University of Arkansas Community College at Batesville

iBienvenidos! Beginner Spanish for Work & Community is a six-week, twelve-session course that helps adult learners build practical Spanish skills for the workplace, community, and daily life. English speakers already know more Spanish than they think, and this course builds on that foundation from day one - using shared vocabulary, place names, and familiar contexts like the clinic, store, and workplace to make the language feel immediately accessible. Etymology is used throughout as a memory tool, connecting Spanish words to their English relatives so new vocabulary sticks faster. Students learn to greet colleagues and customers, navigate health and safety conversations, discuss food and family, and tell simple stories about their past and future, with cultural insight woven into every lesson. This course keeps anxiety low and curiosity high, treating every error as evidence of trying rather than a reason for correction. It doesn't promise fluency - it delivers something more lasting: the confidence to reach across a language barrier and the realization that the distance between you and your Spanish-speaking neighbors was never as wide as it seemed.

Class Details

This class will be held October 13 - November 19 on Tuesdays and Thursdays for 6 weeks from 6 PM - 7:30 PM. 

About the Instructor

Michele Jennae (Michele Battershell) has been speaking Spanish since 1991, after two years of high school study gave way to full immersion learning. She went on to live in Mexico for five years, deepening her fluency and her connection to Latin American culture. She considers herself multi-lingual and multi-cultural, with a lifelong love of words and their power to carry ideas across space and time. She brings that passion for language into the classroom. 

Cancellations: To cancel a class, five (5) business days' notice prior to the course starting date is required to withdraw and receive a refund.