Dreaming of a trip to Spain? Then this opportunity is for you: Learn Spanish in Spain and explore the country on the weekends with a free hotel voucher.

This is a special offer for Spanish courses at don Quijote schools in Spain: The first 50 students to book their course with don Quijote will receive a voucher for up to 3 nights free accommodation in over 350 hotels in Spain, Portugal and Andorra. The voucher is valid for one year when you spend the required minimum in the hotel, usually breakfast and dinner for 2 people.

This offer is valid for bookings of Spanish courses of 4 weeks or more at don Quijote schools in Spain: Salamanca, Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia, Granada, Tenerife.

UPDATE - There are only 48 vouchers left, so act fast to get yours now!

  Get more details about this offer and a free course brochure

Spanish director Pedro Almodóvar is working on a new film, Los abrazos rotos. And in the process, he's created a wonderful opportunity for film fans and Spanish students to get an inside look at how a film is made: a blog, where he muses on the script, the best translation for an English title (he decided the title's abrazos are more "embraces" than "hugs"), Penelope Cruz's hairstyle and, seemingly, whatever crosses his mind.

Blogpedroalmodóvar is written in Spanish, with English and French translations. (Access the translations through the blog's main page,  www.pedroalmodovar.es .) If you're an intermediate or high beginner student of Spanish, the translations  will provide a quick way for you to understand vocabulary or colloquialisms new to you, before carrying on reading the blog in Spanish. 

Auf der Weltausstellung in Zaragoza dreht sich vom 14. Juni bis 14. September 2008 alles um das Thema „Wasser und nachhaltige Entwicklung“.
Deutschland präsentiert auf der EXPO eine attraktive Mischung aus Information und Unterhaltung und zeigt innovative Technologien, richtungsweisende Entwicklungen und kreative Ideen.
Der Deutsche Pavillon nimmt Sie mit auf eine Reise in die wunderbare Welt des Wassers. Erleben Sie ein modernes Wassermärchen und entdecken Sie faszinierende deutsche Wasserlandschaften.

Kamila Hazdrová from the CzechRepublic has won a free 2 week Spanish course with don Quijote.

In September 2007, we held a contest in our Monthly Newsletter offering a student the possibility to win a free Spanish course at don Quijote. We are very happy to announce our winner.

24 year old Kamila Hazdrová from the Czech Republic, a subscriber to our Monthly Newsletter, participated in the draw and won a free 2 week Intensive Spanish course with accommodation. The destination Kamila has chosen for her course is don Quijote Granada school where she will study for two weeks in May.  

Congratulations once again!

We would like to thank all our participants and remind you to keep your eyes peeled for future contests.

If you have not yet signed up for our Monthly Newsletter sign up to find out all about our special offers, programs and contests.

Do you also want to study abroad with don Quijote?  Order your free brochure to get more information about our courses

don Quijote offers a Work & Study program which combines a Spanish course in any don Quijote destination followed by a job placement in Marbella, a resort town in southern Spain. You won’t get rich, but you will earn enough to cover basic expenses. This is a great opportunity to get working experience abroad while learning or improving your Spanish and most of all to have a really fun time and meet lots of new people. This program has had great reviews from many of happy students.

Check out a few videos of our student testimonials and hear about their experience working in Spain.

If you book before March 31st you will get an incredible discount on our Study and Work program. Find out more about this offer.

It's Carnival time in Tenerife and Cádiz!

If you thought that festive Carnival celebrations were the exclusive property of Brazil or Venice, you'll be in for a wild surprise during a February visit to Spain. The most famous Spanish carnival celebrations take place in Tenerife in the Canary Islands and Cádiz in Andalusia.

Tenerife’s Carnival is similar to that of Río de Janeiro, perhaps simply due to geography, since Tenerife is a tropical island with an average temperature of 22º Celsius throughout the year. For "Tinerfeños", Carnaval is the event of the year. Locals work diligently on their costumes for months before the start of the festivities. Dance, music and color take to the streets during the the island's Carnival parades. The most important parades take place in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, the capital of the island. If you're eager to see local color and culture while you learn Spanish, Carnival is an ideal time for Spanish course at don Quijote Tenerife.

When: January 30 – February 9th, 2008

See some of our students' photos of past Tenerife Carnivals.

More detailed information: Carnaval Tenerife, the official website.

On December 3, our don Quijote school in Madrid moves to a new location! We've moved the school to the same building as our student residence to facilitate access to our Spanish classes and to add to the general comfort of our students.

The building, located right in the center of Madrid has been completely renovated on this inside, while the charm of its typical Madrileño architecture has been faithfully maintained on the outside. It is surrounded by shopping and is just 5 minutes from Spain’s largest department store El Corte Ingles.

