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El Patio is Melbourne's most popular language school!
What makes learning at El Patio so great:
- Outstanding teachers
- Over 100 classes per Term
- Friendly school
- Flexible timetable
- Face-to-Face, Online, and Hybrid delivery
- Our lessons are fun!
Scroll down for class times!
What are our classes like?
You're going to love our classes and teachers! El Patio has over 20 years’ experience specialising in Spanish, with courses for everyone – from beginners through to fluency. All our teachers are qualified professionals. Classes are small (5–14 students), rigorous, and fun!
We offer three class formats:
- Face-to-Face (in person in our centres)
- Online (via Zoom)
- Hybrid (Online and Face-to-Face at the same time!)
Read a full description here.
Students say...
"After becoming frustrated at my lack of progress with their competitor, I received a recommendation for the classes at El Patio. Since enrolling I have never looked back, the teachers are knowledgeable, the students are great, the classes are fun, and my Spanish quickly improved enough to converse confidently with the locals when I arrived in Latin America."
- Angela Hayhurst
"Love El Patio! Been going for a few years now and have been consistently impressed by all the teachers and facilities. Hybrid (face-to-face and online) classes are working incredibly well."
- Geoff Lynch
"I have been studying at El Patio (Northcote branch) for quite a few years and love it. As a retired teacher, I know good teaching when I see it, and the teachers at El Patio are absolutely wonderful - caring, professional and fun. The class I am in has developed a great sense of unity and camradarie and I love going to it."
- Kathy Chambers
"I love the hybrid classes! It gives me the option to still go to class if I get home late from work, am super tired or am sick (important coming into winter/flu season). The flexibility is such a great thing and the setup of the classes seems to be working really well."
- Upper Intermediate 5 student
"Noryan is great with Zoom and I don’t think we miss anything from face-to-face interaction."
- Lower Intermediate 5 student
"The teachers are excellent and the lessons are well paced, not too fast or slow. I'd previously tried learning Spanish with a well-know language app, but found it slow going and not useful for real life. I've learned more in 5 lessons at El Patio than I did with 3 months of daily app use. So happy I've found this place."
- C. Angus
What you workshop ...
This 3-hour workshop is a comprehensive summary of the simple past and imperfect past (pretéritos indefinido e imperfecto). Although this may seem basic, the whole scheme of (especially) the indefinido is not usually incorporated in general language courses. If you would like a full compendium, this is for you!
It's suitable for students who have completed Lower Intermediate 1 and above (75+ hours of study).
El pretérito indefinido:
- Regular forms of the simple past (cené / cenaste / cenó ... )
- Verbs that change stem in the present but not in the past (cerrar / pensar ... )
- Verbs that change stem in the present and past (dormir / repetir / sentir ... )
- Irregulars (ser / ir / dar / ver)
- Strong irregulars (pretéritos fuertes) (tuve / puse / hice / dije ... )
- Verbs with spelling changes (llegué / empecé / leyó ... )
- Using the simple past (pretérito indefinido) to talk about the following past actions:
- completed actions
- actions with no relation to the present
- actions that occurred in a series
- actions that occurred during a specific period of time
- the beginning or end of an action
El pretérito imperfecto:
- Regular forms of the pretérito imperfecto (hablaba / hablabas / hablaba ...)
- The 3 irregular verbs (ir / ser / ver)
- Using the pretérito imperfecto to talk about the following actions:
- Actions in the past that are not seen as completed
- Habitual actions in the past
- Describing things in the past
- Telling the time and stating one's age in the past
No textbooks needed for this course
Study materials are included in the course fee.
Find a Class
No classes are currently available for this course. Perhaps you could try one of our other courses below. If you are having trouble finding a class get in touch now and we'll sort you out.
