A Reason to Change: Exploring Habits and Turning Points in Spanish

One person, two contrasting routines

The narrator introduces a friend who smoked almost two packets of cigarettes a day.

He also exercised. He went running and visited the gym.

These details establish the contrast at the beginning of our new IGCSE Spanish and IB Spanish Ab Initio programme:

“A pesar de eso, hacía deporte.”

Despite that, he exercised.

As the story continues, the friend smokes more and more.

His breath and clothes smell strongly of tobacco.

His friends care about him, but they sometimes avoid standing too close.

Then one afternoon changes the direction of the narrative.

From routine to a turning point

After going for a run, the friend starts to feel seriously unwell. He is taken to hospital after suffering a heart attack and remains there for ten days.

When he leaves, he sees his life differently.

He decides to stop smoking.

Later, he starts helping other people who want to quit.

For Spanish learners, this sequence offers a clear contrast between what someone used to do and what happened at a particular moment.

The imperfect establishes the routine:

• “Fumaba muchísimo.”

• “Hacía deporte.”

• “Iba al gimnasio.”

The preterite moves the story forward:

• “Empezó a sentirse muy mal.”

• “Lo llevaron al hospital.”

• “Decidió dejar el tabaco.”

Students can use both tenses in a short summary:

“Antes fumaba mucho. Después de salir del hospital, decidió dejar de fumar.”

The grammar serves a purpose: explaining the difference between an established habit and a decision to change it.

Reading carefully: what do we know?

The story tells us that the friend stopped smoking. It does not explain exactly how he did it, what support he received, or how long the process took.

That matters when students evaluate the narrative.

“Decidió dejar el tabaco” 

describes a decision.

It does not give us a complete account of everything that followed.

Rather than filling the gaps with assumptions, students can identify the information they would like to have:

• ¿Qué le ayudó a dejar de fumar?

• ¿Quién lo apoyó?

• ¿Qué dificultades encontró?

These questions turn reading comprehension into meaningful language production.

Understanding a character’s perspective

One of the most striking lines comes near the end:

“Ahora dice que aquel susto fue lo mejor que le pudo pasar.”

The friend now describes the frightening experience as the best thing that could have happened to him.

Students can explore what he means without treating that statement as a universal truth.

A possible interpretation is that he values the change that followed—not the suffering itself.

The final sentence adds an important qualification: he wants other people to find their motivation without going through the same experience.

That gives the class a more useful question than whether the crisis was “good”:

¿Cómo puede alguien encontrar un motivo para cambiar antes de llegar a una crisis?

Caring about someone without judging them

The narrator also describes a tension within the friendship:

“Aunque lo queríamos, a veces evitábamos estar demasiado cerca de él por el olor.”

Students can examine how this sentence holds two ideas together. The friends cared about him, and they disliked the smell.

It provides a useful model for expressing a nuanced opinion:

“Aunque…, a veces…”

It also opens a discussion about support:

¿Cómo podemos hablar de algo que nos preocupa sin reducir a una persona a uno de sus hábitos?

The focus stays on respectful communication, not on criticising people who smoke or asking students to discuss private family circumstances.

From understanding the story to expressing an opinion

The programme follows our seven-part structure:

Warm-up → Story → Flashcards → Why Is It False? → Grammar → Ask Me → Debate

Students finish with a speaking challenge:

“En esta historia, el amigo cambió después de una experiencia difícil. Sin embargo, una persona también podría encontrar motivación en…”

They complete the thought, explain their reasoning, and give an example.

The aim is more than identifying past tenses. It is using Spanish to describe a change accurately, recognise the limits of a personal account, and discuss how people might support one another.

Explore A Turning Point with Teacher Miguel at Spanish Super Tutor.

This programme explores a narrative for language learning.

It does not provide medical advice or instructions for stopping smoking.