I'm new to the board. Basics are that I'm going to be a graduate student in Spain in the near future - April 2004 to be exact. Trying to get a feel for the place. I've also never been to Spain.

I have spent one year in South America, half of it in Brazil and the other half in the Spanish-speaking countries, so that'll help.

Currently I'm teaching English in Seoul, Korea and will be here until I get to Spain.

So anyhow, I'll be randomly posting all over the place over the next few days.. and hope to become a community member of what seems like a great board with some great information out here regarding Spain!!

I just signed up on over on the other Madrid board as well.. if others recall just seeing me introducing myself over there as well.. are there users on both boards? Just curious. I'm new to both however..

sunspot, allow me to give you a warm welcome to our little All Spain Message Board. We´re a mature, friendly lot here and you´ll find quite a few ongoing political debates as well.

Happy New Year, Enjoy, and Good Luck! Saludos, MadridMan

I checked out another board when I was first starting, but it was not as well managed and contained too many vulgarities to be of interest. This is a very high class board full of valuable information. People tend to respect each other and information is contributed that is helpful to all ages. I do not use any other board because I have found the information on this board to be in good taste and reliable.

Going to be a graduate student in Spain? Sounds like somebody I want to talk to . I'm currently a jr in college in the usa, and I spent a semester and summer studying/living in spain the past year. I'm starting to think about next year and applying to grad school in either spanish or bilingual speech therapy, both of which are my current majors. What are you studying, and how did you go about finding a graduate school in Spain? I'd love to hear more about the teaching English abroad thing?
Thanks and welcome...this board proved absolutely wonderful in helping me prepare for my Spain experience, I'm sure it will be just as helpful for you.
Kelly

Thank you for the welcome and the responses.

This particular graduate school is for 'peace & development'.. not sure exactly where it will get me.. BUT being in Spain for a year and getting a graduate degree AND taking a courseful of very interesting classes is appealing - despite the financial costs of it.

Kelly, I think the first time I heard about it was on www.gradschools.com then continuing researching it and got in. I don't know if they'd have a list of all the schools.. but they do have the international ones that collect more international students and such. I know they definetely have Spanish and Linguistics on there..

Sel, yeah sounds like the Korean expat boards. There is one really great one, but the majority are very unmoderated and sounding like the other ones you've encountered regarding Spain. Actually I haven't found those yet on Spain.. just this one and a similar one - am I allowed to mention other forums? The other seems similar to this, although the design on here is easier to follow plus the email notifications are great!!

MadridMan, thank you for the welcome to your website. Looks great here. Hmm.. political debates? Sheesh, sounds like the Korean ESL forum boards. I gather its most likely 90% centered around Iraq and US foreign policy-related type things??

Just curious about something.. are most people in the Madrid area? or are there people living from all over Spain? (of this forum community)..

Thanks for the ideas sunspot, I'l look into it for sure. As for where people on the board are from, I live in the usa, but got into it because I was going to study in Spain last year. I actually wasn't in Madrid, but in Granada in the south. Madrid is great, but there will always be a special part of my heart that belongs to Granada!!!

Most people int his community are either from the US, or UK and love spain. I am from Ca. for example but my wife is from the Canary Islands, Spain. And then there are also quite a few Spaniards that share a wealth of info and of course there are some expats that have made the plunge and moved to Spain permanently or "semi temporary". Welcome.

Welcome Sunspot:)

There are people from all over. Some people prefer the south of spain and some the north. So you should be able to find people from all over.

Hi (again) Sunspot. Yes, it´s me from the "other" board.

Being the diplomatic person that I usually am, I will say that I find both boards to be great resources for different reasons.

There are great discussions on this board especially involving politics and cultural differences. I find them very interesting and enriching. It also helps me to understand my host country´s (Spain´s) mindset a bit more when I read the variety of posts made by Spaniards here.

This community, like the "other one" is friendly and largely open-minded, although it has been known to come to a standstill on certain topics .

I don´t know if Madridman keeps statistics, but my guess, judging from the active posters on this forums, is that the majority of the participants on this board live outside of Spain but have some sort of connection to the country either through family or travel. One this is for sure, everyone loves the country! However, we do have some "regulars" that are Spanish living in Spain.. Fernando, Ignacio, Antonio to name a few.

Then, there are a few expats, such as myself, Shawn Redwood, Rocco, and Tony Torero who live here and share our insights from our personal experiences here. In fact, you might want to post your questions regarding Valencia here as there is a regular poster who is an expat and well versed on all things Valencian. His name escapes me at the moment but I am sure a search will yield his name.

There are "cross posters" on both boards. I am sure you will recognize some of the nicknames. Others who cross post have an identity crisis (different nicknames) . Seeing as there are cross posters, it is easy to understand that both boards offer different things to different people.

But I´m not here to promote other peoples´ business. Best to keep the two worlds separate... just as you wouldn´t walk into Coca-Cola´s headquarters raving about Pepsi!

Search and post! You won´t regret it!