I was carjacked in El Salvador. They were three kids who didn't know what the hell they were doing. At first they wanted 25,000 colones and were going to hold me until they got it one way or another. Basically, it was a quickie kidnapping. They got nervous when I told them I worked for the U.S. Embassy. They ended up asking me if they could have 1,000 colones. I gave it to them and they split. That was my only incident in three years there. Gringos are much safer than the local populace in most of these countries.
A friend of mine just came back from spending three weeks here. He wanted to learn Spanish out of his own interest, and since he just finished his masters, had the opportunity to spend the time away from home. He said he learned a lot, the family he stayed with was cool, the food was good, and that he dug Guatemala. http://www.guatemalaspanish.com/eng/index.htm
One word of caution about learning Spanish on those Internets, avoid like the plague sites that aren't affiliated w/ established No. American universities. Anything like a hypothetical "Bob's website for Spanish" (w/ links to Bob's personal teaching of Italian, French, German, Chinese, etc.) is going to be quite suspect. One student of mine told me about "learningspanishlikecrazy.com" and my eyes popped out upon looking at the first page. Absolute horse manure. The guy categorically denounced all forms of adult ed courses, tapes, cds, videos, etc. (To a large degree, I agree: they aren't as efficient and effective as college language courses coupled w/ extended stay in a country that speaks the target language.) But then he told the story of how he reached his epiphany: two Colombian (?) ladies laughed (in Spanish, of course) at his "gringo" Spanish. So he went home and looked up the word "gringo" in an ENGLISH dictionary b/c he wanted to know what they meant!!!!!!! Wouldn't an all-Spanish dictionary be, ya know, a better place to look for a word in ... Spanish? I surfed around the site, and found his "lesson" on the future tense, w/ zero contextualization as to the uses (a hell of a lot less frequent than in English and quite a number of subtleties lost on beginners [it projects both doubt in the present, an extremely firm command {the 10 commandments are in Spanish} and an absolute resolve/mortal promise to get something done]. So, "students" of this clown are going to walk around using the future tense as if it were equal to English and will sound like the 2nd coming of Moses. Of course, one should take precaution w/ them Internets in general. And of course, take what I have to say w/ a grain of salt, b/c after all, even w/ a PhD in Spanish, I'm no expert. You'll have to consult w/ the Boriqua King XXI for the legitimate info. He took a couple of classes in college!!
I've read through this thread, and it seemed like a good place to ask some advice. I'm seriously considering going abroad to live in Latin America next summer. I haven't started the legwork and research on how to go about doing it though. Maybe one of you guys can steer me in the right direction. Basically, I graduated from college and have been working for the past 2 years. I'm going through the much-ballyhooed 'quarter-life crisis.' My job allows me to have May-July off, although I'm thinking of leaving in May (I'm not a teacher though). I took 2 years of Spanish in high school, and 3 semesters of college Spanish. I watch a lot of Spanish TV, and Movies and listen to a fair amount of music. I feel as though I should have a better grasp of the language than I do. I think immersion abroad is the only step left to take. Plus, when I get done, it'll open more doors career-wise. I was watching the Gold Cup the other day and saw Chris Armas interviewed. After hearing him, I realize I speak better Spanish than him, and could be coherent in a Spanish interview. The primary motivation for going abroad is to be forced to use the language and gain the confidence to use it. I lived in LA for 3 years, I could have ordered most of my meals in Spanish, I just never had the confidence to do so. So yeah, I'm not a student anymore, but if I go abroad, I think it would be best to be in some kind of course/group/program to supplement my learning. I just don't want to be living in a dorm full of spoiled American college kids who just want to party and hook up. I'm not averse to dealing with students, however, my main goal would be to experience the culture and learn the language. Also, a concern with being a non-student is that I'd have to deal with a lot of college bureaucracy in addition to the international bureacracy. In my mind, I've convinced myself that Argentina/Chile would be ideal places, because they're relatively safe (compared to Central America), cheaper and less touristy than Spain, and by all accounts the food is amazing. A big reason is also because it seems the diction is clearer, and easier for my ears to follow. I don't know though, that might even be a reason against going there. One other thing I'm wondering about is whether its in your best interest to live in one of the smaller cities rather than the capitol. The major cities are more cosmopolitan, and more people speak English, so you can get bailed out all the time. I spent a month in San Juan, PR when I was in high school and definitely found this to be the case, whereas the few times I ventured to more remote parts of the island, we were forced to speak Spanish.
Well obviously immersion is a great way to go. One thing you may want to look into are porgrams study abroad programs that translators go to. You don't have to necessarily deal with the college environment that you expressed concerns about. I think San Miguel de Allende in Mexico might be a good option to look into and find more information on. Its a colonial era city close enough to travel to Mexico City and other cities in cental Mexico. It looks like you may have a predeliction of going to South America though. All I can say is that you want to enjoy your stay so you'll want to go where you feel comfortable. In my travels, I haven't seen any noticeable differences between countries. Its just like anywhere else where you have both good and bad parts. One thing to keep in mind is that the spanish in South America is of a different dialect than what you will find spoken for the most part in the United States with the exception of Miami. They use the vos instead of tu. I don't know if that makes a difference to you or not. The reason I bring this up and hopefully don't cause confusion to those learnning Spanish is this thread from the South American Forums regarding homogenization of accents ... May also gain a little insight to the language as well. https://www.bigsoccer.com/forum/showthread.php?t=127725 Good luck with whatever you choose !!!
Sooooo......3 years later, how is your Spanish coming along? I bump this thread up, as I'm currently just starting to learn Spanish. I live in Orlando, FL, so I have a good amount of Spanish speakers around me to help (School & Workplace), I picked up Rosetta Stone (Latin America), which is VERY helpful, as its ALL visual. I've just started reading books in Spanish (Clifford and kids book like that). I'm decent at reading Spanish, I can pick up about 70% of the words in a sentence and get he full meaning, but listening to someone speak Spanish is much more difficult for me. (But again, I've only been learning for a couple months now). Trying to be 'somewhat' fluent by summer 2010. Just wondering how it's coming along for you, and what have you been doing?