If you decide that you want to take the leap, and go to a foreign country to learn Spanish (or to perfect your Spanish, in the case that you are already advanced), you will be in good hands at "Language4you". When you go to their
site, you won't see the name of a specific school stressed. This is because
"Language4you" actually represents a group of different schools, with branches
located throughout Spain. Depending on the necessities of the individual
student, "Language4you" will make arrangements for you to study at
a school in Granada, Madrid, Barcelona, Salamanca, Valencia, Almuñecar or
Marbella (these last two located on the southern Mediterranean coast), and
with the possibility of dividing the time you study in Spain between several
of these cities, at no extra charge! (see below for more on this). In this
respect, "Language4you" offers you all the advantages of an agency, helping
you to find the school that's perfect for you - but without charging you any
fees for the service. Not bad, huh? |
 Looking out one of the classroom windows, there is a lovely view of the courtyard of the School of Translation. |
 |
"Language4you" has a school in Granada, where six different levels of Spanish are offered, and five of them (all except the superior level) are divided into three "sub-levels" each. Thus, you will have no trouble finding a class that corresponds pretty closely to your present level of Spanish, from absolute beginner on up. On average, there are
only 5 students in a class (the maximum is nine, but this isn't usual).
Small classes mean that each person will be able to interact more with the
teacher. All their teachers are graduates of Spanish linguistics, and have a
lot of experience teaching the language to foreigners. Also, you can get
U.S. academic credits for your study time there. |
| "Language4you"
will find accomodations for you, either in a shared room, or a private one.
You can live with a family, if you like, and eat your meals with them. All
of this does have its price; it would be cheaper if you could find your own
place, but then, that is usually no easy matter unless you have other
contacts of some sort. (See price examples here.)
But now, here are the really big advantages of "Language4you", at least in my opinion: - Courses start every Monday
all year round. This means that you won't have to wait for months to get
into a suitable class: You can start any Monday of the year. They even offer
courses during the week between Christmas and New Year's, as well as the
Easter week. These people don't ever seem to rest! |
|
| - Even better: you can select more than one study site, choosing from among
seven cities, at no extra charge. That's right: if you plan to study in
Spain for six months, you can spend two months in Granada, two in Madrid,
two in Salamanca... change cities every month, or every few weeks.
(They have centers in Madrid, Granada, Salamanca, Barcelona, Valencia,
Marbella or Almuñecar.) Now, if I were you, I wouldn't tell them at the start that I want to change cities. Not that they would mind; it's an "extra" that they regularly offer. But suppose you really like the first city, and wish to stay there the whole time? The best thing to do, in my opinion, is to tell them where you want to start, and also that you'd like to keep the "change city" option open for the future. Another tip: if you stay
in one place the whole time, you'll have a chance to look for cheaper
accomodations on your own. This way, you could haven them arrange for a room
for you during the first month, and meanwhile, you could look for a less
expensive room. If you don't find one, you could always have them extend
your stay at the first place. |
 |
How
many classes should you sign up for per week? Well, you have several options:
|
Of course they'd like you to sign up for as many hours as possible, it's more money for them, and naturally, the learning effect for you is correspondingly greater. But you might want to consider taking fewer hours of classes, and use your extra time to meet Spanish people, and converse with them - this is especially advisable if you have a tight budget. (You should check out my articles "The absolute Best way to Learn a Language", and "How to meet People before they know what hit them" for more about getting the most out of your stay in a foreign country.) However, if you plan to stay more than three months, and therefore need to get a visa, it might be necessary to sign up for 25 hours a week, since you won't get an extended visa if you only have a few hours of classes week.
If you've read some of my articles, you probably know that I don't necessarily think that going to a school is the best way to learn a language. Nonetheless, it does have its advantages, such as getting college credits, learning at a regular pace (should you find that difficult to do on your own), and so on. But at least for me, 25-30 hours of language class would simply be way too much of a good thing! Two or three hours a day, four at most, would be as much as I'd want. On the other hand, if you do decide to go "all out" and come to Spain to study Spanish, you might want to get the "intensive study effect" that five classes a day would offer. To each his/her own, I suppose.
You can visit the site www.language4you.com
for more. At their site, you'll see that they also arrange courses in other
languages: German, Italian, French and English for foreigners. (I myself am
only familiar with the Spanish programs they offer, and therefore am only
recommending these at the moment; I assume that the courses they offer for
other languages adhere to the same high standards as those for Spanish, but
I wouldn't feel comfortable recommending these other courses without being
familiar with them. If I get a chance to check into their German,
French and Italian programs, I'll give my opinion of them at some time in
the future.)
| I have visited
the "Language4you" center in Granada, and have had extensive talks with
Matías Pelaez, its director. The center is housed in an attractive old
building just next to the School of Translation of the University of
Granada. As a matter of fact, from their classroom windows you can look out over the 18th century courtyard of that
University building: a truly lovely view!
I have also talked with some people who have studied in Granada through
"Language4you". All have a very good general impression of the
school, and most of them have specifically mentioned two of the "extras",
that they really think are great: the "culture courses" and tours that are
offered, giving the students a chance to get a deeper insight into
Spanish art and culture, and most especially, the possibility of dividing
one's time in Spain among schools in two or more cities. |
|
TIP: If you plan to study there in the winter months, and don't like cold weather, you might want to consider spending some of the time in Almuñecar and/or Marbella: these two small cities on the southern coast are much warmer in the winter than Madrid, Salamanca, or Granada, for example. Okay, compared to states like Maryland, Madrid and Granada are not especially cold in the winter: you probably won't see any snow all winter, and if some does fall, it'll melt right away. On the other hand, if you're from Miami or Los Angeles, don't expect to be walking around Granada without a heavy jacket during the winter months!
Get more details at www.language4you.com. And should you like to ask me any questions about their Spanish programs, about living in Spain, or whatever, don't hesitate to write me (dbolton99b@yahoo.es) : I'll tell it to you straight!