Post: #1

Hola hombres,

Looking for suggetions on the best city/country to live in for 12 months to learn spanish. What im looking for:

- Cheap private spanish classes
- Affordable one bedroom furnsihed apattment in good area
- Good weather
- Dynamite women
- Good friendly vibe

I'm keen on Colombia primarily and do know some young girls in Bogota (been there before) but spanish classes are quite expensive so I am not sure. Also open to the idea of splitting the trip up into 6 months each in 2 places or 3 months in one spot and 9 months in the other.

My budget is around $20-25k and I do want my Spanish to be at a level where it feels completely natural by the time my 12 months is up.

Hit me with your thoughts.

Post: #2

Spanish classes are just one part of the learning. The rest depends on yourself: building vocubalary, irregular tenses , watch the same spanish movie woth spanish subtitles over and over again. More to do with motivation than with classes. But al in all, classes DO help.

Post: #3

Spain itself. Rent for apartments is very cheap in places like Valencia or Malaga.

Post: #4

Spain cheaper than Central or South America? Surely not?

I guess I could always do intensive classes at 20hr/wk during the first 3 months then cut it back to 10hr/wk.

Even at 10hr/wk it would be $650/mo just for Spanish classes in Medellin. Throw in living alone and it might be hard to keep it under $2k/mo

Post: #5

I second the advice to go for one-on-one classes at first.

In Nicaragua, you can take such a class at a good school for $5/hour. That's $100-150 per week for 20-30 hours of intensive, one-on-one classes.

After a month or two, go wherever you'd like - like Bucaramanga.

Post: #6

Another option would be to skip the classes at first and just hang out with local girls who don't speak English. It can be frustrating at times, but immersion will really get you up to speed conversationally. Eventually you'll probably hit the wall and want to take a few classes to refine things (esp verb conjugations), but in the meantime you'll stay highly motivated and save some money. Based on your priority list, I'd recommend living in Medellin, the weather is better than Bogota and the women are generally a little hotter. The Paisas speak very clean Spanish, too, although many young Medellin girls have this weird speech affectation where they raise their voice a few notes and try to sound all cutesy.

Post: #7

Suggest multiple venues: Antigua de Guatemala to cheaply ramp up and kick start the party , then alternate between cuba and Columbia, then off to Spain and then back to your favorite place to repeat

Post: #8

(05-11-2014 06:42 PM)El_gato Wrote:  Suggest multiple venues: Antigua de Guatemala to cheaply ramp up and kick start the party , then alternate between cuba and Columbia, then off to Spain and then back to your favorite place to repeat

Antigua is gringo heaven. You don't even need to understand Spanish to live there, everything you need is going to be in English. Guatemala is a good place to learn Spanish, it's the midwest of Latin America - limited accent understandable by almost all native speakers.

Xela, a few hours from Antigua, is home to PLQ. A language school I'm proud to have attended, despite how much I've let my Spanish slip over the past few years. I highly recommend it and would be happy to answer any questions you have about it. In addition to language instruction, they also provide you with a homestay - giving you the chance to build your Spanish as you live with a local Guatemalan family.

Post: #9

I have spent 6 months in South America before and have done a couple of weeks study over there so I know a little bit of Spanish.

The thought of going over and not jumping into classes right away does not appeal to me at all, that just wouldnt work for me.

El_gato your plan sounds great but i dont quite see how it would fit into my budget? Although i have never really thought of Spain at all and considering I am looking to move to England afterwards it might be a bad idea to spend a few months there at the end of it all.

Osiris - the gringo heaven thing seems a blessing and a curse, why would my brain wan to learn Spanish when it can get by with English. Thats the big thing for me, I need my brain to go into survival mode and think only Spanish will do. Thanks for the input though I will look into Guatemala more.

Post: #10

I'm in Lima right now studying spanish and my classes are about $130 for 34 hours of class per month. The classes are in a group of 8-15 people. Yeah, I would jump right into classes, especially if you haven't studied before.

But like someone else said already, its really more about motivation to practice than anything else.

Post: #11

(05-11-2014 06:42 PM)El_gato Wrote:  Suggest multiple venues: Antigua de Guatemala to cheaply ramp up and kick start the party , then alternate between cuba and Columbia, then off to Spain and then back to your favorite place to repeat

I'd personally avoid Cuba like the plague, especially if living there. Spain can't be beat, and from personal experience the women are ridiculously attractive.

