{"id":5091,"date":"2020-01-25T22:46:01","date_gmt":"2020-01-25T22:46:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/worldoftravelling.com\/blog\/?p=5091"},"modified":"2020-01-27T12:07:00","modified_gmt":"2020-01-27T12:07:00","slug":"learning-spanish-in-latin-america","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldoftravelling.com\/blog\/?p=5091","title":{"rendered":"Learning Spanish in Latin America."},"content":{"rendered":"

“First you need to find the motivation, then you need to find the opportunity for total immersion.”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

For the majority of people I have spoken to, learning a foreign language can be a challenging experience. The (self) pressure to succeed can cause immense anxiety. For me, it’s also proved to be an emotional rollercoaster of a ride. Some days you feel like you are making huge progress, other days you feel totally useless and even consider giving up. It’s certainly a journey and NOT a destination.<\/p>\n

Let’s go back a ‘few’ years.<\/p>\n

It must have been extremely frustrating for my parents each time I brought home my end of year school report, they rarely made for good reading. I just didn’t get school. Apart from Woodwork, Metalwork, Art & Design, all of which I excelled in, everything else was pretty much a disaster zone. Personal ineptness excelled itself in languages; exam results as low as 5% and 10% were quite common in Latin & French. As with all my low grade subjects, the worse my results got the more demotivated I became.<\/p>\n

When I finally got to leave school and entered into the world of work, a revelation occurred. In this \u2018new world\u2019, things made sense and had a point to them. I became motivated and inspired. So much so that I started to attend night school (studying various subjects) in order to develop and improve myself. This finally culminated in gaining a BA (Hons) degree in Business Management, something I thought, in my early twenties, that I would never, ever achieve. My mum was extremely proud of me.<\/p>\n

Now we need to return back to languages.<\/p>\n

When I started travelling in Latin America, in 2014, I quickly realised two things: Number one, the majority of people in Latin America speak the same language. Number two, you definitely need to speak a certain level of their language if you want to survive. These two key factors were just the motivation that I needed to start learning Spanish.<\/p>\n

Learning Spanish in Guatemala.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Attending a school in Guatemala, normally on a ‘one to one basis’, is a great way to learn Spanish. It’s relatively cheap, and there are an abundance of schools – across the country. However, in order to make it all sink in, you also need total immersion. This is when you really start to learn the lingo; putting into practise what you have agonised over in the classroom. In Guatemala there are loads of opportunities for total immersion.<\/p>\n

Over the past four years I have attended three different schools. None of them are perfect, there are elements of each of the schools that, if amalgamated, could possibly make the perfect one.<\/p>\n

Attending a school normally includes a ‘family home stay’; a great way to push your language skills to their limit!<\/p>\n

After 5-years of visiting Latin America I know I should be fluent. Sadly I am not. It all goes to ‘rack and ruin’ when I return home to the UK each summer, and start normal life. Sometimes I don’t speak Spanish for up to 8-months. I really need to do something about this!<\/p>\n

So here goes, the positives and negatives of each of the schools that I have so far visited:<\/p>\n

La Uni\u00f3n<\/a><\/u> spanish school in Antigua.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Positives:<\/span><\/p>\n

Antigua is a delightful town, with loads of restaurants and places to stay.<\/p>\n

It has a nice vibe.<\/p>\n

The climate is perfect.<\/p>\n

La Uni\u00f3n is a well run school and the classes are held in a beautiful courtyard with lovely trees and plants.<\/p>\n

Negatives:<\/span><\/p>\n

Antigua is VERY touristy.<\/p>\n

You may not get to practice too much Spanish as everybody here speaks English.<\/p>\n

SISAI<\/a><\/u> Spanish school in Quetzaltenango (Xela).<\/strong><\/p>\n

Positives:<\/span><\/p>\n

Xela is quite a large city with loads of restaurants and places to stay.<\/p>\n

SISAI is a small and friendly school.<\/p>\n

The owners (Yaneth and Marivel) are very accommodating and EXTREMELY helpful and friendly.<\/p>\n

Nice home stay opportunities.<\/p>\n

Negatives:<\/span><\/p>\n

The school itself is quite small, and everybody is ‘on top’ of each other during classes.<\/p>\n

It can be very cold in Xela in the evenings and mornings.<\/p>\n

I did not particularly warm to Xela, it has a certain ‘edge’ to it.<\/p>\n

Too many activities going on at the school. I did not attend any. For those people wanting to keep on top of their work it might be difficult – with potential ‘peer pressure’ to attend the tours. The people who did go on the tours raved about them so this is only a personal comment.<\/p>\n

Jabel Tinamit<\/a><\/u> Spanish school in Panajachel.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Positives:<\/span><\/p>\n

EXTREMELY well run, professional school.<\/p>\n

Lessons are held in various locations inside the school, nice surroundings, relaxed, and friendly.<\/p>\n

EXTREMELY good teachers, loads of patience and loads of motivation.<\/p>\n

Great home stay opportunities.<\/p>\n

Negatives:<\/span><\/p>\n

Pannajchel is an EXTREMELY touristy location with WAY TOO MUCH. Traffic.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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“First you need to find the motivation, then you need to find the opportunity for total immersion.” For the majority of people I have spoken to, learning a foreign language can be a challenging experience. The (self) pressure to succeed … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[70],"tags":[105,233,234,235],"class_list":["post-5091","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-guatemala","tag-guatemala","tag-jabel-tinamit-spanish-school","tag-la-union-spanish-school","tag-sisai-spanish-school"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t