We speak from experience, going to South America and learning Spanish is one of the best things you will ever do but setting everything up can be a real challenge. This is especially true if you haven't been before, don't speak a word of Spanish yet or if you aren't familiar with any language schools here. We have put together this guide to make life a little easier. You can spend more hours planning the good times and less hours lost in the myriad of bad information on the internet.

This guide is broken into two distinctive parts. The first section is a general guide on learning Spanish and will hopefully give you some sense of direction. The section is split further into four subsections; Tips, Time, Why and Where. The second section involves advice on how to find the right Spanish school and how to make the most of the free service that CatchtheLingo offers you.

So to start, some tips that will help make sure you are speaking beautiful Spanish in no time.

Note: all of these tips apply to all levels of the language learning although they may seem more ambitious if you are just beginning to learn the language.

1. Immerse, immerse and... immerse:  Surround yourself with willing Spanish speakers. Chat to taxi drivers\store owners\bus men\drunkards and anyone else who will bear your bad Spanish. Watch local TV, listen to music in Spanish, try and even change the settings on all your electronic devices to Spanish. Finally at least once a week, read either a newspaper in Spanish (even if you only understand 30% of it) or a magazine (often more accessible.) 

Most importantly refuse to talk your native language to anyone except maybe your family back home (Note: you may run out of money while becoming addicted to South America so important to keep them on board)

Some people will leave the big cities of Buenos Aires and Santiago and head to small rural communities to break away from English speakers. Clearly this is a really great idea for both the travel experience and the obvious Spanish learning benefits.

2. Keep it fun:  Psychologists tell us (although lets face it, it is fairly obvious) that we learn a a whole lot better if we enjoy something. Playing games in Spanish, from board games to flirting games will help you learn the lingo. Making fun of your friends or even recalling the latest telenova episode while drunk will also do wonders for your Español.

3. Stretch yourself: We know we like to think we're not but sometimes we can be a lazy bunch and it's tempting to take the easy option. In today's world of information overload, we tend to only learn or concentrate on what we really need to. Put yourself in real life situations where you have to stretch your linguistic capability to breaking point. So for instance go and volunteer or try and get some work in a café or bar. The absence of Spanish at a certain moment may be unsettling or frustrating but you won't forget it again should the situation re-occur!

4. Find a boyfriend or girlfriend: who is a native Spanish speaker or in the absence of that being an option find a very good beer buddy. Not only may you find the love of your life/a friend for life, you'll start speaking Spanish in a more relaxed setting with someone you are comfortable with (ignore any teasing!). This is key as when you're relaxed you perform best with a new language and your mind is more open to learning. Punishments for wrong words/wrong pronunciation can also be fun...!

5. Try and speak the language as a native speaker does. As self conscious as you may be rolling an 'R', try it! The sooner you can adopt local accents, language and style, the sooner you will benefit from real communication with locals. Speaking well will stimulate your Spanish as it rewards your efforts and encourages you to then work on the other components of learning a language; grammar, reading, theory (the boring stuff) etc.

6.  Earwig:  Now, we're not encouraging you to listen to the potential domestic going on at the next table but it's important to listen in on as much Spanish as possible. Listen to how locals use the language, how they stress certain parts of a sentence, how they use certain slang words or how they pronounce a strange sound. Of course always listen to any feedback a teacher or friend gives you on your Spanish.

7. Zero tolerance for English hijackers: Remember for economic and cultural reasons it is generally more imporant for South Americans to speak English well than for you to speak Spanish. Often your South American counterpart will use every opportunity they have to get a word of Inglés in there. I have heard rare cases of even Spanish teachers trying to practice their English (although of course, in the unlikely event of this happening you should report this to the school management).

A Spanish speaker attempting to speak English with you will often disguise his or her "gesture" as an effort to help you communicate or as an act of friendly charity or a sociable reaching out. Bulls***. A quick response, such as the following should do the trick "ah perdón, yo no hablo Inglés, mis padres vinieron de Estonia" (translates as "sorry, I don´t speak English, my parents come from Estonia"

8.   Patience: Learning a language is a funny old business and progress can, unfortunately, be brutally random. Generally you will find the first few classes difficult as you try and grasp the basic structures and foundation. Soon however, you will make a key break as you reach the threshold where you can really engage your new language. Engagement leads to accelerated learning and in no time you will be confident enough to proactively make conversation

That said, your perceived rate of progress will begin to diminish after 4 or 5 weeks simply because you'll inevitably find yourself saying and hearing the same words more often. In addition, as it's tricky to make the step from sounding like a text book to speaking more colloquially, you may find that your friends will get used to your less ‘natural' Spanish. Stay patient. Stress is a wasted emotion and you won't learn any better or faster - just remember you can't get worse at a language only better. So just relax and enjoy what you already know then expand your vocabulary by reading as much as possible. If you feel hindered by a certain element of Spanish that you haven't yet mastered, get over it, try the next one and communicate with what you know.

9. Take note (and stay reasonably organised): As you go about your daily life learning Spanish in South America take notes in a little notebook (I know it's geeky but hey it can be discreet - obviously better if you don't do this by the local railway station - no one wants to be seen as a trainspotter!) Note down words you don't understand or things you haven't been able to communicate. Then produce these notes to your teacher or research the issues yourself. Try and follow a general plan in conjunction with what you are learning at school, where you assign yourself targets that must be met after certain periods of time. For instance, "by the week after next I am going to use the future tense in conversation" or "when in a restaurant I will not point to the menu but order at least 5 items in Spanish."

