Hello! Welcome to the course!
I’m Alicia Montero, the teacher of your course. I hope you are feeling great and looking forward to starting the course, but please read these instructions beforehand to make the most of it.
ACCESS TO THE COURSE
Right now you have permanent and lifetime access to the course platform from the INTRANET and you do not have a deadline to finish the course. To access the platform, you just have to log in and click on INTRANET in the web menu.
There you will find your course and account details, such as the payment receipt that you can download. There you will also find your certificate to download when you have finished the course.
Also on the INTRANET you will find the webinar calendar to reserve your place.
COURSE DURATION
The minimum time dedicated to a lesson is about 45 minutes, but the lessons are different from each other and many will demand more than that. Each student has her rhythm and you should not rush.
I advise you to advance only when you are sure of what you have learned because the course is progressive. In other words, much of what you learn in one lesson is useful for the following ones.
I recommend that you do between one and two lessons per week. Between lessons, it’s a good idea to set aside a few minutes of your day to review the vocabulary with the Quizlet® flashcards and the main points of the lesson that you’ll find in the PDF lesson summary.
You can consider the course as a “challenge” and do one lesson a day or every other day, so that after 6-12 weeks you finish the course. Or you can take it slower. But it is important that you make learning part of your day to day: this is how you will notice your progress.
It is not convenient to let more than a week pass between lessons, especially at the beginning of the course. You can forget information if you don’t refresh your memory every day, even if it’s just for 10 minutes.
You can repeat the lessons as many times as you want.
STUDY PACE
It is convenient to work a lesson well before moving on to the next because, as you already know, the course is progressive.
The exception are some vocabulary lists, for example, those of food, clothes or words that describe people. You don’t have to learn all those words because many of them will only be seen in the lesson that corresponds to them. If you only want to learn the most basic vocabulary of these topics, you have it in the summary of the corresponding lessons and in sheets.
Some people claim that you can learn a language by sleeping or just memorizing phrases, but for most people it is a process that requires time and dedication. But, at the same time, it is an experience that opens our minds and creates opportunities to get to know other people and cultures.
It is normal for the beginning of the course to cost you a little, because you have not yet familiarized yourself with the language. But don’t be discouraged, everything will become easier when you assimilate the most basic of the language. You should consider language learning as an investment that pays off. Everything you do during the course will be useful for your real life.
VIDEOS AND PDFs
The course is self-study and you decide how and when to work with the material. You can watch the video all at once or in parts, repeating what is not clear to you.
I recommend that you watch each video, without skipping parts. The videos are rich in content, conveyed in a systematic and concise manner. Every second that you are watching them you will be learning relevant information. Your time is very valuable to me and I promise you that what you dedicate to the course will be worth it.
Many lessons are divided into subtopics and for each there are exercises. I advise you to pause the video to do the exercises for each subtopic of the lesson before moving on. You don’t need to do all the exercises, but the more you do, the better for you.
It is normal for you to have doubts. In fact, having them is part of the learning process and the success of it! But all the information you need is in the material. The new words appear in the vocabulary lists and in the glossaries of the exercises.
What I explain first in a topic is the theory and, please, don’t get impatient or get paralyzed. You will understand everything better after seeing the examples and doing the exercises that you will find right after.
In addition, you can always consult a dictionary or a translator on the internet. But keep in mind that there is hardly a 100% equivalence between two languages. Therefore, the literal translation made by a computer program may not always work.
Trust your ability to deduce and let the context help you, as you would in a communication in real life, in a foreign language or even in Spanish with expressions you don’t know.
QUIZLET® WORKSHEETS
In the Quizlet® app, you have vocabulary, conjugation or expression cards. You can choose your learning or game mode. You should try the different modes to see what works best for you.
Apart from the games, there is a mode that simulates an exam with different exercises that can be useful for you.
You can use the cards on your smartphone or computer or print them if you prefer.
AUDIO IN MP3
You also have the audios in MP3. They include the words from the PDF vocabulary lists of the corresponding lessons. You can listen to the audios, repeat the words, read them at the same time in the lists or, if you find it monotonous, do without the audios.
All the vocabulary from the audios appears in the corresponding lesson video, however. Most people prefer to hear the words and read them at the same time, so it may be more entertaining to watch this part of the videos a couple of times, rather than just listen to the MP3s.
QUESTIONNAIRES
Quizzes are used to assess your progress. To pass the lesson, you must get 50% of the answers on the quiz right. When you have passed all the questionnaires, including the final one, you can download your certificate of completion from the INTRANET.
You can repeat the quizzes as many times as you want. You can go to the next lesson without having done the quiz.
However, you will not be able to receive the certificate of completion if you do not complete all the pending quizzes.
DOUBTS AND WEBINAR
If you have doubts that you want clarified in the webinar, please make a list and send it to me at info@discenslearning.com with the subject WEBINAR DOUBTS. Please, indicate the course you are taking and which lesson corresponds to each of your doubts.
It is likely that your doubts are the same as other students. For this reason, the webinar is much more productive if I know in advance the doubts of the students.
Questions will be answered in order of arrival. I will do my best to serve everyone, but time is limited.
For this reason, in the webinar we will strictly address doubts about the content of the courses.
PLACE IN WEBINAR
To reserve a place in the webinar, you must be aware of the calendar within the INTRANET and click on the date of the event. The places are limited.
You can only reserve a place in the webinar during the first six months that you are enrolled in the course.
You will receive an instant confirmation email and two reminder emails 24 hours and 2 hours before the event. In them, the link will appear on which you must click to access the webinar when it is time.
If you cannot participate, in the confirmation email there is a link so that you can cancel your place in one click. I appreciate you doing it and so another student can take your place.
The webinars are recorded and the last ones will be available on the course platform, in case you could not participate in the event.
I recommend that you see them because, as I said, it is likely that another student has the same question and, therefore, it will be explained in the webinars.
CONTACT
The material has been reviewed many times by a team of specialists. However, since the human being is not infallible, it is possible that there are small errors.
If something catches your attention, or you find a technical problem on the platform, you can write to the email info@discenslearning.com putting ERROR as the subject. Please, send a link or screenshot, or indicate the course, the lesson and the page of the PDF or minute of the video where you find the possible error.
The PDF material will be corrected based on those changes, so you may find newer versions of the PDFs with slight changes after a few months.
I thank you in advance for your understanding.
KEEP LEARNING FOR FREE
On the blog and on the YouTube channel you will find fresh and free material to expand your knowledge.
If there’s a blog post related to a lesson in the course, you’ll see the link in the lesson.
But the blog is independent of the course: it is additional material for you. Therefore, you decide if you see the blog material or not.
I invite you to keep an eye on the blog and the YouTube channel even after finishing the course because it will help refresh your memory and you will surely learn new things.
