i want to go to college in Colombia-any english speaking universities there?my spanish is horrible

juanalejo says on Mar 13, 2005, 07:51:

Not that I am aware of. I am not aware of any university that teaches in English.

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Gator says on Mar 13, 2005, 07:55:

None!!!!!!!! nt

"Credidi pretio parvo emere et magno vendere tibi in animo fuisse!" .

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utopiacowboy says on Mar 13, 2005, 14:24:

This cracks me up. A university in Colombia that is English-speaking! Colombians have little or no interest in English, why on earth would they have an English-speaking university? Try Columbia, South Carolina.

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adrimm (☼Travelguide writer) says on Mar 13, 2005, 14:36:

bickerss says on Mar 13, 2005, 19:33:

There may well be courses in English, especially business types. I have known a few people who have completed an English course for Uni in Buenos Aires, so may be the case in Colombia.

Investment Strategy - buying when others are crying!! Offloading when others are gloating!!!

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utopiacowboy says on Mar 13, 2005, 22:03:

The Argentineans may have more interest in the rest of the world than the Colombians do. With regards to the English-speaking world, I doubt that there is a country less interested than Colombia. Tonight we watched the movie, Ray, and my wife asked me what the singer's real name was. I said it's the true story of Ray Charles. She said that she had never heard of him. The other day she said the same thing about Fred Astaire - she had no idea who he was. She is an educated Colombian woman but she has almost no knowledge about anything in the English-speaking world and very little about the non Spanish-speaking world. Based on my experiences she's the norm. In this they remind me of Americans, very insular, narrow-minded and thin-skinned about criticism from outsiders.

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Desideria (Moderator) (Trustee board) says on Mar 14, 2005, 08:31:

so where do all these hundreds and thousands young and middle-aged people who study English at Centro Colombo Americano, Meyers, Berlitz, etc. etc. in every major Colombian city come from if there's no interest in learning English? Why can you find a dozen bilingual schools (elementary/grade/high) in a city like Cali, if there's no interest? Why do people put up with the amazingly high registration, tuition plus a long string of all kinds of extra payments in bilingual scholls if there's no interest? Why do some bilingual schools have years of waiting list and you have reserve a "cupo" for your child when you just start planning a family to be able to get your child in?

Just wondering...?

Cheers,
Desi

"When shall we three meet again? In thunder, lightning, or in rain?"(First Witch in Macbeth)

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utopiacowboy says on Mar 14, 2005, 08:41:

It's a mystery to me too, Desi. Among all the people I have met in Medellin, Monteria, and Bogota - her friends, her coworkers at Coltejer and extended family, I have only met one person whose English was sufficient for conversation. She was the daughter of a cousin who had spent a year in Canada studying English. With everyone else, it's 100% Spanish. My stepchildren had allegedly been studying English for years in private school but in fact, their English conversational abilities were close to non-existent when they arrived here. For the most part they focus on grammar and are taught by people who are not really competent in English themselves.

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Desideria (Moderator) (Trustee board) says on Mar 14, 2005, 09:37:

my theory is that since the languages are so totally different both phonetically and grammar-wise it's very hard for Spanish-speakers to become really fluent in English. The exceptions are people that started very young at bilingual schools (from age 5 or 6 at the latest) or have lived in an English-speaking country since childhood.

I've known many Colombians who have lived in the States for a long time (I believe most of us have had that experience) and even if these people are fluent in English they still have a rather heavy accent. Same applies to Spaniards in an English-speaking country. I guess the English language just doesn't "sit well" in the mouth, vocal chords and brain of a Spanish speaker. This is highly individual, though; there are people on this board who are native Spanish speakers and write English perfectly.

I would think that it's not the lack of interest that most Colombians speak little English, but rather a failure of the educational system in secondary schools (poor or deficient methods) combined with the difficulty of learning a language so unlike yours and the importance and dominance of the Spanish language in that part of the world with never-ending supply of stimuli, culture and tradition.

Just a few thoughts, feel free to disagree.

