Tomas Mowlam looks at a novel new way to get to know rural Spain.

A free holiday in a beautiful rustic area of Spain sounds too good to be true, so what’s the catch?

The only one is that you have to talk, a lot. Run from several villages in Spain, the Pueblo Ingles program aims to give Spanish business people “intensive exposure to raw English and to authentic and impulsive conversation”.

Pueblo Ingles want you the humble English speaking public, to chat in exclusively English with Spanish participants, on a subject that is dear to you. Pueblo Ingles say “it could be anything from a presentation on martial arts, to a summary of evolutionary biology, or a tale of a close encounter with a hungry crocodile.”

The theory behind the program is that immersion in a language, in this case English, forces people to learn quicker and stop thinking in their native tongue because mental translation slows down conversation.
The seven day program is free and accommodation and food is provided, though you have to pay your own way to Spain.

That is far from a chore however when the programs take place in surroundings such as Valdevilla, a tiny highland village, just south of the La Rioja wine country. It dates back to the 18th century, with twelve rustic cottages looking out over the beautiful countryside. A second site La Alberca is surrounded by four mountain ranges, and the village of 1,200 people still has much of its original mediaeval architecture.

The program is more than just a working holiday however; it provides a chance to get a deeper understanding of Spain, without needing to speak Spanish, and make some real friends amongst amazing surroundings.

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Image Credit: Josean Prado

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