Basic Spanish Communication Workshop for Welcoming Visitors in Thionk Essyl
Volunteers Silvia Padrón Revillaand Pinja Ratilainenled a Basic Spanish Communication Workshop for people who regularly interact with visitors to Thionk Essyl, including international volunteers and tourists.
Over the course of four days, participants worked on practical communication skills for tourism-related situations, focusing on vocabulary and expressions commonly used in accommodation, restaurants, and transportation.
The workshop brought together a highly motivated and fairly homogeneous group of participants who were eager to learn or improve their Spanish in order to communicate more effectively with visitors to the community.
The workshop followed a participatory approach. Dialogues and practical expressions were studied in Spanish and French before being translated into Diola to support understanding and learning. Participants also recorded the dialogues as audio files, which were shared through a WhatsApp group created specifically for the workshop, allowing them to continue practicing outside the classroom.In addition to the practical communication activities, participants worked on basic grammar topics, including numbers and adverbs of time and place.
As part of the initiative, Spanish language teaching materials were donated to support continued learning: two books were given to the teacher at the Thionk Essyl Social Centre and four books were donated to the volunteer camps. During their stay, the volunteers also held a meeting with Galibour, a local traders’ association made up mainly of women and young people working to strengthen local commerce in Thionk Essyl.
The session included an introduction to basic project management concepts to support the association’s current initiative to import fabrics from Ziguinchor and sell them during peak commercial periods such as Ramadan and Christmas.
This workshop helped strengthen the community’s communication skills, improving its capacity to welcome international visitors while also supporting local initiatives for economic development.