For entertainment, just cross the street to find a variety of bars and restaurants, from typical tapas bars to international cuisine. There is also a metro station right at the school's front door for easy access to the rest of the city.

One of our interns prepared this article about bullfighting for the English language press in Spain. Much of the vocabulary of the corrida has made its way into everyday Spanish converasation, as colorful metaphor. The article explains the corrida, without condoning or condemning it, and gives you some of that corrida-inspired vocabulary, so you'll know  recognize it when you hear it!

Bullfighting

Few modern day spectator sports provoke quite as much controversy as bullfighting and yet it would be difficult to imagine Spanish identity without it. To its supporters it is a way of life, an art form involving ceremony and ritual. To its detractors it amounts to little more than barbaric torture and slaughter. Yet to many foreigners, for whom the killing of an animal for sport in a ring is a totally alien concept, Spanish bullfighting is a complex tradition to understand or accept – both in physical and moral terms.

A bullfight it about many things – performance, bravery, skill and death. No doubt it is also bloody and shocking, but its supporters argue that a bull is better off dying on the point of a matador´s sword than in the abbatoir (matadero). To witness a bullfight might not necessarily mean to condone it, but it may provide an insight into this Spanish tradition and make parts of Spanish identity a little easier to understand.

Bullfighting's origins

Bullfighting of one form or another has been around for centuries and its precise..    more »

Here's a Spanish culture article prepared by don Quijote for the English language local press in Spain - with a bit of vocabulary and a few handy Spanish phrases waiting for at the end of the read. These are indeed people you will read about, sometimes daily, in the Spanish news:

Spain's most famous – Los más famosos de España

Smooth Latino crooners? Hip-swinging dance stars? Fancy-footworking football legends? These are probably the stereotypes you'd bet would top a list of most influential Spanish celebrities… and you wouldn’t be too far from the truth. But how about the King, a leading economist and a 50-something gay film director? Thought not. From politics to music and from sport to film Spain has an eclectic mix of rich and famous. Here is a short guide to the country’s ten most influential and revered….    more »

One of our don Quijote interns from the UK  prepared this cava "primer". She's included some pretty tempting cava cocktail ideas at the end:

Cava, the bubbly stuff

The last time you cracked open a bottle of bubbly, what was it?

Champagne? Asti? Sovetskoye Shampanskoye? Or cava? Producing over 12 million cases a year, Spain is the world's second largest producer of sparkling wine and although often mistakenly regarded as a “poor man´s champagne”, is actually a very acceptable and affordable alternative to the French drink.

Unlike the French producers, who struggle to keep prices down due to the high production costs – one hectare of vineyards in the Champagne region currently changes hands for one million euros – a good bottle of cava from one of the well known producers, Codorniu or Freixenet, can be found in a supermarket for as little as 7€....slightly better value than your average bottle of Moet!

Although EU law dictates that cava (or any other sparkling wine) cannot be referred to as “champagne”, Spain's bubbly shares many of the same features as its French counterpart, most notably the method by which it was made. The discovery of the méthode champenoise is famously credited to the French monk Dom Pérignon (c.1638 – 1715), who upon tasting it for the first time, is said to have shouted to his brethren, “Come quickly! I am drinking stars!” Literary references show that forms of sparkling wine have been produced in Spain...    more »

As published by don Quijote in the Costa Blanca News:

El Camino de Santiago

The pilgrimage is the new black. It's unlike anything seen since the 13th Century.

People are once again taking to the road and following the medieval Camino de Santiago (the Way of Saint James) across the north of Spain. Guided by yellow arrows, men and women of all nationalities head west from the French border on a 750km journey over mountains, wheat fields, forests and vine yards, taking in Pamplona, Burgos and León. Medieval pilgrims seeked faith and penance whilst modern pilgrims often do it for the architecture, the physical effort, the incredible landscape or to take “time out” and seek a new direction. But whatever their reason, the camino is undoubtedly an unforgettable experience unique to Spain.

The Origins of the Camino

Back in 44AD, the pagan Queen Lupa of Padrón, Galicia, recieved two Palestinian refugees bearing the headless and decomposing corpse of a Christian martyr, requesting to bury him there. The body...    more »

Here's a guide to Spanish wine, as published by don Quijote in the English language media in Spain. You'll find a little vocabulary and a few handy wine-ordering phrases at the end of the article. And should the article leave you craving more, our Salamanca school hosts the next don Quijote Spanish & Wine Tasting course October 15.

Spanish Wines

Spain is not only a nation of enthusiastic wine drinkers, but also vine growers. Spain has a long history of producing fine wines. Thanks to the sunny climate, Spanish vino is generally quite strong and the wine scene is thriving, with experimentation rife and competition fierce – in fact, Spain has the largest area of land dedicated to viticulture of any country in the world.

