Learning Spanish Abroad

What type of Spanish language course should I choose?

The answer to this question depends on your objectives. If your purpose is general, and you are taking a Spanish course abroad mainly for cultural purposes, then your best bet is a semi-intensive (15 - 20 classes per week) group course. You can use the rest of your time for soaking up the local atmosphere and even joining in the culture - after all, that’s the idea of learning Spanish in a country where it’s spoken.

If you need to learn General Spanish, but are in more of a hurry, you can choose either an intensive group course (e.g. 30 classes per week) or an individual course of, say 20 classes per week. It is not wise to continue with this kind of course for more than 3 or 4 weeks, since the brain can absorb - or rather process - only a certain amount of new language before becoming saturated. If you’re going to be staying for 4 weeks or more, it’s best to keep to 20, or 25 classes per week at the most.

If you have special needs, you can first look to see if there are any Spanish language courses specifically designed to cater for you (look on this page to check: Study Spanish Abroad: Choose Your School). If you can’t find a specialized group course, you can combine a group course of, for example, 15 classes a week, with 5 hours of individual Spanish (or more, depending on your special needs). Again, if you are in a great hurry, book only an individual course, of up to 25 hours a week (I don’t recommend more hours of class, or you won’t have any time to study outside class).

Many people ask if the difference in price between individual and group Spanish courses is justified. I would say that at a lower level, no. This is because, if you are a beginner or at an elementary or lower intermediate level of Spanish, your needs are not yet so different from those of other students for a group class to slow you down. This is not so at higher levels, where different students tend to have very different needs, so a group class will always be a brake on your progress.

I hope this helps a little!