Barcelona or Malaga?

I would definitly choose Barcelona, a very beautiful city. I have no idea about Spanish language schools in the area. Malaga is on the Costa del Sol - not the most pleasant area of Spain - overrun by tourists and full of highrises. If you go to the library and read up on these two areas you will get a better idea of what each has to offer.

Sasha - Having spent considerable time in both - No Question - Barcelona is one of Europe's most amazing cities. true that Catalan and Castellano, dialects of the Spanish language are spoken in Barcelona,however, you will have no problem finding locations to learn basic spanish.

If you choose Barcelona get ready for a truly amazing spring/early summer!!!!!

Greg

No contest for me - Barcelona would win hands down. You will probably have greater choice of spanish schools there as well.

You may have already chosen your school but you should be aware that many of the schools are very focussed on language tourism, and courses described as intensive are not. Depending on what you want, do your research carefully.

thanks! I think I am going to go to Barcelona! I was looking at the EF schools if anyone is familiar- they have locations in Malaga and Barcelona. If I was going to a different school, would you suggest Madrid over Barcelona?

In your second case, I'd choose Madrid over Barcelona. Bigger city, more interesting historical sites, day trip to Segovia, Toledo, Avila, 2 1/2 hours by AVE from Sevilla, etc....more of a "Spanish" feel than Barcelona (and no one muttering darkly that you should be speaking Calatan!)

As long as you're starting to waffle, why not go for the gusto? Salamanca University (abt 200km w of Madrid)is one of the better schools in europe, probably counts as credit in american schools, gives you the oportunity to take other courses, and has spanish coures for foreigners. Good small city, not touristy, academic feel. Toledo, Madrid, Avila are easy weekend jaunts and you'd find plenty of chums to make the trip with you.

Ed's got a good suggestion...great school, great university town....lots of young people from all over.

While waffling, I vote you go whole hog and chose Seville. That said, as a reality check, I don't think that the OP would really have that much of a problem with people muttering about Catalan. BCN is pretty thoroughly bilingual.

Well, depending on what it means to "learn Spanish", Barcelona might be a very bad idea as most courses are tought in Catalan.