We teach using the communicative method. This means we focus on real-world language use, while still teaching the essentials of grammar. We like to get you speaking from the very first class so you can get your mouth and ears around the language from the get go.

Don’t be alarmed if you don’t always know exactly what your teacher is saying – you’re not meant to understand every word at the start! Just do your best to understand as much as you can, taking cues from the context and any other clues that your teacher may be giving you. Of course, plenty of English is used in our Beginner levels to explain and clarify, and your textbook instructions will be in English too. Soon enough you’ll be able to take a whole class in Spanish without any need for English at all!

That’s normal! At the start it’s a good idea to do your best to make every class, as it’s important build a strong foundation for your Spanish. If you do need to miss a class though, there are several ways you can catch up.

1. Attend another class that week. All our levels run to the same weekly programme, so if there’s space for you to attend another class that week, you’re welcome to join! If you can’t make your regular class, get in touch the week before and we’ll let you know what’s available. Our Clásico courses are the best option if you think you’ll need to do this, as we usually have lots of different groups running each week.

2. Complete our online activity videos! We have lots of online content for the Beginner levels to help everyone keep up. You can find them under the My Courses tab in your El Patio Student Login.

3. Complete the homework and work covered on your own at home. After every class, your teacher will send out a brief summary of what was covered and the homework set. You can use the activity videos mentioned above to help you along. Make sure you note down any questions that come up as you go, so that you can ask your teacher in the next class.

Yes! Homework is an important tool to maintain and grow your Spanish between classes. For every 1.5-hour class, expect about one hour of homework (or two hours for every 3-hour class). Don’t feel any pressure to do it all at once though – in fact, your brain might process it better if you split it up into a couple of sessions throughout the week! Even if you don’t get to do the homework activities, any contact you have with the Spanish language throughout the week still helps. Don’t be too hard on yourself – just keep going!

Most students pick up the textbook right before their first class - say 5-10 minutes prior. If you’d like to pick up your textbook earlier, no worries! Our opening hours are available on Google and are updated when we’re between Terms.

You will be speaking some Spanish from the very first class and build from there! As a rule of thumb, we say it will take around 4-6 levels to conduct a basic conversation, using a few past tenses. Of course, the further you go the better your Spanish will get - up to complete fluency if that is your goal!

We suggest bringing a pen, water bottle and notebook to class. We have beautiful El Patio notebooks for sale which include some beginner cheat sheets, there are also El Patio tote bags to carry your books! You can purchase these extras during the checkout page and pick them up right before class.

Of course! If you’re a complete beginner with no prior study, please ensure you have time to catch up on the content before you join the course. If you don’t have time to catch up, consider joining an El Cheapo introductory course (these start in Week 3 of every Term and cover the same essential content as Elementary 1) or a Rápido course which start in Week 6 of every Term.

Our classes are between 4-12 students, with an average of 7.