PBH / colombia (travelguide, pictures) / post

Spanish Classes?

Hola,

Pienso ir a estudiar a Colombia por un tiempo indefinido. Nací en Estados Unidos pero mis padres son latinos. Osa, yo aprendi el Español antes de aprender Ingles. Mi problema con el castellano se deriba al escribirlo pues oficialmente nunca he tomado una clase para aprender correctamente. Especialmente estoy perdida cuando se trata de colocar accentos. Sera mandatorio que antes de tomar clases para mi carrera unicamente tome clases de español? Que universidad me recommendarían en Bógota?

I am a 19 year old female that lives in the states. I plan on moving to Bogota fairly soon. My parents and friends think I am insane to go live in Bogota alone because of my age and also because I am a female. I have been in Bogota on vacation, but not over a week. Basically, I was wondering if anyone who lives or has lived in Bogota can tell me if it will be anymore dangerous than to live in NY or DC?

By Diana on Aug 17, 2004, 02:22 in Friendly Talkzone.

LarsBrink says on Aug 17, 2004, 05:41:

Generel question! Hi Diana,

It is a very genereal question and you will probably get tons of different answers.

My experience living in Bogota is that if you behave 'normally' and do not do anything stupid you can live at least as safe as in any other metropol city in the world.

Listen to the locals for places not to go and what to do and you will be more than fine in Bogota.

(Lived there in the year 2000, and have been there ferquently 8-9 times since 1998)

Regards,

Lars Brink - colombia.dk - brink-christensen.dk

~ Lars Brink ~ www.colombia.dk ~

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Christinalkc says on Aug 17, 2004, 06:31:

Hi Diana,

I haven't lived or living in Bogota but I am planning to go just like you. I don't think the idea is insane (well, my friends thought so too) if you have good plannings and knowing what you are gonna do there. Anyways, I am a Malaysian girl, aged 24, and I guess the insane bit is that I know nobody there and don't speak the language. I am currently researching for universities around Bogota to take Beginner's Espanol course sometime in September or October. I see you speak some Espanol, which is way better than me .

Anyhow, once I have got enough information from La Javeriana and La Nacional, I will share with you and then you can make your own decision.

All the best..chao,
Christina

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ShazCas says on Aug 17, 2004, 14:10:

Studying in Bogota Hi Diana,

I can see from what you've written that your Spanish is very well-written, and you could probably just practise writing Spanish and getting someone to correct your spelling before you go, and as long as your vocab and listening is perfect, you'll be fine to do a degree. You could write essays about whatever you're interested in to practise academic Spanish.

The best university for you depends on what you're going to study, and what kind of person you are, not forgetting how much you have to spend.

Don't worry about danger, as a previous poster said, if you are sensible, you'll be absolutely fine. I went to live in Bogota by myself when I was twenty. My Spanish wasn't as good as yours and I don't have your Latin family background (Irish people are VERY pale!!) Now I have a Colombian husband, fluent Spanish, wonderful friends and family-in-law in Bogota, and a fantastic second home! I LOVE Bogota, in fact, it's the best city in Colombia for me!! So buy a return ticket, why not? If you don't like it, you can always come home, and at least you'll have tried it.

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