10. Concentrate on what you are bad at early on: Having well-rounded skills at Spanish (so being OK at understanding, writing and speaking) will massively assist you in learning further. This will ensure that you are open to learning. If you lack one of the above three then it is critical that you address this as soon as possible. Take some extra classes in that area or just spend some free time concentrating on improving that aspect of your Spanish.

Time..

People often ask themselves.. "How much can I expect to learn in a certain period of time?" or alternatively "how much time should I spend taking Spanish classes in Latin America?"

First of all you, before starting your course, you need to set a target on what level you want to reach. Ask yourself what exactly is it you are trying to achieve. Do you merely want to learn survival Spanish so that you can travel or live in a city and communicate\understand the bare necessities with Spanish speakers (asking for directions etc..) or do you want to be able to enjoy casual (if basic) conversation with native speakers? Maybe you want to take your Spanish to a level where locals can talk to you as if you, yourself were a native speaker..? Are you aiming for fluency or near fluency?

If you set a clear target first and give yourself enough immersion time, then you are far more likely to be happy with your resulting Spanish on leaving South America.

Secondly, you need to have a realistic sense of how long it will take you to reach your decided target level.

We would give you the following guidance in terms of time needed to reach the milestones..

Assuming..
1. You take 20 hours of small group classes (or 12 hours of private classes) a week
2. You complete immersion and that you never speak your own language
3. You are genuinely eager to learn the language
4. You are learning from scratch; you have no knowledge of Spanish,
5. That you attend all classes given

• To learn survival Spanish so that you can travel and\or live in a city and communicate\understand the bare necessities with non English speakers, asking for directions etc.Time needed: 1-2 weeks

• To learn survival Spanish but also to be able to enjoy casual (if basic) conversation with native speakers? Time needed: 3-14 weeks

• To develop your skills in Spanish so that you can communicate and understand any general topic (with the exception of instances where you need a very specific vocabulary). Time needed: 12-15 weeks

• To take your Spanish to a level where native speakers can talk to you as if you were a native speaker..? to a level where you communicate using correct tenses and structure grammar correctly. Time needed: 15-30 weeks.

• Are you aiming for fluency or for near fluency? Time needed: 30-120 weeks.

NOTE: With these figures we recommend you factor them based on where you are coming from..

Coming from UK\Ireland\Australia\New Zealand\Nordic countries\Israel\Canada add 20% more time
Coming from US add 15% more time
Coming from Brazil or Portugal reduce by 30%
Coming from Italy reduce by 20%

Also think back to your previous experiences of learning a language and how much you know about grammar, tenses
If you are less of a natural linguist- increase by up to 50%
If you are naturally good at learning foreign languages - reduce by up to 50%

Why would I bother to learn Spanish?

Because learning Spanish in Argentina or Chile is:

1. Incredibly rewarding on a personal level

2. Great for your CV, particularly if you are working or intending to work in an international environment.

3. Just really good fun

Even if you are just planning to spend a couple of weeks in Latin America, your time here will be far more comfortable and secure if you can speak and understand just a few words of the local lingo.

Many schools offer 1-3 day survival courses where you will learn the very very basics of communication. They usually cost less than $30 a day and include some introduction on the history and culture of the country. We have several on the site (just search for crash courses).

For those who are considering living in South America or traveling here for a more extended period of time we'd highlight the following:

It's generally accepted that to really experience South America you need a grasp of Spanish because without it you miss out on

1.the actual price of something as opposed to the inflated gringo price
2.the knowledge, opinions, and help of local native people who don't speak English or your native language.
3.making friends with people who don't speak English or your native language.
4.(most importantly for some of us) chatting up the opposite sex in their native language...

And leaving your travels/life in South America aside for a moment, bear in mind the following:

1.Spanish is the third most spoken language in the word. It's 350 million people's first language and is spoken by almost 500 million people as either a first or second language.
2.Career-wise, showing a potential employer that you have successfully learned a language in later life can be very rewarding as it shows you have determination, a mind open to learning and that you are a good listener.
3.The potential of using Spanish in commerce is huge, especially in the USA. Hispanic consumers are the fastest-growing market segment in North America.
4. In terms of sexy languages, Spanish is in the top three (after French and Italian)

Does it matter Where I study Spanish?

No, not really. Study wherever you like the food... Obviously there's variance in dialect and this is especially true at the spoken level. In some places learning may be perceived as more difficult because they speak quicker or with a more radical accent but remember you can and will get used to any dialect. The idea that Latin American Spanish is not ‘proper' Spanish is a myth.. There are many dialects of Spanish and often the Spanish used in a Latin American country is closer to the Spanish used in Spain than an alternative Latin American country.

Another urban myth is that the Spanish spoken in Argentina is (because of the unique pronunciation) a lesser form of Spanish. Instituto Cervantes, the ultimate authority on the Spanish language, state that the Spanish of Argentina and Colombia are after Spain, the richest and most correct forms of the language.

Ultimately the Spanish you learn in any Spanish speaking country will be of benefit to you and you will be able to build on that Spanish if you continue learning in another Spanish speaking country

As with all our guides, we don't claim to be the absolute experts and we welcome input from the community - email us at info@catchthelingo.com