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Intensive Language School worth it? | ||
Tags: Language School | Spanish | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| Heinrich S. Groupie Germany Joined 6937 days ago 63 posts - 85 votes  Studies: French | Message 1 of 2 16 January 2012 at 7:07pm | IP Logged |
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Hi, I recently moved to Spain and would like to improve my conversational Spanish. I will be here for 8 more months. I'm wondering if it's worth it to pay for maybe 2 weeks (40 hours total) of intensive classes at a language school. And if so, if I should do them now or perhaps wait until my level is higher. I've taken traditional classes in high school, completed Michel Thomas Beginner and Advanced, Pimsleur I and half of II, and I'm working through the first Assimil now (I already have the using Spanish Assimil too). I've also been doing language exchanges once or twice a week. My biggest problems are being slow to construct sentences, limited vocabulary, and aural comprehension. I tried watching tv here and it's impossible for me.
To give you an idea of my Spanish level, I tried to roughly write the above without using a dictionary (sorry haven't figure out how to write the special characters so I'm missing accent marks and at least one n~): Hola, acabo de mudar a Espana y me gustaria mejorar mi castellano. Estare aqui durante ocho meses mas. Pienso si vale la pena para pagar quizas dos semanas (cuarenta horas en total) de classes intensivos de castellano a una escuela de idiomas? Y si es, deberia ir ahora or mas tarde? He estado en classes tradicciones en collegio, he terminado Michel Thomas Beginner y Advanced, Pimsleur I y medio de II, y ahora mismo hago el primero Assimil (y ya tengo el segundo Assimil tambien). Ademas, hago intercambios una vez o dos veces cada semana. Mis problemas son que hablo demasiado lento, el nivel de mi vocabulario es bajo, y es muy dificil para mi para oir la gente cuando me habla. Intente ver la tele y no fue possible. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Uralte Morla Triglot Newbie GermanyRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4698 days ago 6 posts - 10 votes Speaks: German*, Spanish, English Studies: Swedish, Norwegian, Catalan, Basque | Message 2 of 2 16 January 2012 at 10:42pm | IP Logged |
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Hola Heinrich!
I understand why you're not sure whether to register for a Spanish intensive course or not. You're probably afraid that the other students in class learn more slowly than you and that you won't be able to make much progress. This is what happened in the Spanish course I took at a VHS before I went to Spain. I practically didn't learn anything. =S But in Spain I made a totally different experience. I came to Spain in September (2007) and my Spanish class started in October, so I already new a little bit of Spanish - enough to understand the teacher. I was a bit afraid that I would be bored in the beginners' class (I had to register before I went to Spain) but it wasn't like that at all! It was perfekt to establish a good basis in the language. After half a year I skipped the second course and went right on to the third course. Some of my friends didn't go to class in Spain. Of course they learned how to speak more or less, but they always made a lot of mistakes. Mistakes I would have continued to make as well if there hadn't been a teacher who told me how to speak correctly. There are many things you don't notice if nobody draws your attention to them, even though you're a very attentive listener. Actually, what I want to say is: You should try a Spanish course! You will speak much better after some lessons. Your Spanish is already good. I think you'll learn a lot when you get the right intput now. Actually, I have made better experience with continuous class during several months than with one or two weeks intensive courses. It depends on where in Spain you are, but in general there are very cheap (sometimes free) courses for foreigners. I went to one of those, the teacher was great and I had a lot of fun with my class mates. In class laughed a lot when we were playing games and learning new words, and when we were having a coffee after class we tried to use the newly learned structures in real life. :D And other learners of Spanish are much more patient than natives when it comes to speed and speech flow. ;) Don't underestimate the input and feedback you get from a teacher and other learners! And when you have a good teacher, you will have fun at class and learn very quickly! So... I vote yes! :-) Pásalo bien en España! Saludos Edited by Uralte Morla on 16 January 2012 at 10:45pm 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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