Arcare Craigieburn's Spanish Class Featured on 9 News

Earlier this month, Channel 9 News visited Arcare's Craigieburn community to film a segment on the Spanish class. Over the past year at Arcare Craigieburn, lifestyle coordinator, Kayla and Little Champions teacher, Danielle have been teaching a group of clients how to speak Spanish.

Many of the clients at Arcare Craigieburn have Spanish-speaking backgrounds and struggle to communicate with the other English-speaking clients on a daily basis.

The Spanish classes were started in the hope, that they would help improve communication between the English-speaking and the Spanish-speaking clients, as well as being a fun challenge for all. The Spanish class is currently made up of eight ladies, three of whom only speak Spanish.

The camera crew filmed the group playing bingo in Spanish, practicing their key phrases and learning new content, such as the words for certain colours. Everyone laughed at the fact that client, Norma won three out of the three bingo games played in Spanish.

Reporter, Emily Rice then selected a few star students to feature in an interview. Betty, Joan, Flora and lifestyle coordinator, Kayla were selected to share their unique perspectives on the class and what they have learnt.

Joan joked before the interview, “I’m glad I had my appointment at the hairdressers before coming here! I need to look my best.”

Both Betty and Joan agreed that the classes had helped challenge and stimulate their minds, as well as creating inclusiveness for non-English speaking individuals within the community.

Spanish-speaking client, Flora said that she felt ‘happy’ that her peers were learning to speak Spanish to connect with her.

After the interviews were completed, everyone went to have a delicious coffee at the Arcare Craigieburn’s cafe and reflected on the day.

Betty said, “This is something that doesn’t happen everyday, but it’s so nice when it does. I can’t wait to watch myself on television.”

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