Over 38 million people in the U.S. speak Spanish at home.
Spanish is the majority language in 21 countries and a second language in many others.
Learning a second language helps slow brain aging.
It's fun!
Fort Collins Spanish does what a bunch of friends normally would. Talk over a cup of coffee. Celebrate occasions with food and drinks. We even watch movies once in a while.
The only ground rule is that we speak exclusively in Spanish.
We converse weekly over coffee entirely in Spanish. We have been doing so every Monday evening, 50-52 weeks per year, since 2006. (Scroll down to the end for where and when.)
Once in a while, members do slideshow presentations of their latest travels or adventures—again, only in Spanish. Anyone can volunteer to do so at any time!
We also go out to eat or drink margaritas for special occasions. Sometimes the reasons for doing so are colorful (celebrate No Dirty Dishes Day, anyone?) We've even gone salsa dancing at the Rio!
A few times a year, members have hosted Spanish movies at their homes, usually with English or (ideally) Spanish subtitles. We plan to be doing this a lot more in 2017.
We started out as a Meetup.com Spanish conversation group that Tessa Davis founded in July 2006. Due to exorbitant fees imposed by Meetup, however, Tessa moved the organization to a free platform.
In 2007, Felix Wong became the chief organizer and continues to lead the group today. He organizes the group through this website and a Facebook group page.
We meet every Monday in the Bean Cycle in Fort Collins on a Zoom videoconference (since March 2020 during the coronavirus pandemic) from 5:30-7:00 P.M., including most holidays. Sometimes if conversations are good we stay even longer, but anyone is free to come and go as they please.
All levels are welcome and meetings are free! It would be nice if you buy, say, a cup of tea from the Bean Cycle so they continue to welcome us. We usually meet upstairs above the bookstore.
Still need more info? Read the Frequently Asked Questions.