Spanish Language courses...

[umbongo]

Just wondering if anyone's ever went on one of these and what their thoughts on it were i.e. was it worthwhile? Am considering enrolling in a "Holiday Spanish" language course at the local college, as i'd quite like to be able to speak a bit in Ibiza this year for a change!! The course itself runs for 7 weeks; 1 night per week for 2 hours...

 

[sunny_d]

Just wondering if anyone's ever went on one of these and what their thoughts on it were i.e. was it worthwhile? Am considering enrolling in a "Holiday Spanish" language course at the local college, as i'd quite like to be able to speak a bit in Ibiza this year for a change!! The course itself runs for 7 weeks; 1 night per week for 2 hours...

i've been studying spanish for about 7 months and started with the Michel Thomas 8 hour CD course. It's pretty good, but doesn't really give you anything that you will immediately be able to use when you get to Ibiza. It's more of a fast track into understanding the structure of spanish at a basic level.

I have a friend who is doing a holiday spanish course and it is apparently quite good too. As you would expect it's completely geared towards giving you some practical spanish to use on your hols. They teach you useful phrases and vocab for typical situations, e.g. in the restaurant, taxi, hotel, airport. You also get the usual beginners spanish stuff - counting, telling the time, asking for directions.

I'm self-studying at home with books and have found a really great one:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos...8436/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_11_1/026-9347244-9947645

I picked this up after finishing the Michel Thomas CDs and it's really helping to pull things together. There are loads of excercises and everything is really well described.

I can't wait to get to Ibiza in July to try out my skills. When I was there last in September I had just started studying and found that even the basic greetings etc that I had learnt really made a difference to how the locals treat you.

Good Luck....

 

[fatphilb]

would have its advantages...


anyone know the spanish for "show us yer growler....!"

in all seriousness though, when I was in France, the basic French I learnt from school came in extremely handy, and you notice an immediate improvement in the way someone treats you when you start making even a little effort. In Britain, we're pretty f***in ignorant when it comes to other people, cause the world over people look to English as being the Global language. We take it for granted over here, and if a foreigner speaks English to you, you barely bat an eyelid. How many foreigners can you recall coming across in this country that didnt understand a word of English? WE ARE PATHETIC! Im actually alright at French, albeit in Pidgin form, cause I still speak to French folks online and always try and talk in their language.

I don't know any Spanish though, although I'd be keen to learn. Dunno bout going to College again though. Im assuming that course your talking about is up at the Conshie I ain't goin back there! Took me three years to get out ffs...

 

[umbongo]

cheers for the advice folks! Think i'm gonna go for it...haven't done anything remotely educational for...well, let's just say it's been a while so it should be interesting to see how it goes!

Will hopefully manage to pick up some basic conversational skills to use in September, though whether or not i'll actually be able to use them once in full on Ibiza mode remains to be seen, on most visits, I tend to struggle when attempting to speak English...never mind Spanish

Oh and Phatphilb...it's @ Melrose Campus, don't think I could've stood the sight of the "Consh" again either...took me a good few years to escape that place much like yourself!