[jooaocaetano]

About me: brazilian w/ italian and lebanese backgrounds, quite good looking, 19 yrs old.

I'm planning a 6 month stay somewhere in Latin America next year focused on learning spanish, starting in april/may. I'm looking for city i can spend those months without being tired of it during my stay, no cold or too cloudy weather and with accessible girls. Medellín is probably my best option since I've been there and i could confirm the quality i read about the city, but the lack of info about spanish schools there worries me. Guadalajara might be a good one too. Do you have any other suggestion guys? Thanks!

[ElFlaco]

(09-10-2017 06:40 PM)jooaocaetano Wrote:  

I'm planning a 6 month stay somewhere in Latin America next year focused on learning spanish, starting in april/may. I'm looking for city i can spend those months without being tired of it during my stay, no cold or too cloudy weather and with accessible girls. Medellín is probably my best option since I've been there and i could confirm the quality i read about the city, but the lack of info about spanish schools there worries me. Guadalajara might be a good one too. Do you have any other suggestion guys? Thanks!

Start by deciding where you want to be. Then pick a school there. Don't decide where to go based on language schools.

Any major city has Spanish schools somewhere. They come and go. Many have some kind of web presence (search in Spanish and English). The choice of school doesn't matter so much and the teachers range from experienced but untrained to inexperienced and untrained. It's more about what you put into and what you do with the language outside of the classroom. Keep your expectations about the school low and don't commit financially to a school (at least not in a major way) until you're there. Unless you're planning on studying at a university, they'll be happy to take you as a walk-in.

I would pick a school more based on the quality of the fellow students than anything else. You need to be on the ground to see that for yourself.

NOTE: We have a forum thread for this. You should have posted here instead: RVF Spanish Language school review thread

[Out of Retirement]

Could you describe your language learning background and/or learning style preferences? How long have you been studying Spanish? What kind of women do you like? I think that will likely be the ultimate answer to your question and keep you from getting bored.

Your English is very good. I would imagine that you would pick up Spanish much, much faster. EVERY Brazilian I've ever known can at least read most of the Spanish they come across and from that understand the vast majority of the pronunciation. I am fluent in Spanish (but not a native speaker), speak intermediate Italian, and can read a large amount of Portuguese. I have a hard time understanding most of it when spoken rapidly and maybe understand 20%-40% when spoken slowly and clearly.

Personally, I liked Bogotá when I was there but I haven't been for gaming. Geographically, it's well placed for weekend trips to other cities within the country or even another country if you get bored with Bogotá. That said, it is somewhat elevated so it can get a little cold at night and early morning.

When I saw your thread title, my gut was to tell you Medellín as well, but I haven't yet been there myself. I think the ROI in Colombia is decent enough to heavily focus there. There are many cities there. The women will keep you interested.

If you are going in April/May, I'm sure being Brazilian you know that school is already back in session and you are going into winter as June/July approaches. It will be cooler. Coastal towns will likely be warmer being closer to the beach (and thus sea level, not in the mountains) but it's also during the school year and the younger women would likely be attending school.

So, I highly recommend looking into the top 10 university towns in your countries of choice and going from there. I'm sure you could find a relatively inexpensive private tutor majoring in Spanish language, literature, or linguistics who could help you out. This should be cheaper than just going to a language school but to each his own.

In the event you choose Argentina, I would agree with Roosh that Córdoba, Argentina would be a better move than Buenos Aires, which is amazing, but more expensive and seems much harder to game. Chile would be easier than Argentina, but I feel the ROI is lower than with both Colombia and Argentina.

Chile as well as Argentina and Uruguay have very distinct accents. So, does Mexico in its cadence and more. I find Mexican slang and other vocabulary to vary a lot across the country but the accent not as much. You will walk away understanding rapidfire Spanish that 100+ million people speak, but I do find the Colombian accent incredibly clear and mostly neutral. So, in Medellín you will walk away with a relatively clear accent and likely plenty of bangs in the 7-7.5 region or hopefully higher.

Just having a girlfriend (or few) over 6 months and banging her would teach you Spanish while allowing you to skip paying for private tutoring except for the more advanced topics that you'd like to discuss. I would put the money into good logistics wherever you go. Something tells me you'll not be spending too much time in the classroom and much more time in the bedroom.

