Can anyone recommend a fun, reasonably priced place to study spanish in barcelona for 10 weeks or more ?? I am not familiar with Barcelona yet, and will be looking to live there for study and work for 6 months next year.
Thanks - !

As indicated in another thread a long time ago (do a search maybe), Barcelona is NOT an ideal place to study Spanish (a.k.a. Castillian). Since there are so many catalan-speaking people in Catalunya (cap. of which is Barcelona), you really won't get the immersion you need. I imagine you could find a lang. program that teaches Spanish, so if you really WANT to be in Barcelona, go for it. If, however, your main goal is learning Spanish, I'd head for Madrid, Salamanca, Sevilla, etc. But I'd LOVE to hear differently: has anyone studied Spanish in Catalunya?

Hello Shelley! The popular ¿?don Quijote schools languages schools have a location in Barcelona (please see link on my index page ). I'm really not familiar with any others, but have you done a search yet? I just found another: Dialogue immersion courses. Also, go to this Spain Exchange page for a list of many language schools in Spain. Best of luck!

Saludos, MadridMan

P.S. I agree with rgf about the location of your language school. Madrid or Salamanca would be much better.

[This message has been edited by MadridMan (edited 08-26-2000).]

rgf,

It is true that in Barcelona a lot of people speak Catalan and Shelley won't get the inmersion she needs. However, I would say 99% of Catalan speakers also speak Spanish (they are bilingual).

However I wouldn't recommend Seville either. People from Andalucía omit some word endings.

But I have to say that it is very funny to listen to an American talking in Spanish with Andalucian accent.

Check this link about language schools in Madrid.

Regards,

Antonio

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Antonio: people from Sevilla do not omit some word endings. They speak w/ an Andalusian accent in which final consonants are either aspirated or dropped. Every region has its phoenetic features. So learning Andalusian Spanish would be fine. While it is true that most catalan speakers also speak castellano, the overall climate in Cataluyna is one of promoting catalan. Fine, but not ideal for learning spanish.

Mmm, eso me da ganas de comer pescaíto frito

People from Sevilla do not omit some word endings?. So, what do you call saying "pa" instead of "para" or "na" instead of "nada"?. They are dropping half the word!.

I agree that in Cataluña the local government is promoting Catalan and Shelley will find most things written in Catalan on the street but at least their pronunciation is better than Andalucian one.

Antonio

Antonio: I told you, it's call final consonant aspiration (which is not some low-life dropping of parts of words to confuse gringos!). If you mean it about 'poor pronunciation,' then we should send people AWAY from madrid (ej que...) and into the pure airs of Zamora, for example, or Salamanca. Linguistic purity is a myth. If you want to go to Andalucia, you learn that regional accent. Ditto if you want to learn American English, which many Spaniards call 'inferior' to Brit English. En fin. tema vidrioso.

Hi, Shelley!

Must you study Spanish in Barcelona? You mention that you'll be working there as well. If that's the case, my guess is that you'll find a school through the links given above. My personal experience in Cataluña is that the Catalán people will speak to you in Spanish as soon as they realize you're a foreigner and don't know their language. I've never had any problem with that whatsoever. I've heard that some Spaniards from other regions do have trouble with Cataláns not wanting to speak Spanish (Castellano, that is). But it seems that foreigners do not have this problem. (Is there a real Catalán out there who could shed more light on this?)

As for Sevilla, Antonio is right about the people there dropping the last letter(s) of words. You can not hear them, regardless of the explanation why. For a beginning student of Spanish, this can be frustrating. The words you hear around you don't seem to match with the words you see written in your lessons. For a more advanced student, this could become great fun.

And Madrid... One of the MILLIONS of reasons Madrid is so wonderful is the fact that you meet people from all over there. Given any group of 6 or more university students, my guess is that at least half come from other towns from all over Spain. And if they were born in Madrid, chances are excellent their parents weren't, and they still go to the pueblo to visit the family there. So learning - and practicing - Spanish is marvelous in Madrid!

I'm sure you will have a GREAT time in Spain, and your Spanish will improve no matter where you are. Have fun!

!A mi me gu'ta el e'pagnol andalu'! E' ma' chulo!

Y si hablas asi y eres guiri, ?que mas da?
Si la gente de "MADHREETH" se rie de ti, no pasa nada. Se rien de to'o. Si hablas en andaluz, hablas el idioma de Lorca, Picasso, Falla, ... y Antonio Banderas!

!Anda, Andalucia!