TravellingLight

Afternoon,
Long story short I am looking to immerse myself in everything Spanish and have 5 weeks scheduled in Spain. I am keen to bring my Spanish up and force myself to speak Spanish and pick up speed.

I will be there mid April and wondered, if anyone had ideas (point me in the right direction) of the best way to immerse myself, force myself to speak Spanish with locals - whether that be volounteering somewhere, not sure if a homestay is best, but all ideas appreciated.

I have spoken to one or 2 places (a church and some other organisation) about volounteering, but as I am a mum with University aged kids, I dont qualify to volounteer (as they seek labour intensive work) even thought my background is big corporate, these skills (soft skills, team skills, bdm) dont appear to be usedful to anyone?

Do you know where/whom I can volounteer at (reason to volounteer is to maximise my Spanish speaking exposure )

Help?

missile

You might get better response if you say where in Spain?

Retired in Euskadi

Yes, as Missile said, the 'where' in Spain is important.
I wouldn't recommend the various costas, tempting though they might be for a sunny break, because you'll either hear an Andaluz accent, or Alicante/Valencia as there it's a form of Catalan, and of course Barcelona area there is a lot of Catalan spoken.
I'd say somewhere inland would be better. One hears that the "best" Spanish (a misnomer indeed) is Valladolid, in Castilla Leon. Even Madrid might be an option.
Where I live I've always felt that the Spanish one hears is not as rich as that of the interior of Spain, probably because many have Basque as another language.

A church might be a useful place to start. They often have people who pay visits to the elderly especially those who are lonely for all sorts of reasons.
Good luck.

1sexsmith

You need to say how good your Spanish is at moment. If you are low level immersing into things will have zero effect. A bit like trying to be a carpenter without any tools
If you are a good A2 then you have a chance of actually being able to converse reasonably accurately but less than this you won't understand anything unless the people are really modifying their language for your sake. Accents at low level are not distinguishable - it will all sound strange!!

TravellingLight

I am flying into Madrid but can work travel to anywhere in Spain..

My Spanish level is A2/B1 level.

TravellingLight

Thank you for replying.

My Spanish is A2 minimum - to low B1

TravellingLight

Thank you for your reply.

I have contacted a couple of Missions and hopefully they will come back to me.

Also interesting information on the accents and staying inland. I will have a good look today and see if there are any churches where they have such oppotunities to help.