Take a look at these (freely and publically available) documents from Rosetta Stone:

http://resources.rosettastone.com/suppor...rkbook.pdf
http://resources.rosettastone.com/suppor...rkbook.pdf
http://resources.rosettastone.com/suppor...rkbook.pdf
http://resources.rosettastone.com/suppor...rkbook.pdf
http://resources.rosettastone.com/suppor...rkbook.pdf

I would read them and go through them to see where your sticking points are and then hire a tutor to help explain the grammar and maybe practice a little verbally. So, again, go where you can afford to be around the women you like. Please let me know what you think.

Regarding your "quite good looking" 19-year-old self... you should fit right in at the universities, even if you only study at a private language school a few hours per week and just hang out on campus.

If asked by one of the girls there, just say you are studying abroad and have to take some preliminary Spanish language classes to get into the universities there and you wanted to visit the universities first and see for yourself which ones you want to go to.

Maybe you can get one of them to go on a little instadate and show you around campus. Maybe she'll show you her dorm and you can go from there.

If you change your mind about the cold or have a desire to go skiing in South America, I can ramble about where to do that.

[Out of Retirement]

(09-10-2017 07:47 PM)ElFlaco Wrote:  

(09-10-2017 06:40 PM)jooaocaetano Wrote:  

I'm planning a 6 month stay somewhere in Latin America next year focused on learning spanish, starting in april/may. I'm looking for city i can spend those months without being tired of it during my stay, no cold or too cloudy weather and with accessible girls. Medellín is probably my best option since I've been there and i could confirm the quality i read about the city, but the lack of info about spanish schools there worries me. Guadalajara might be a good one too. Do you have any other suggestion guys? Thanks!

Start by deciding where you want to be. Then pick a school there. Don't decide where to go based on language schools.

Any major city has Spanish schools somewhere. They come and go. Many have some kind of web presence (search in Spanish and English). The choice of school doesn't matter so much and the teachers range from experienced but untrained to inexperienced and untrained. It's more about what you put into and what you do with the language outside of the classroom. Keep your expectations about the school low and don't commit financially to a school (at least not in a major way) until you're there. Unless you're planning on studying at a university, they'll be happy to take you as a walk-in.

I would pick a school more based on the quality of the fellow students than anything else. You need to be on the ground to see that for yourself.

NOTE: We have a forum thread for this. You should have posted here instead: RVF Spanish Language school review thread

I absolutely agree with ElFlaco. 100%. In my response, because you said that you would go in April/May, I assumed you wouldn't have a student visa to go to a school and were just going to learn by living there. I say this because the school year typically starts in early March and this would not coincide with a typical semester.

If you can get into a high-quality / legitimate university, I would do that. The girls will be there. A good education is important and a great university will in general have higher-quality women. Just my experience.

[jooaocaetano]

(09-10-2017 09:32 PM)Out of Retirement Wrote:  

Could you describe your language learning background and/or learning style preferences? How long have you been studying Spanish? What kind of women do you like? I think that will likely be the ultimate answer to your question and keep you from getting bored.

Your English is very good. I would imagine that you would pick up Spanish much, much faster. EVERY Brazilian I've ever known can at least read most of the Spanish they come across and from that understand the vast majority of the pronunciation. I am fluent in Spanish (but not a native speaker), speak intermediate Italian, and can read a large amount of Portuguese. I have a hard time understanding most of it when spoken rapidly and maybe understand 20%-40% when spoken slowly and clearly.

Personally, I liked Bogotá when I was there but I haven't been for gaming. Geographically, it's well placed for weekend trips to other cities within the country or even another country if you get bored with Bogotá. That said, it is somewhat elevated so it can get a little cold at night and early morning.

When I saw your thread title, my gut was to tell you Medellín as well, but I haven't yet been there myself. I think the ROI in Colombia is decent enough to heavily focus there. There are many cities there. The women will keep you interested.

If you are going in April/May, I'm sure being Brazilian you know that school is already back in session and you are going into winter as June/July approaches. It will be cooler. Coastal towns will likely be warmer being closer to the beach (and thus sea level, not in the mountains) but it's also during the school year and the younger women would likely be attending school.