Spanish wine comes blanco (white), tinto (red) and rosado (rosé) and...    more »

Here's a quick guide to Spanish dance, complete with phrases and vocabulary to practice at the end of the article, as it was published in the Costa Blanca News. (And as you see from the photo, our Seville partner school does indeed offer a Spanish & Flamenco course. Tempting?)

¡Mira Quién Baila! – A Guide to Spanish Dance

The recent success of reality TV shows such as Strictly Come Dancing in Britain and ¡Mira Quién Baila! in Spain has sparked a dance revival. More people than ever are interested in learning to tango and salsa and what better place to do so than here in Spain where many of the dances originated! Dancing is an excellent form of exercise and a very social past-time too but with so many seemingly similar dances to choose from, where do you start? Here is a guide to some of the more famous Spanish dances…

Flamenco

It is generally agreed that flamenco originated in Andalusía however it is unknown who actually created the dance. It is thought that flamenco was influenced above all by..    more »

Another of the "Living in Spain" pieces we've published in English language media, this article introduces you to the diversity of Spain's 17 regions, by offering a look at Andalucía, Cataluña, El País Vasco and Galicia. We've included phrases and vocabulary to learn at the end of the article. Enjoy!

Las Regiones de España – Spanish Regions

Flamboyant fiestas, noisy tapas bars, flamenco dancing, blue skies and a glistening green sea are just some of the images traditionally conjured up at the mention of Spain. There is no wonder that some 400,000 foreign nationals have taken up residence in the south and some 55 million tourists flock to the country each year. However, while these sunny notions of  Spain are accurate there is a whole lot more to be discovered! There is not enough space here to justify Spain's enormous diversity but this is a brief guide to some of its most famous and distinctive regions.   more »

Here's another practical "living in Spain" lesson published by don Quijote in English language media (primarily for a British audience) here in Spain. Read through: you 'll find vocabulary to learn at the end of the article.

Living in Spain: Spanish Television

Whether it’s soap operas, game shows, chat shows, sport or news you want to watch, you’re guaranteed to find something that tickles your fancy on Spanish TV. Although not necessarily renowned for its quality, you cannot fault the energy and enthusiasm of the Spanish media. Live audiences, immaculately turned out hosts and plenty of drama (whatever the show!) lead you to laugh, but you’ll inevitably be glued to the screen.

Ready for TV? Pick up a copy of one of Spain’s most popular publications, Teleprograma, and check out what’s on. Beware, however, that Spanish televsion schedules are ‘flexible’ and programmes will often start up to an hour early or late. Go on… take a break from the social scene and have a night in... it’s great practice for your Spanish!

Considering that only 6% of Spain’s population receive cable, Spain’s four main national broadcasters and its numerous regional television stations, available on terrestrial TV are extremely popular. Of course digital, cable and satellite are also now widely available too. So, what to watch? Here is a guide to what kind of shows each channel provides, how to make sure you catch the news and avoid Big Brother…

TVE
TVE is Spain’s answer to the BBC. It is a partly state-owned public broadcaster that is financed by the government and also rasies capital through advertising. TVE has two main channels TVE1 (known as Primera) and TVE2 (known as La 2). Primera is more light-hearted than La 2 and, not surprisingly, attracts around..    more »

Here are 9 things to love about Salamanca, selected a couple of years ago by Christophe Rousseel, a Belgian student and writer who worked with don Quijote during his internship. Christophe spent at least 4 or 5 months here, enough to offer all sorts of advice about how to enjoy Salamanca - by day and by night:

9 things to love about Salamanca

1    Students

Nicknamed the Oxford of the Spanish world, the university of Salamanca boasts a student population of roughly 32000 Spanish students and some 6000 foreign students. There are even more students, since these figures don’t include the considerable number of Spanish learners attending private schools in Salamanca. The high concentration of Spanish and foreign students - there is one student for every 3 or 4 Salmantinos - bestows a unique atmosphere on the small city.

2   Nightlife

Insiders will tell you that Salamanca nightlife can rival any other city in Spain. Or as they say here: Salamanca por la noche, como ninguna. Perhaps it’s not as trendy as Barcelona or as acclaimed as Ibiza but Salamanca at night is custom-made for students. Prices are adapted to student budgets; 5 Euro for an open bar is no exception. The city is easy to get around: you can get anywhere on foot. It is also a lot safer than the bigger party capitals. And last but not least, nightlife is not at all limited to the weekends; you can go out seven days per week (although I advise against it).
Notwithstanding the fact that it’s a small city, Salamanca offers a plethora of bars and clubs: progressive, laid-back bars like Birdland on Plaza de España (named after the landmark jazz club in New York) or Clave del Ocho (near Gran Vía), cosy sidewalk cafés for a quiet talk (like Erasmus on Rua Antigua), crowded discotheques like    more »