Cheers,
Desi

"When shall we three meet again? In thunder, lightning, or in rain?"(First Witch in Macbeth)

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kernow62 says on Mar 14, 2005, 09:55:

Wow UTC my experience is the polar opposite of yours, I met a few in my wife's family who spoke English well. But without exception they seemed very knowledgeable about most things American. My wife's uncle loves Frank Sinatra, her cousin is a big fan of Queen, David Bowie and T Rex (well OK they're not American), they all are familiar with the classic old American movies as well as many sitcoms from the US. They know quite a lot about American politics, more than I do I think.

I did ask my wife's cousin's husband where he learned to speak English and how long he had been studying. He learned from a fellow lawyer who gave classes in English and who had lived in Rochester NY for 8 years, so this is perhaps why he spoke very good English. What surprised me was that he had only been studying for 8 months. I wish I could learn Spanish that quickly!

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kat1 (Moderator) (Trustee board) says on Mar 14, 2005, 10:42:

Although my dad English is very limited He is an open book, he knows the history of every country I think, and seems to know everything about others countries. I remember when I was about 11 or twelve I used to know the capitals of nearly all the countries of the world with the respective currency and color flag.And not, I wasn't a high IQ child but that was part of the geography class,and at least I knew in which continent certain country was, but I am surprise here in the UK when I say I am from Colombia they think is in Africa.The english that are taugh in Colombian schools is very basic just like the spanish that they teach here in the UK. Unless you go to an only english speaking school like colegio Gran bretana that lessons are only in english.

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utopiacowboy says on Mar 14, 2005, 10:52:

Interesting observations, Desi. You may be right. On the other hand, many of the people in northern Mexico, especially Monterrey, speak passable English and many are fluent.

Wow, Kernow, that's incredible! The only thing American or non Spanish-speaking (and even that's not really true) my wife's family is interested in is baseball. They were very knowledgeable about major league baseball. Other than that, zero. I guess a lot depends on who you happen to meet and interact with. I don't really have a problem with their lack of interest. Most Americans are completely ignorant about the rest of the world. Why should Colombians be any different?

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Hunter says on Mar 14, 2005, 11:06:

UC They just might not have spoken English to you, but many people here can speak some. I have met many who can speak some English here, some of them have not uttered a word of English to me for months or even a year, in one case for a year after I met my dancer friends sister regularly, she started talking to me in pretty good English.

This has happened on several dozen occasions here, when I ask them why they didn't speak English to me sooner, they all say that I don't think I speak it vey well. None of these people could speak it very well, but certainly more than enough to get by.

Hunter

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Mr. Hollywood says on Mar 14, 2005, 11:16:

Maybe it's regional? Could this be a Medellin vs. Bogotá difference? I run into people in Bogota all the time who speak really good English. Often it's their 3rd or 4th language, too. I imagine that since Bogota is the center of politics and international exchange, the belief in the value of foreign languages is much more strongly held here.

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utopiacowboy says on Mar 14, 2005, 12:04:

No, that's not it, Hunter. They are all eager to display what English they do know but it is seldom more than a few words or phrases. Once we establish how much communication can be done in English, then it's back to Spanish. Occasionally I will encounter someone who knows some French but it's invariably the same - a few words or phrases remembered from school and then back to Spanish. The best of them is one of my brothers-in-law who actually attended a British school in Bogota. He loves to practice his English with me so we converse with him speaking English and me speaking Spanish. If only my wife had his initiative!

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cremaster says on Mar 14, 2005, 13:10:

¨These hundreds and thousands¨ of Colombians don´t really amount to a large percent of the population.

To put this in perspective, I lived for a year in South Korea, and it is NOT neccessary to learn Korean - I´d say that well over half the population could converse in English. (if they wanted to!) Try getting by in Colombia with just English.

Almost ALL the children were involved in after-school english programs. In a city of 1 million there were about 100 English language schools, compared to Medellin with maybe 10 ESL schools.

My 2 cents/40 pesos/20 won

Patrick

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Saltador says on Mar 14, 2005, 13:49:

English interest You're all forgetting one very obvious way Colombians are interested in English and the USA. That's music. Check out the top 40 charts of Colombia, half of them will be pop songs from the USA. So I doubt any Colombians seriously are in that much of a vaccuum when it comes to ingles.