So, I highly recommend looking into the top 10 university towns in your countries of choice and going from there. I'm sure you could find a relatively inexpensive private tutor majoring in Spanish language, literature, or linguistics who could help you out. This should be cheaper than just going to a language school but to each his own.

In the event you choose Argentina, I would agree with Roosh that Córdoba, Argentina would be a better move than Buenos Aires, which is amazing, but more expensive and seems much harder to game. Chile would be easier than Argentina, but I feel the ROI is lower than with both Colombia and Argentina.

Chile as well as Argentina and Uruguay have very distinct accents. So, does Mexico in its cadence and more. I find Mexican slang and other vocabulary to vary a lot across the country but the accent not as much. You will walk away understanding rapidfire Spanish that 100+ million people speak, but I do find the Colombian accent incredibly clear and mostly neutral. So, in Medellín you will walk away with a relatively clear accent and likely plenty of bangs in the 7-7.5 region or hopefully higher.

Just having a girlfriend (or few) over 6 months and banging her would teach you Spanish while allowing you to skip paying for private tutoring except for the more advanced topics that you'd like to discuss. I would put the money into good logistics wherever you go. Something tells me you'll not be spending too much time in the classroom and much more time in the bedroom.

Take a look at these (freely and publically available) documents from Rosetta Stone:

http://resources.rosettastone.com/suppor...rkbook.pdf
http://resources.rosettastone.com/suppor...rkbook.pdf
http://resources.rosettastone.com/suppor...rkbook.pdf
http://resources.rosettastone.com/suppor...rkbook.pdf
http://resources.rosettastone.com/suppor...rkbook.pdf

I would read them and go through them to see where your sticking points are and then hire a tutor to help explain the grammar and maybe practice a little verbally. So, again, go where you can afford to be around the women you like. Please let me know what you think.

Regarding your "quite good looking" 19-year-old self... you should fit right in at the universities, even if you only study at a private language school a few hours per week and just hang out on campus.

If asked by one of the girls there, just say you are studying abroad and have to take some preliminary Spanish language classes to get into the universities there and you wanted to visit the universities first and see for yourself which ones you want to go to.

Maybe you can get one of them to go on a little instadate and show you around campus. Maybe she'll show you her dorm and you can go from there.

If you change your mind about the cold or have a desire to go skiing in South America, I can ramble about where to do that.

Yes, brazilians can understead Spanish well, specially reading it. Lots of words are almost the same as portuguese. But it's not the same language, and understanding it when spoke by a native speaker is a challenge. I've never studied Spanish, basically all I know are the things similar to portuguese.

Bogotá would be a nice option for women, but i didn't really like the city itself. Too ugly outside the historical center. Maybe Medellín would be the best choice in Colombia. And yes, i will probably fit better in a university than a Spanish language.

About the cold, i run from it because i live in a cold part of Brazil, so a cold city wouldn't be my first option. Santiago is very nice, so it could be an exception, the problem is that it is too isolated, not many places for a weekend trip except for skiing. The same applies for Cordoba, i don't think there are lots os places to go around, but I might be wrong.

[Road_Less_Taken]

Guadalajara is a decent choice. It is very modern, good food, has a great climate and is a lot safer than Colombia.

[sonoran_]

Ive been considering this as well and maybe Antigua Guatemala seems like a good option.

It will be cheaper than other places, has lot of outsiders coming to do the same thing as you and pretty safe.

im trying to learn salsa as well and I beleive they have a few places to learn dance in Antigua.

I would rather go somewhere else but it seems like a good place for a beginner to use as a first step when travelling solo.

[jooaocaetano]

(09-11-2017 12:37 PM)sonoran_ Wrote:  

Ive been considering this as well and maybe Antigua Guatemala seems like a good option.

It will be cheaper than other places, has lot of outsiders coming to do the same thing as you and pretty safe.

im trying to learn salsa as well and I beleive they have a few places to learn dance in Antigua.

I would rather go somewhere else but it seems like a good place for a beginner to use as a first step when travelling solo.

