The project consists of a consortium of six partners representing universities and national real estate bodies in Spain, Bulgaria and the United Kingdom. The materials have been written by language staff at the University of Wolverhampton (UK), the University of Malaga (Spain) and the University of Ruse (Bulgaria). The professional input and setting of standards have been provided by the other three partners in the consortium: the national associations of real estate agents in the UK (NAEA), in Spain (GIPE) and in Bulgaria (NRPA). These are the national guarantors of quality in the sector and organise the accredited continuing professional development for their thousands of members.
The European Union’s Leonardo da Vinci programme funds trans-national, cross-sector training of professional groups. The GET REAL Lingua project meets its strict criteria of providing quality, innovative and practical language training which has been created by the cooperation of academic and professional bodies from several member countries of the European Union.
This particular project was conceived by Mike Townsend, Head of the Languages Division at the University of Wolverhampton, as he was watching TV programmes about British people buying property abroad. Few people included ‘learning the local language’ on their list of things-to-do as they embarked on this significant change in their lives. Many encountered problems or even catastrophes when they couldn’t communicate with those involved in their sales.
As more and more people seek to buy ‘a property in the sun’, many local estate agents find they need to improve their own language skills. As for their customers, it is now truer than ever before: the more people understand of the language, culture and business dealings of the country where they want to buy, the less likely they are to make an expensive mistake.
The language course is based on scenes filmed with actual real estate agents in each country, carrying out typical transactions. Staff in each university with experience in language teaching material development have produced transcripts and exercises from the filmed material, and have created a tri-lingual dictionary, or Lexicon, of more than 1400 words and phrases used in the property business.
Viewing a house, discussing buyers' and sellers' needs, and describing the contractual and financial aspects of the transactions are among the areas covered. The scenarios contain useful phrases and commonly used language which real estate agents need in their dealings with people in the British, Spanish and Bulgarian markets.
There is also a CD of a reference dictionary, or Lexicon, of key terms used or heard by estate agents, translated and explained in all three languages. See Sample Materials for examples of the phrases included.
From Autumn 2008 the teaching materials, DVD and lexicon are being tested out in taught courses for real estate agents being offered by language teachers from the three universities. Course materials and guidance for teachers will then be made available to the national real estate associations who will later offer the courses within their sector's certificated course package for Continuing Professional Development.
Is the course available to non-estate agents?
The DVD and lexicon will be available at the end of the project as “stand alone” packages which can be studied independently. While one goal of the project is to improve the language training for real estate agents, the course would be of benefit to any interested member of the house-buying public and those intending to buy or sell abroad.
The English course supposes an upper intermediate level of English already, as most real estate agents in other countries will have a basic standard of English from school.
The Spanish course is offered at a lower intermediate level of Spanish, as most people involved in the Spanish market will have had a beginners’ Spanish course.
It is advised that anyone with no previous knowledge of the language should take a beginners Spanish course to become acquainted with the basics of the language before embarking on the GET REAL course.
The Bulgarian course, on the other hand, assumes people will have had no previous exposure to Bulgarian and learners will need to start at the beginning. An introductory textbook offering initial instruction accompanies the course which will take learners quickly to a stage where they will be able to make use of an accompanying DVD with General Bulgarian video clips. After this they can start the interactive DVD of Bulgarian for Real Estate Agents which contains the language of authentic property transactions.
Finding out more
Others can register their interest by contacting us and we will let you know more about the courses..