RECENT Experience Learning Spanish in Colombia, especially Bogota

Thededalus says on Feb 24, 2005, 12:42:

3 Months If your goal is actually to learn Spanish I don't think anything under 3 months is worth your time.

I had studied for 6 years before going to Bogota, and it took me every bit of 3 months to reach a level that I would dare to describe as fluent. I communicated well enough in the beginning, as my basics were pretty good, but it takes awhile to reach a certain comfort level. For everyone it's different, but 1 or 2 weeks will, in my opinion, will do very little for you, especially if you have no previous class experience.

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stevens says on Feb 24, 2005, 15:45:

I started from zero in Guatemala four years ago. I went to school four hours a day for four weeks and was completely frustrated. (I was forty then) In my first school all he other students were Belgians half my age and they left me in the dust. So I went back to Japan and studied by myself four ten months (lots of time on the trains) and when I got to Nicaragua I made great progress and everyone thought I was a fast learner. So I rested on my laurals and didn't study for several months and went to Mexico and it was hard all over again.
Now here I am in Colombia and I studied about an hour a day for four months before coming. It has helped, but I am still far from able to say what I need to say. It depends on how sympathetic your interlocutor is (Sorry, but I spent 20,000 bucks getting that Masters degree and I never get to use that word). If you're sleeping with someone it's amazing how much I can say, but if I walk into a store and the staff is busy they'll rattle off something and if I don't get it, tough, and I feel like I am totally useless in the language.
My point is, that as an adult learner (someone who started after the end of puberty) it was all hard work learning Japanese and is continuing to be so in Spanish, although Spanish is a whole lot more fun. Worth every minute of hard work. Learning foreign languages will keep you from going senile, too.

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T1 says on Feb 24, 2005, 22:53:

Clarification I don't think that I can fully learn Spanish in 1-2 weeks (no matter how deep the immersion is). The idea is to get a good start with the basics then continue from there.

T1

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william_andrew_channell says on Feb 28, 2005, 05:39:

In my experience, total immersions starting from zero don't work. I have seen plenty of people in English total immersion starting from zero, and it's just too fast to learn so much stuff. And English has fairly easy grammar. Spanish grammar is more difficult and you would not really learn much. And contrary to popular belief, the best way to learn the basics is not in a country that speaks the language. It is better to have a controlled learning process and just let the teacher decide when you are ready to be exposed to new concepts. Think of all the foreigners who have lived in the US for years and still don't know anything. It's because they are suddenly bombarded with things that they are not prepared to see and hear and their brain cannot process the information properly. Remember that in language learning, the only way to learn is to recieve comprehensible input. Language input is of no use if you cannot relate it to and build upon something you already know.

My advice is too start slow and learn the basics at a relaxed pace in your own country, and once you have learned all of the verb tenses and a good bit of vocabulary, then the total immersion idea would work.

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MegsUT62 says on Feb 28, 2005, 19:22:

I am going to study there too! I graduate in May with my major but I also minored in Spanish. I've studied it since high school but I'm not fluent. But my business degree was more important than spanish.

Now I'm planning on moving to Bogota after I graduate to study spanish through an immersion program for 2 months then look for job in Bogota.

I have lots of information about my program I am doing and other universities in Bogota that offer spanish courses.

I would love advice too if anyone has it!

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