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Spanish Language Immersion Programs in Spain
Charles Kinbote
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
Howdy folks.
Sometime in late September or early October I'm going to be heading off to Europe for nine months. To start this trip off, I'm going to be doing a Spanish language immersion program somewhere in Spain - preferably on the east coast, maybe in Catalonia.
The current plan is to go to a school called don Quijote in Barcelona. It doesn't offer college credit, but it looks pretty reputable and it seems like they have their shit together. The only thing is, there really are not any resources for discerning the relative worth of a language immersion program. In a whole bunch of internet sleuthing, I've managed to come up with exactly one good review and one bad review, and neither were particularly professional.
Now the girl I was planning on traveling with is having some trouble convincing her parents of the merit of this program. They are placing a lot of worth on college credit (which I don't fully understand, because I have no intention of graduating early or opting out of a future language course), and they generally don't seem too impressed with don Quijote. I'm not sure exactly what it is they're looking for - I can definitely understand wanting to find the right program, but I'm having some trouble backing up any school's worthiness.
So does anyone have a good resource for language schools in Spain? A book recommendation or a website? Even anecdotes about personal experiences with Spanish language immersion would be helpful. I'm not at all married to don Quijote - this isn't about convincing them that dQ is the right school. This is about finding the right school, and proving that it is worthy of time and money.
We're going to be enrolling basically as soon as we get out there, so we need to find something far before then - ideally in the next week. Please, someone help me out.
edit: and while college credit would be an ENORMOUS help, given that we're coming in halfway through a standard academic term, I'm not too optimistic
Sometime in late September or early October I'm going to be heading off to Europe for nine months. To start this trip off, I'm going to be doing a Spanish language immersion program somewhere in Spain - preferably on the east coast, maybe in Catalonia.
The current plan is to go to a school called don Quijote in Barcelona. It doesn't offer college credit, but it looks pretty reputable and it seems like they have their shit together. The only thing is, there really are not any resources for discerning the relative worth of a language immersion program. In a whole bunch of internet sleuthing, I've managed to come up with exactly one good review and one bad review, and neither were particularly professional.
Now the girl I was planning on traveling with is having some trouble convincing her parents of the merit of this program. They are placing a lot of worth on college credit (which I don't fully understand, because I have no intention of graduating early or opting out of a future language course), and they generally don't seem too impressed with don Quijote. I'm not sure exactly what it is they're looking for - I can definitely understand wanting to find the right program, but I'm having some trouble backing up any school's worthiness.
So does anyone have a good resource for language schools in Spain? A book recommendation or a website? Even anecdotes about personal experiences with Spanish language immersion would be helpful. I'm not at all married to don Quijote - this isn't about convincing them that dQ is the right school. This is about finding the right school, and proving that it is worthy of time and money.
We're going to be enrolling basically as soon as we get out there, so we need to find something far before then - ideally in the next week. Please, someone help me out.
edit: and while college credit would be an ENORMOUS help, given that we're coming in halfway through a standard academic term, I'm not too optimistic
Charles Kinbote on
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I am not qualified to give advice on this, but there is good chance that your friend's parents are a little worried that she could end up partying too much in a country where women have a lot of fun and are very popular just for being a foreigner, and this could mean a waste of money on their part, is she a committed person?
The few Spanish Immersion programs I have seen make arrangements so that you live with a local family, I don't know if this will be your case, but for most people this method works very well forcing them to use what they already know in their daily routine. If you are going to spend at least 3 months interacting with Spanish speakers, and receiving personal instructions in phonetic and grammar, you will definitely should go for it. The advantage is that you will be living and breathing the language every day, and this is good.
Keep in mind that becoming proficient will take more time of course.