Forget the Grammar, Just Repeat the Phrases — Spanish Classes at ¡HOLA!® The Language & Learning Center

Mesa, AZ, November 09, 2007 --(PR.com)-- “I don’t want to torture you with grammar,” Inge McKeever said. She just opened the ¡Hola! Language and Learning Center in the Factory Stores of America outlet center near Power and Baseline. Inge revved up her bewitching Latin ebullience, talking about the fun of language learning.

“I teach my students the Spanish vowels first,” Inge explained, “because they are surely different. “If you know those, you are already halfway there,” she added. “Because Spanish is a very phonetic language.”

Inge’s students get to work with phrases right away. “Most people know a word or two,” Inge said. From this starting point, she can plug the words into a phrase of every-day usage. And then swap in extra words to tune the ear and expand the vocabulary. “We try not to speak English at all in class,” said the enthusiastic teacher. “And it works.”

Thus, Inge’s whole-language methodology is different from the traditional grammar schools. Her style follows the immersion theory. First listen, then repeat, until it sinks in without the pain of drilling conjugation endings. Students are encouraged to hone their ears during any Spanish exposure they can get from radio, TV, and publications.

Inge, with boundless energy, has mastered many trades. She design a clothing line and run her own clothing factory in Colombia, worked as a nanny in a household, when she move to United State and took accounting as a CPA, and most recently left her business of 18 years. Before she moved to Arizona, Inge directed the first bilingual preschool in Seattle.

Children are, believably, Inge’s world. When she moved to Superstition Springs she invested her teaching skills and love for people in her ¡HOLA!® language school. The Language and Learning Center has three classrooms: one for preschool children, one for school-age children and adults, and a laptop laboratory for all ages.

Noticing the question mark on my face, Inge explained, “People learn better when they see something with their eyes.” Maybe you don’t know the word rojo, but when you see red, students instantly understand. The real reason, perhaps, is that computers can be so much fun. “You are actually learning when you’re playing,” Inge summarized.

¡HOLA!® offers two comprehensive preschool programs, mornings and afternoons, each including session blocks in math, English language arts (reading, writing), and Spanish instruction. Two after-school Spanish programs (4 and 5:15 p.m.) are offered for school-age children. And evening Spanish classes belong to the adults.

“Learning languages playfully is much easier for children,” Inge observed. “They absorb the language like a sponge.” Even the ones who didn’t like languages that much when little, can recall lots of skills at high school age.

“I make my children buddy up with a Spanish-speaking friend,” said Inge. “When they get together for play, I want them to speak Spanish as they can for about an hour.” This language instructor has observed that when regularity kicks in, learning any language becomes a part of the child’s routine, just like piano practice.

For the holidays ¡HOLA!® is offering Ginger Bread houses Decoration classes;
“This holiday give your Special one a memory that last a live time”. Start a new tradition He/she will have a wonderful time decorating a ginger Bread house using their imagination to create roof, windows and doors with different shaped and colored candies, while he/ she learn Spanish words

For more information about Inge’s ¡HOLA! Language Learning Center, call (480)-654-HOLA. The school is located in the Factory Stores of America building, 2055 S. Power Rd., Suite 1104, near the Power-Baseline intersection.

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