Cuban Spanish Academy
A week of Cuban Spanish practice with the Academy and Classes
Choose one thing you want to say in Cuban Spanish this week and keep working on it across several short sessions. This proposed routine connects a public Classes guide, listening you can actually access, your own notes and any Academy course you already use. You can begin with public material and a notebook.
Choose one task and keep it for the week
Try a short introduction this week: say where you are from and where you are today. The examples in this guide are original practice sentences, starting with “Soy de Canadá. Hoy estoy en La Habana”. Replace the places with your own details when speaking about yourself. You will use the same task for reading, listening and speaking.
Open the Academy welcome page to orient yourself, then use the public Cuban Spanish Classes guide on ser and estar listed below. The public learning guides can be read without membership. If you already have campus access, you can instead choose a suitable section from a course available to you; keep that lesson as your main material rather than collecting a new resource every day.
Use the days below as a suggested order and fit them around your week. Leave space for one small task at a time. If you miss a day, continue from the last unfinished step. Keep the next task in your notebook or calendar so you know where to begin.
Monday: read for a usable distinction
Read one relevant section of the ser/estar guide, with the explanation in the language you understand best. Keep the Spanish examples visible. Your question is narrow: which part of the introduction identifies where a person is from, and which part gives their current location? You do not need to cover every use of both verbs in this session.
Write two columns in your notebook: “what I want to communicate” and “a sentence that does it”. Add your introduction and one different location. For example, “Soy de Canadá. Ahora estoy en casa” changes the setting without changing the person’s origin.
Close the page and explain the difference in your own words. Reopen it to check the explanation and mark one point that remains unclear. Save the exact article link and section heading beside the note. That gives the next session a starting place without relying on a browser tab that might be lost.
Tuesday: connect the written phrase with something you can hear
The Academy welcome page links to its YouTube channel. Follow that link and select a short passage from a video that plays for you, or use a relevant recording already included in a course you can access. Choose a manageable stretch where someone introduces themselves or identifies a place.
Listen once for who is speaking and the situation. On the next pass, focus on one phrase, then note the video title and approximate time so you can find it again. Use captions or a transcript when they are actually available, and keep an uncertain word marked as uncertain until you can check it.
Say the phrase aloud after the recording, then say your own introduction. Listen for where the speaker pauses and compare that with your attempt. Try the phrase again with one change. If you cannot access a recording that day, keep the reading work and return to listening later.
Wednesday: retrieve before reopening the answer
Make three prompts on paper: introduce your origin, state where you are today, and ask someone where they are. Put your Spanish attempts on a separate page. Read a prompt, cover the answers and produce a sentence aloud or in writing. Then compare it with the material you selected on Monday.
Mark each attempt as “I produced it”, “I needed a cue” or “I need to check it”. Those labels describe what happened in this task. They are more useful here than calling yourself a beginner or advanced learner because of one mistake. Keep the first attempt as well as the corrected version so you can see exactly what changed.
If you need a cue, shorten the task. Start with one sentence, or leave the first word visible and finish it yourself. Put the cue on the front of a paper card and your answer on the back. Keep the cards you want to revisit together for the next session.
Thursday: make a short introduction of your own
Use the same information in a short spoken introduction without reading the model sentence. Add one detail you can express comfortably: where you are staying, where you are speaking from, or whom you are visiting. Connect the sentences into a message you could use in a conversation.
You can record the attempt privately with a recorder you already use, or write it down if speaking aloud is inconvenient. Listen back or reread it and choose one thing to check against your source. Write a precise question beside that part so you can return to it later.
Now change only the setting: imagine speaking from home instead of Havana, or from a different room. Try the introduction again. Keeping the task familiar while changing one detail shows whether you can adapt the sentence rather than merely repeat a memorised place name.
Friday: connect the task with the Academy access you have
If you are a member, use the campus entry on the Academy welcome page and return to a course available to you. Find the relevant lesson or your next appropriate step, then compare its example with the introduction you made. Keep this week’s notes beside your course work.
If you already have a private lesson or group class booked, bring the short attempt and one specific question to that session. Academy access, private lessons and the group-class offer have different conditions, so check the option you selected.
To discuss a question with members, use the related guide about asking a community question to decide what context to include. You can add this step when it would help your practice. While waiting for a reply, continue with the sentences you can already check against your chosen material.
At the weekend, repeat the task and choose the next one
Return to the three Wednesday prompts before looking at your answers. Make the short introduction once more, changing the location. Compare it with Thursday’s attempt. Note what you could produce independently, what still needed a cue and the single point you want to check next.
Keep a compact record: the goal, the public article or course section, the recording you used if any, your first attempt and your next action. Look for a concrete difference between the attempts. Perhaps you can now ask a clearer question or make the introduction without copying.
For the following week, choose a different practical task, such as explaining a preference or asking for clarification. Use the Classes site to find an appropriate public guide, then return to the Academy welcome page when you want to compare study options or enter your existing campus. Carry the same read, listen, retrieve and apply sequence forward with a new purpose.