Guatemala is a good option to save money, but i think it is too small for longer periods. Maybe a month over there would be enough.

[Mekorig]

@jooaocaetano: Check the Universidad de Buenos Aires (and other universities around the country). They have spanish courses. Also, if you are a brazilian portuguese native speaker, spanish will be easy for you.

[BacanT]

(09-11-2017 01:50 PM)Mekorig Wrote:  

@jooaocaetano: Check the Universidad de Buenos Aires (and other universities around the country). They have spanish courses. Also, if you are a brazilian portuguese native speaker, spanish will be easy for you.

If learning Spanish is the purpose, go to a country where it's cheap. Get PRIVATE classes (goes 10 times faster than in a group). Then take classes for as long at that place as you like it. When you get bored, you move and continue classes elsewhere. Finding language classes is generally very easy. I only had 3 weeks of private classes of spanish and that was enough to get things started. Next to that i dated any girl in town that was willing to go out with me during the afternoons (also the ugly as f ones, just for coffee and because they are willing to try to talk to you. Not F off course). Then in the evenings i'd go out and practice some more. I did this in Xela guatemala, but there are plenty of other option. (monte rico, on the beach in guatemala? When Antigua get's boring)
A month of private classes is more than enough to get things started, after that, with a brazilian background you can just learn by practicing.
Another good option might be Santa Cruz de La Sierra in Bolivia. Cheap and loads of (yes there are) pretty girls (all pretty girls in bolivia are in one place, SC). Problem here might be that there also a lot of brazilians there. Might end up speaking too much portuguese.

Boa sorte cara

[Road_Less_Taken]

(09-11-2017 02:11 PM)BacanT Wrote:  

(09-11-2017 01:50 PM)Mekorig Wrote:  

@jooaocaetano: Check the Universidad de Buenos Aires (and other universities around the country). They have spanish courses. Also, if you are a brazilian portuguese native speaker, spanish will be easy for you.

If learning Spanish is the purpose, go to a country where it's cheap. Get PRIVATE classes (goes 10 times faster than in a group). Then take classes for as long at that place as you like it. When you get bored, you move and continue classes elsewhere. Finding language classes is generally very easy. I only had 3 weeks of private classes of spanish and that was enough to get things started. Next to that i dated any girl in town that was willing to go out with me during the afternoons (also the ugly as f ones, just for coffee and because they are willing to try to talk to you. Not F off course). Then in the evenings i'd go out and practice some more. I did this in Xela guatemala, but there are plenty of other option. (monte rico, on the beach in guatemala?)
A month of private classes is more than enough to get things started, after that, with a brazilian background you can just learn by practicing.
Another good option might be Santa Cruz de La Sierra in Bolivia. Cheap and loads of (yes there are) pretty girls (all pretty girls in bolivia are in one place, SC). Problem here might be that there also a lot of brazilians there. Might end up speaking too much portuguese.

Boa sorte cara

I fully agree with this. Go somewhere cheap i.e Bolivia, Nicaragua and Guatemala for a month or two and load up on private or semi private classes. You will learn significantly faster than doing larger groups and save money while you do it. Personally I learn't 5 times faster this way and was speaking the same level of Spanish some people have after a year in only a few months. I started in La Paz, Bolivia which is the epicenter of cheap, but Santa Cruz would probably be a better option, in terms of some attractive girls too.

The cool thing about Bolivia in particular is that locals tend to speak very slow and clear Spanish, furthermore there are also some incredible landscapes that easily top Latin America.

Afterwards you can then go wherever you want with your new improved Spanish, while having saved money as well.

[Mekorig]

Bolivia? No thanks, specially Santa cruz de la Sierra. I know its the only place you will find any girl of worth, but it is still a dump of a "city".

[scotian]

I guess each person is different but I MUCH prefer to learn in a group, its cheaper than one-on-one and you also learn from others who often asks question that you won't think of. I think 20 hours of group lessons supplemented with 2-4 hours of private lesson per week is ideal.

[scrambled]

Classroom bad
http://www.antimoon.com/other/englishclass.htm

[frenchcorporation]

you can start where you are now with an app like duolingo,
then once youve finished those lessons, start reading books & having private lessons like Bacan T said