My husband and I are interested in studying Spanish in Spain for a couple of weeks. We are senior citizens who are advanced beginners in Spanish. We are native English speakers. We studied similarly in France several years ago and it was a wonderful experience and left us with a good knowledge of speaking French. We prefer a residential program. Has anyone had this experience and has any recommendations? Thanks!
Posted by
new york
1280 posts
I have not attended this school myself, but I know others who have and they say great things about it; it's in the town of Vejer de la Frontera, in Andalucia. You can stay with a local family, in a hotel, or in an apartment in the town; the courses include many activities and weekend trips. Vejer is one of the most beautiful towns in Spain:
I studied in Valencia for one summer, but it was very long ago. That's a wonderful city, so would be another option for-you, but I have no details about schools there....(I was at the University)
Posted by
Cleveland
902 posts
My wife took classes at CILE in Malaga. They have a residential program but we didn’t use it. We opted for 5 hours a day of instruction. It cooked my brain. I started from zero (no Spanish or Romance languages — German and some Chinese). All of other “beginners” had either some Spanish or knew Italian, French or something. My wife had Spanish from university long ago and she was placed at higher level. The instruction was excellent. (I had to do tons of homework to keep up.) The school had after school activities. Most of the other students were from other parts of Europe— US and Canada, maybe 25%.
In any case, we still loved it.
Happy travels
Posted by
Barcelona (Catalonia)
3370 posts
Spain is not your typical monolingual country. If what you really want is to immerse yourself in Spanish, then it makes sense to choose a place where Spanish is the local and everyday language.
That basically rules out Catalonia, the Basque Country, and Galicia (map). In those areas, Spanish is widely understood, but it isn’t the local language. If your goal is full immersion and being able to practise 24/7 without thinking about it, you’re better off in places like Castile, Extremadura, or Andalusia, where Spanish is the local language and the one people naturally use in daily life.
I get that it’s a bit of a trade-off. Maybe you were picturing learning Spanish while enjoying somewhere like Barcelona or Donostia. And it’s not that you can’t take excellent Spanish courses there. In Barcelona, for example, you can study everything from Catalan -the local language- to Chinese, Arabic, and Russian, and many more, and yes, Spanish too, at very reputable institutions.
The point is that once you step outside the classroom, you’re in a multilingual environment. Many people also speak Spanish perfectly well, but it isn’t necessarily their default language. That can make it harder to practise as consistently and intensively as you might like.