Most importantly – it is for every ability and it is FUN!!! Lots of laughter!!!

We now meet at the Café Bar Oasis on Tuesdays and Fridays from 5-7 and have a core of around 20 regular participants with others coming and going depending on their commitments elsewhere.

We thank the Café Bar Oasis for providing an excellent spread for our anniversary fiesta.

The Core Group