• The Open University

Spanish for Beginners 2: People and Places

Learn how to describe people and what they wear, and talk about your family and home in the second Spanish for Beginners course.

77,943 enrolled on this course

A town square full of people sitting and talking
  • Duration

    4 weeks
  • Weekly study

    4 hours

This free online course is the second of six in the Spanish for Beginners program. It will introduce you to the language that you need to:

  • describe people, both physically and in terms of their personality;
  • talk about what people wear (clothes, accessories and colours);
  • talk about your family;
  • ask for people’s contact details (address, telephone number, e-mail);
  • describe your home and the furniture in it;
  • talk about what you want when looking for accommodation.

Talk about people and places in Spanish

During the four weeks of the course, you will learn the vocabulary and phrases you need to talk about people and places, and the present tense of some of the basic verbs, such as se/estar (to be), tener (to have) and querer (to want), and the expression ‘hay’ (there is/there are) to describe places.

You will also learn how to ask questions in Spanish. You will continue to develop your speaking, listening, reading and writing skills, through the activities, the audio and the video resources.

You will find tips and advice on how to develop our study skills, and some cultural information about people and places in the Spanish speaking world.

Take your Spanish learning offline by purchasing two hours of downloadable audio files and transcripts made by the course creators at The Open University. These MP3s are a great way to practise your Spanish listening and speaking wherever you are. They cover examples and exercises in the same topics as the course.

What topics will you cover?

  • Describe people, both physically and in terms of their personality;
  • Talk about what people wear (clothes, accessories and colours);
  • Talk about your family;
  • Ask for people’s contact details (address, telephone number, e-mail);
  • Describe your home and the furniture in it;
  • Talk about what you want when looking for accommodation.

Learning on this course

On every step of the course you can meet other learners, share your ideas and join in with active discussions in the comments.

What will you achieve?

By the end of the course, you‘ll be able to...

  • Develop skills in basic Spanish for interacting in common communicative situations
  • Engage in simple communication in Spanish
  • Apply the language introduced in the course in order to talk about people and places in Spanish
  • Apply the language introduced to describe people, both physically and in terms of their personality
  • Apply the language introduced to describe your home, the furniture in it and talk about what you want when looking for accommodation

Who is the course for?

This course is aimed at people with little prior knowledge of Spanish who want to learn the basic language and find out about the Spanish-speaking world. The course assumes that you have already studied the first course in the Spanish for Beginners program. This course is taught through English.

Who will you learn with?

I'm a lecturer in Spanish at the Open University. I'm fascinated by languages, how they work, and how we learn them.

I've been teaching Spanish with the OU for the last 14 years. Over this time I've built up a wealth of experience in distance learning for adults. I also have expertise producing learning material.

Who developed the course?

The Open University

As the UK’s largest university, The Open University (OU) supports thousands of students to achieve their goals and ambitions via supported distance learning, helping to fit learning around professional and personal life commitments.

  • Established

    1969
  • Location

    Milton Keynes, UK
  • World ranking

    Top 510Source: Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2020

Learning on FutureLearn

Your learning, your rules

  • Courses are split into weeks, activities, and steps to help you keep track of your learning
  • Learn through a mix of bite-sized videos, long- and short-form articles, audio, and practical activities
  • Stay motivated by using the Progress page to keep track of your step completion and assessment scores

Join a global classroom

  • Experience the power of social learning, and get inspired by an international network of learners
  • Share ideas with your peers and course educators on every step of the course
  • Join the conversation by reading, @ing, liking, bookmarking, and replying to comments from others

Map your progress

  • As you work through the course, use notifications and the Progress page to guide your learning
  • Whenever you’re ready, mark each step as complete, you’re in control
  • Complete 90% of course steps and all of the assessments to earn your certificate

Want to know more about learning on FutureLearn? Using FutureLearn

Join the conversation on social media

You can use the hashtag #FLLearnSpanish to talk about this course on social media.