When/where to learn Spanish? Enforex???

Don't know the company. Whether you want to learn Spanish before/after traveling depends on you. Knowing some Spanish could be a tiny tiny tiny bit useful, especially if you intend on traveling to Portugal, Italy, France or Romania (other Latin languages. They won't understand when you speak Spanish, but signs will make more sense). Don't think Spanish will be of much use though outside those country's. Most people speak English. Spain is usually a nice and warm I think. Hard to predict which is warmer. Some years have good springs, some have good autumns. Don't think there's that much difference.

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Don't know about Central America, though I've generally been able to understand people from Costa Rica and Mexico without any difficulty. (Learned Spanish in Peru/Bolivia and visited Peru, Bolivia, Chile, Argentina, Paraguay and Spain)

Generally all Spanish speaking people can understand each other without much difficulty. There are a couple of variations of Spanish though, namely:
- Spain uses 'vosotros' (Spanish has 2 forms of saying 'you', a formal and an informal one, both for plural and singular. In SA (and I'm guessing Central America as well, but am not sure) the informal, plural form is dropped.)
- Chileans are notorious for using slang
- Argentineans pronounce the 'll' and 'y' differently, and form certain verbs differently. However once you're used to the different pronounciation it's very easy to understand Argentineans.

Also each country tends to prefer certain synonyms (though they know the other synonyms as well.) For instance in Peru/Bolivia I'd say 'carro', while in Spain/Argentina I'd have to use 'coche' and in other places I'd say 'auto' (=car)

I guess you could say it's like different accents, though the diffence in vocabulary usage might be a bit stronger (though it all depends where you learn Spanish/where you are. I had no difficulty in SA but in Spain I often felt clueless.) Also, there are big differences in the speed at which Spanish is spoken. In Peru and Bolivia, people tend to speak Spanish much slower, compared to Argentina, Chile and Spain (and to a lesser degree Paraguay). Reply to this

Hi,

I saw this post and I thought I might add from my own experience 😊
I just came back from South America I've been there for 2 months, started at Brazil went down to Argentina then Chile and last, Peru.

The fact is that I managed without a lot of Spanish but in Cusco Peru I studied Spanish in a nice school that offers classes in the morning and activities at the afternoon, here is the web site for it: http://www.speakspanishperu.com
After I did that course I was sorry I didn't start from Peru to Brazil. I heard that a lot of people are doing it that way and than they study a little Spanish in Peru and continue with some spanish throughout their trip...

I recommend you to learn the basic just so you'll know something and than study for a week or two in one of those schools, its really fun! Reply to this

Spanish or Castilian (español or castellano) is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several dialects and languages in the northern fringes of the Iberian Peninsula during the 10th century and gradually spread through the Kingdom of Castile, becoming the foremost language for government and trade in the Spanish Empire.

Castilian is the official language of Spain, it is the Spanish purest form, unaltered by local accents and expressions. So I suggest you to go in any Castilian city, situated in the region of Castile-Leon.

I guess that If somebody want to learn English, will they go to England or Australia? For someone who want to learn Spanish should ask themselves the same question, castilian or Catalan, Euskera...

I´ve found some schools in the heart of castilian y Leon region

http://www.divinomaestrosalamanca.es/

http://www.demg.international.com

http://www.en.edu/salamanca/

Enjoy!!!!
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