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utopiacowboy says on Mar 14, 2005, 14:06:

Again, I just don't experience this. Maybe it's my wife. She's casting some kind of Spanish-only spell around her. I can remember being in Exito once and hearing a Shania Twain song on the Muzak. I pointed this out to her only to get a blank "Who's Shania Twain?". Riding around in the taxis, invariably it's vallenato on the radio. Maybe it's the kids. My 15 year old stepson was (and is) a big fan of American music and always wanted me to tell him the lyrics and what they meant.

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Saltador says on Mar 14, 2005, 14:42:

Check it out... http://www.radiodifusion.com/~top100hits/english/colombia/index.htm
13 of the top 40 are from the USA....
Ok, it's not half, I exaggerated :-)

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utopiacowboy says on Mar 14, 2005, 15:21:

Wait a second. I just looked at that site and I do not count 13. What are the 13? U2? Kylie Minogue? Avril Lavigne? Nina Sky? None of them are American.

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utopiacowboy says on Mar 14, 2005, 15:31:

I took another look at that site and looking at the Mexican Top 100, 6 of the top 40 songs are in English, a lot less than in Colombia. Yet English proficiency in Mexico is quite high compared to Colombia at least in northern Mexico. I am not sure this is a good barometer of English proficiency. My stepson listened to English music all the time and had absolutely no idea what the lyrics were about until he moved here.

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vladimiro says on Mar 14, 2005, 15:34:

Tampoco Not my experience either. My colombian wife had never heard of U2, or any American or European bands. She has a few English language songs on one tape she recorded off the radio, but she wouldn't know who sings them and has otherwise heard very little english language music in her life. Like many Latins, she listens to music 24 hours a day and is familiar with most of the popular spanish language bands from Mexico and S.America. I have noticed that the more upper-class Colombians of her age are familiar with European/American music, though.

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Saltador says on Mar 14, 2005, 16:50:

UTC You got me in the splitting hairs department. I said USA, I should have stated they were sung in English. My bad. (Although Nina Sky is from the US, Queens NY to be exact...)
Maybe the charts are skewed in some way? Who knows how they come up with the rankings. Maybe it's payola like the old days.
I'll just have to take your word for it over "The Charts" :-)

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Lionheart says on Mar 15, 2005, 00:10:

The Charts are syndicated A selection of music is provided and updated every week. The syndicated stations must play these songs a certain amount of times. General rule is one song maybe be repeated every 3 hours, and one artist may be repeated 3 times within 3 hours. An average of of 15 songs fit per hour (if the moderator doesn't yak too much).

So by nature the count of who winds up where in the charts is pre-programmed. The stations play their music with computers calculating the age, sales, weighting, and the above rules, spitting out a list at the end of the week - the current charts. The DJs and listeners only have a limited choice of selection. Same rules apply for classic rock by the way, just no charts. I tossed the DJ programs out of my radio station and we are back to human selection without any restrictions.

I can't speak for Colombia, but I know most Mexican radio stations are syndicated and obey the same rules as in the USA, only Latin music is dumped into the computers, with a few US market leaders. I have read that many Colombian radio stations are being syndicated though, no clue how many so far.

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kat1 (Moderator) (Trustee board) says on Mar 15, 2005, 00:33:

Lol tinto. what about Colombianox he can teach him all about Colombian Geography just to make purple glasses feel at home.

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cypher says on Mar 15, 2005, 04:28:

to vladimiro and purpleglasses86 i would say now anyone who is under 35 in colombia will definately be well aware of all the English songs and who sings them regardless of their social status.. you only need to hear La Mega..

and regarding the original topic check this site out
http://ocean.otr.usm.edu/~nanzola/univer.html
it lists all (i think) colombian universities, though i havent heard of any that teach solely in english

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Cerealkiller says on Mar 16, 2005, 06:13:

back to the original post I am not quite sure about a complete degree scheme taught in English, but I know ful well that Universidad de los Andes offers a wide range of subjects in English for exchange students and locals with a high proficiency.
I was very surprised to read about the general apathy towards learning english on behalf of Colombians. Id have to disagree though. Pretty much everyone I hang out with speaks english fluently, some do have a very strong accent yes, but the sentence structure tends to be superb...I suppose it is all very relative. I can only say this has been my personal experience.

Conservatives are not necessarily stupid, but most stupid people are conservatives -John Stuart Mill

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