My first piece of advice would be this: stay with a family! If you are really determined to improve your Spanish you need to have that extra incentive to use the language multiple times a day. When the people around you don't speak English you are forced to use the language. If you are a beginner you will leave at an intermediate level. If you are Intermediate-Advanced like I was you will end the semester basically completely fluent. Believe me it is worth it. Also, make the effort to not spend all your time with other Americans/Anglophones. Go out and meet local people. I literally went to cafes and just chatted with compete strangers sometimes. It's alright if you don't speak flawlessly, I haven't had a single situation where people had a problem, they all appreciated that I made the effort to communicate with them in their native language. Even the most broken Spanish will make you more friends than using English- period. My second piece of advice would be this- if you can, travel to other countries while you are there, If you plan where you will go beforehand you will be going places from already inside Europe which means that the ticket prices are significantly cheaper than a trans-Atlantic flight you would otherwise be taking. From here a trip one way could cost you at minimum $1000 but from Spain I went to Scotland for example for $150 round trip. My third piece of advice- get to know your host city! Walk around the neighborhoods nearest to where you live and where your campus is. If you do this early on you will become familiarized quickly and no longer have to consult a map- you can thus evade being automatically pinned as a tourist.
- nbashour
Comments