I want to ask of the many experienced students on this board for their learned opinion:

You are a wannabe Spanish speaker, at this point strictly a rookie. You can leave for Spain in the next couple of weeks, and stay till perhaps early July- so you have 4-6 weeks to get very intense about espanol. The questions are:

1) It is Summer, and you come from Texas man, so if you want hot you can stay at home and get you a Mexican girlfriend and learn all the cuss words to boot. So where is a school that is nice and cool?

2) You really want to wrap your mind around as much Spanish as possible in 4-6 weeks, so do you go for the little, bitty, podunk, one horse town where they have no TV nor lectricity and there are few distractions from your learnin; or can you do just as, or nearly as well in the big city on the coast with the cold beer and the pretty girls?

3) Given the criteria above: cool climate, cold beer, nightlife, beach, few english speaking distractions (unless wearing bikini), and oh yes, a good immersion school- what school, in what town, would you choose?

Thanks for your ideas.

Also being a Texan (yee haw) I think I can answer that question for you. First of all, don't kid yourself about the Mexican curse words helping you out much in Spain. I can assure you they are completely different as is much of the rest of the vocabulary. My professor used to howl with laughter when I told him that they use the word lonche for lunch over here and I almost choked when he told me how to catch the bus using a verb that would make a sailor blush in these parts. Ok, that said. I study every summer in Malaga. I make sure I fly into one of the major cities and leave a few days on either end of my trip to explore Madrid or Barcelona. Despite its bad rap I like Malaga for a couple of reasons. Primarily, it is on the beach which makes for good tanning and better weather than the inland cities. Although I live in Houston I loathe the heat and humidity. Malaga gets good breezes off the Mediterranean which keeps the weather fairly nice during the summer. Secondly it is very inexpensive which leaves me plenty of extra cash to go explore and play with...not to mention the shoes in Spain....have to buy shoes. Also, it is really easy to do day or weekend trips from Malaga as Sevilla, Granada and Cordoba are pretty close and Morocco even if that floats your boat. The city itself is not spectacular but there are some fun bars in el centro and it is really easy to get around, the people are super-simpatico and very patient about you murdering their language. Oh yeah and you can't swing a dead cat without hitting a language school there either so there is certainly no lack of selection.

Always happy to help a Texan. You may want to give yourself more lead time for a better program through a university. If you are just fittin' to get up and go, you might be limited to the private language schools. I've heard good things about Quijote in Barcelona ( http://www.donquijote.org/ ). I'd prefer a univesity environment myself, which requires more lead time for application/registration, etc. As for cool, the North is the place, stretching from Galicia to the Basque country. Around Santander this university has a good reputation:

Universidad Internacional Mendendez Pelayo (home page)

you may also want to check the large list at:
http://www.studyabroad.com/content/portals/Spain_port.html

Santander has great beaches, including one called "playa bikini" (here's a quiz for you, guess why) and good nightlife.

San Sebastian is also well known for good beaches and nightlife, although I don't know of any schools in the area (does not mean there aren't any).

As for immersion, most places offer you the chance to stay with a host family. I'd take it for a chance to speak Spanish 24/7, rather than going back to the dorms to hang out with other Americans. The again, the Santander program apparently has some student residences right on the water.

At any rate, I don't have any first hand experience, so do lots of your own research. I did have a couple of friends who did a semester in Salamanca, but considering the huge number of American students, their conversational Spanish did not improve as much as it should have.

MichaelOH,

I've just returned from a week of classes in Salamanca with Don Quijote. I enjoyed it, although, I wouldn't recommend a one-week class. I had no choice this time, because of work constraints.

I think Salamanca is a great place to start. They have a very reputable university there as well as other language schools of very good reputation. As for living arrangements, I say go with a family...you'll learn more. I stayed in a student flat with two other girls...we each had our own room, but the language...we'll we spoke english more than anything...

Hey, wherever you decide to go...it will be loads of fun...and definitely a learning experience...I actually plan on going back there next year for a couple of weeks instead of one...

Good luck and let us all know how things fair...

