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living abroad for 1 year to learn Spanish
05-11-2014, 06:38 AM
Hola hombres,
Looking for suggetions on the best city/country to live in for 12 months to learn spanish. What im looking for:
- Cheap private spanish classes
- Affordable one bedroom furnsihed apattment in good area
- Good weather
- Dynamite women
- Good friendly vibe
I'm keen on Colombia primarily and do know some young girls in Bogota (been there before) but spanish classes are quite expensive so I am not sure. Also open to the idea of splitting the trip up into 6 months each in 2 places or 3 months in one spot and 9 months in the other.
My budget is around $20-25k and I do want my Spanish to be at a level where it feels completely natural by the time my 12 months is up.
Hit me with your thoughts.
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living abroad for 1 year to learn Spanish
05-11-2014, 08:17 AM
Spanish classes are just one part of the learning. The rest depends on yourself: building vocubalary, irregular tenses , watch the same spanish movie woth spanish subtitles over and over again. More to do with motivation than with classes. But al in all, classes DO help.
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living abroad for 1 year to learn Spanish
05-11-2014, 01:52 PM
Spain itself. Rent for apartments is very cheap in places like Valencia or Malaga.
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living abroad for 1 year to learn Spanish
05-11-2014, 03:39 PM
Spain cheaper than Central or South America? Surely not?
I guess I could always do intensive classes at 20hr/wk during the first 3 months then cut it back to 10hr/wk.
Even at 10hr/wk it would be $650/mo just for Spanish classes in Medellin. Throw in living alone and it might be hard to keep it under $2k/mo
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living abroad for 1 year to learn Spanish
05-11-2014, 04:22 PM
I second the advice to go for one-on-one classes at first.
In Nicaragua, you can take such a class at a good school for $5/hour. That's $100-150 per week for 20-30 hours of intensive, one-on-one classes.
After a month or two, go wherever you'd like - like Bucaramanga.
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05-11-2014, 06:41 PM
Another option would be to skip the classes at first and just hang out with local girls who don't speak English. It can be frustrating at times, but immersion will really get you up to speed conversationally. Eventually you'll probably hit the wall and want to take a few classes to refine things (esp verb conjugations), but in the meantime you'll stay highly motivated and save some money. Based on your priority list, I'd recommend living in Medellin, the weather is better than Bogota and the women are generally a little hotter. The Paisas speak very clean Spanish, too, although many young Medellin girls have this weird speech affectation where they raise their voice a few notes and try to sound all cutesy.
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05-11-2014, 06:42 PM
Suggest multiple venues: Antigua de Guatemala to cheaply ramp up and kick start the party , then alternate between cuba and Columbia, then off to Spain and then back to your favorite place to repeat
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living abroad for 1 year to learn Spanish
05-12-2014, 02:29 AM
I have spent 6 months in South America before and have done a couple of weeks study over there so I know a little bit of Spanish.
The thought of going over and not jumping into classes right away does not appeal to me at all, that just wouldnt work for me.
El_gato your plan sounds great but i dont quite see how it would fit into my budget? Although i have never really thought of Spain at all and considering I am looking to move to England afterwards it might be a bad idea to spend a few months there at the end of it all.
Osiris - the gringo heaven thing seems a blessing and a curse, why would my brain wan to learn Spanish when it can get by with English. Thats the big thing for me, I need my brain to go into survival mode and think only Spanish will do. Thanks for the input though I will look into Guatemala more.
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living abroad for 1 year to learn Spanish
05-12-2014, 02:57 PM
I'm in Lima right now studying spanish and my classes are about $130 for 34 hours of class per month. The classes are in a group of 8-15 people. Yeah, I would jump right into classes, especially if you haven't studied before.
But like someone else said already, its really more about motivation to practice than anything else.
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living abroad for 1 year to learn Spanish
05-12-2014, 03:51 PM
Quote: (05-11-2014 06:42 PM)El_gato Wrote:
Suggest multiple venues: Antigua de Guatemala to cheaply ramp up and kick start the party , then alternate between cuba and Columbia, then off to Spain and then back to your favorite place to repeat
I'd personally avoid Cuba like the plague, especially if living there. Spain can't be beat, and from personal experience the women are ridiculously attractive.
"Money over bitches, nigga stick to the script." - Jay-Z
They gonna love me for my ambition.
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05-12-2014, 08:31 PM
I agree there are lots of gringos and Europeans in Antigua de Guatemala . I like the place because you get one on one instruction on the chep. You could easily do 6 hours a day to ramp up the basic grammar . I found the foreign crowd well travelled and learned a lot from them with respect to language and culture in general. Still think it is worth two months there to establish a solid Language base and network of like minded people
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05-13-2014, 04:09 PM
That sounds like a good plan actually Viajero.
I think I might do an intensive 2 months in Guatemala then head to Colombia cut back to 10-12hrs a week then when i feel comfortable drop the classes for a bit and just work on Vocab.
Im planning on climbing throughout the Andes as I am a keen mountaineer. Other than that ita going to be study, girls and trying to build some online income.
Not sure if i want to hit up a second tier city though which ones would you suggest?
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living abroad for 1 year to learn Spanish
05-13-2014, 08:03 PM
go to guadalajara,mexico. Top tier, safe city.
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living abroad for 1 year to learn Spanish
05-13-2014, 10:36 PM
What's the take on Colombia, compared to the other places you guys have mentioned above?
I entertain the idea of living abroad for a bit in a latin country for the spanish as well.
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living abroad for 1 year to learn Spanish
06-12-2014, 02:30 AM
Call me crazy but you can qualify for an ED Visa if you study some languages - INCLUDING SPANISH in Thailand. This way you get to experience a different culture and legally stay for 12 months in a country that won't let you any other way. Hell, I'm doing it as part of my long term travel plan (as prep for the South America sojourn next year when the World Cup blows over
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living abroad for 1 year to learn Spanish
06-12-2014, 02:45 AM
There is no point in that for me. I want immersion. I will learn 10 times faster if I am speaking everyday. Hell I could just stay where I am and learn Spanish fulltime if I wanted too.
Thailand might also be an exotic place for you but I have done it every which way possible.
I want to go to a country that speaks the language I am learning.
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living abroad for 1 year to learn Spanish
06-12-2014, 08:38 AM
I think the best destination is Spain. That is the center of Spanish culture. There are beautiful cities, lots of beautiful women and you can learn the language from the natives. I had a friend there who took classes very cheep and learned tourists the Spanish languages. And the life there is not that expensive. They have a lot of economical problems and I think you won't have problems with the money. Just don't stay in big cities!
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living abroad for 1 year to learn Spanish
06-12-2014, 12:27 PM
Anybody been to both Colombia and Spain who is willing to do a comparison?