Post: #12

I agree there are lots of gringos and Europeans in Antigua de Guatemala . I like the place because you get one on one instruction on the chep. You could easily do 6 hours a day to ramp up the basic grammar . I found the foreign crowd well travelled and learned a lot from them with respect to language and culture in general. Still think it is worth two months there to establish a solid Language base and network of like minded people

Post: #13

(05-12-2014 08:31 PM)El_gato Wrote:  I agree there are lots of gringos and Europeans in Antigua de Guatemala . I like the place because you get one on one instruction on the chep. You could easily do 6 hours a day to ramp up the basic grammar . I found the foreign crowd well travelled and learned a lot from them with respect to language and culture in general. Still think it is worth two months there to establish a solid Language base and network of like minded people

I vividly remember seeing a guy dressed like he was headed out on a safari in 1925 step off a tour bus to go into a coffee shop. Pretty much sums up how I view all of Antigua, but then again I had been living in the campo before going there, so I might be a little biased...

Post: #14

(05-11-2014 06:38 AM)Glider Wrote:  Hola hombres,

Looking for suggetions on the best city/country to live in for 12 months to learn spanish. What im looking for:

- Cheap private spanish classes
- Affordable one bedroom furnsihed apattment in good area
- Good weather
- Dynamite women
- Good friendly vibe

I'm keen on Colombia primarily and do know some young girls in Bogota (been there before) but spanish classes are quite expensive so I am not sure. Also open to the idea of splitting the trip up into 6 months each in 2 places or 3 months in one spot and 9 months in the other.

My budget is around $20-25k and I do want my Spanish to be at a level where it feels completely natural by the time my 12 months is up.

Hit me with your thoughts.

I taught myself Spanish mostly through immersion, and I would guess you can learn the language pretty well on less hours of instruction than you think. I would do classes the first few months to learn basic grammar and structure, then drop them for awhile and just learn through immersion. You could pick back up your last few months once you're conversational to learn more advanced grammar and structure, that's the point I feel like I'm at now.

Your budget seems like enough for Colombia if you cut back on the hours of instruction a bit.

What kind of city size do you prefer? What are you into doing when you aren't chasing girls? A second-tier Colombian city could be a good bet since it'll be significantly cheaper than Medellin.

Post: #15

That sounds like a good plan actually Viajero.

I think I might do an intensive 2 months in Guatemala then head to Colombia cut back to 10-12hrs a week then when i feel comfortable drop the classes for a bit and just work on Vocab.

Im planning on climbing throughout the Andes as I am a keen mountaineer. Other than that ita going to be study, girls and trying to build some online income.

Not sure if i want to hit up a second tier city though which ones would you suggest?

Post: #16

(05-13-2014 04:09 PM)Glider Wrote:  That sounds like a good plan actually Viajero.

I think I might do an intensive 2 months in Guatemala then head to Colombia cut back to 10-12hrs a week then when i feel comfortable drop the classes for a bit and just work on Vocab.

Im planning on climbing throughout the Andes as I am a keen mountaineer. Other than that ita going to be study, girls and trying to build some online income.

Not sure if i want to hit up a second tier city though which ones would you suggest?

I like the coffee region a lot, it's beautiful, the people speak nice and clear Spanish, and there's a lot to do when you get outside of the city. Manizales was by far my favorite city in the area, I wrote a data sheet on it here:

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Pereira is bigger with a bit more nightlife but grungier, Armenia is a cool place but just not quite as nice, in my opinion.

Manizales is at the base of the Nevado del Ruiz too, and I don't know that there's any real mountaineering there but you can hike up to (I believe) 17k feet.

Post: #17

go to guadalajara,mexico. Top tier, safe city.

Post: #18

What's the take on Colombia, compared to the other places you guys have mentioned above?

I entertain the idea of living abroad for a bit in a latin country for the spanish as well.

Post: #19

Call me crazy but you can qualify for an ED Visa if you study some languages - INCLUDING SPANISH in Thailand. This way you get to experience a different culture and legally stay for 12 months in a country that won't let you any other way. Hell, I'm doing it as part of my long term travel plan (as prep for the South America sojourn next year when the World Cup blows over

Post: #20

There is no point in that for me. I want immersion. I will learn 10 times faster if I am speaking everyday. Hell I could just stay where I am and learn Spanish fulltime if I wanted too.

Thailand might also be an exotic place for you but I have done it every which way possible.

I want to go to a country that speaks the language I am learning.

Post: #21

I think the best destination is Spain. That is the center of Spanish culture. There are beautiful cities, lots of beautiful women and you can learn the language from the natives. I had a friend there who took classes very cheep and learned tourists the Spanish languages. And the life there is not that expensive. They have a lot of economical problems and I think you won't have problems with the money. Just don't stay in big cities!

Post: #22

Anybody been to both Colombia and Spain who is willing to do a comparison?

Post: #23

(06-12-2014 12:27 PM)Brian Boru Wrote:  Anybody been to both Colombia and Spain who is willing to do a comparison?

I'd like to see some people break down living expenses for Spain too. I'm surprised you could live there with enough money to take Spanish lessons and go out and chase girls on the OP's budget.