Wyndyl

I am not so sure that a university program is that much better than a language school. Some universities back home will give you credit for language courses taken through language schools as well. You just need to check before you go. Most language schools use similar curriculum and textbooks so I think it really doesn't matter that much. As far as living with a family goes, I haven't tried it. I have heard some stories about excellent home stays and I have heard some stories about horrible homestays. I even had a female friend whose family consisted of two 25 year old guys. Not quite what she had in mind. I have never gone back to a dorm to hang out with a bunch of Americans either. I have had roommates from Austria, Germany and Bulgaria but never another American. I believe that there were only 4 Americans at the school I studied at. Wherever you go I can guarantee that you will be in the minority and surrounded by Swedes.

Barcelona is a very fun city to visit but not sure that I would study there. The people there speak catalan and castillian but I found that most prefer to speak catalan, signs are in catalan and menus at most restaurants as well. It is an expensive city, on par with any city in Europe in that regard and in my opinion not very "Spanish". Great party town, beautiful architecture but not my first choice for an extended stay in Spain. I have never been to the North so I can't opine on that one. Regardless, any program is going to be what you make it. I did a lot of wandering around and talking to people so I picked up a great deal of Spanish very quickly but generally the official language among all the students is English. The only bad thing about summers in Spain...no Shiner Bock.

Jensdog, Cooter, and Wyndyl thank y'all so much for taking the time to help me.

Cooter I don't have time for a U program so I am going to have to find a private school.

Wyndyl, how's the weather in Salamanca now?

All in all Jensdog, you make an excellent case for Malaga, though I have never heard of it and don't know where it is. You may have misunderstood my crack about the cuss words. What I meant was that if I wanted a hot summer I could just stay here and learn spanish from a local latina, and get all the cuss words to boot!

If I may impose on y'all with one more question: I would really like to get the benefits of a home stay, but on the other hand I aint a kid. I am 42 yo, never married, maybe a wee bit set in my ways. I suppose that my attitude should be to try a home stay and switch if it doesn't work out?

Ahhhh, how could I have forgotten! I really needed to ask about E-mail. Jensdog and Wyndyl, how accesible and expensive is e-mail? I really would prefer to download mine everyday, but if this is going to cost 5 bucks per half hour at an internet cafe then that is 35 bucks a week. Surely I can take a laptop and find an ISP for less than that? But, if I go that route I hear that even local calls are toll calls.

It seems that the simple solution would be to find a school that has e-mail access and doesn't rape ya for using it.

Michael, Malaga is on the Costa del Sol in the south of Spain. And I feel you in that not being a spring chicken thing. I never did a homestay for that reason also. I am 31 and if I want to stay out until 5 am I don't want to feel uncomfortable doing it and as much as people have told me their host families didn't care I still feel that coming and going whenever would be a little disrespectful. Anyhow the other thing I really liked about having an apartment was just having all the other students come over and hang out and drink or have dinner before we would head out on the town. I may not have learned Spanish from doing that but I learned a lot about other places in Europe etc... As for the laptop idea I think it would be more hassle than it is worth, different electrical currents and phone cords and most places you stay on your own have no phone and if you do a homestay then you do have per minute connection charges. My school allowed us internet access for a nominal charge. I think like a dollar or two.

You, Jensdog, continue to be persuasive on all counts. I will give serious consideration to your ideas.

My strategy is this, I am just going to fly to some city, Malaca is an exellent prospect, which has a number of schools and just pick one. I am going to pay by the week and move on if the school is unsat. As for the room and board, I know the right thing is family stay but I am not sure I am up to it, and, like you, I enjoy nightlife. So the apartment may be a better choice.

Thank you for taking the time to share your wisdom with a rookie.

Hola Michael!

I did a one week homestay in Mexico last summer just to test the water before taking my family to Spain this summer. It was very interesting and educational. Don´t avoid doing a homestay because of your age. There was an 82 year old man at my school doing a hoemstay!!

These families are used to people of all ages and all levels of language proficiency. One BIG advantage of the homestay is the instant connection that you have within the community and the authentic food. Family meal time is very cultural in Mexico and Spain. Yes, you do trade a bit of your freedom because meals are served at their times not yours, but you do not have to be there. If you are good at communicating with your host family there shouldn´t be a problem. If you are wanting a strong cultural experience, a homestay can expose you to things that you won´t see otherwise.

How long do you plan to study in a school? If it is for more than 2 weeks, you could also do half homestay and half something else.

We are in Spain for 44 days and only in school for 2 of those weeks.