Hi! I have recently moved to Malaga from the Midlands to do an internship as a content writer for a website. I am writing an article about the importance of learning Spanish before relocating and especially before setting up a bar or restaurant business. Does anyone have any experiences they would like to share with me in exchange for internet fame?! Any help would be much appreciated!! Thanks, Jenny

Hi Jenny, I moved to Jerez a few years ago and set up business. The foreign population is Jerez is less than 0.5% and most of the foreigners are from south america. Learning Spanish was essential for me. I would have had no hope integrating otherwise. PM me if you want more details.

Hi, Thanks for your reply! Wow that sounds like a challenge, 0.5 of the population!! What kind of business did you set up? How did you learn Spanish? I went to a language school for two weeks but I don´t think it helped too much! Jenny

You're going to have to give it much longer than two weeks I'm afraid. It took me a year to get to the point where I was comfortable speaking Spanish. Here are my tips:

Make sure that you find plenty of Spanish speaking friends.
Think about having regular intercambio sessions with Spanish speakers. Avoid getting into the English trap where the only people you speak to are English speakers.
Make a list of 10 words each day that you have to learn.
Don't give up! It's not easy, it's not much fun, it'll frustrate the hell out of you but it'll be worth it in the end

Ha ha!! I think I have already fallen into the trap of speaking English to everyone I meet! Thanks for your advice, I have to give a presentation to the office in Spanish next month so need all the help I can get!! :scared: !! Are you still living in Spain?

If you are a non spanish speaker and you have to give a presentation in spanish in one months time you have to enrol in a full time (at least 30 hrs per week) spanish academy NOW! They will keep you busy studying all morning and give you the chance to take part in optional activities in the evening. DO IT ALL. Don't give yourself any free time whatsoever because being on the Costa del Sol you will automatically fall into that english trap. You have no time to spare!

When I moved to Jerez I didn't speak spanish. Now I am fluent. All my new friends are spanish and I have been dating my spanish boyfriend for 3 years. I gave myself a kick start by studying in an academy to get a good grounding and after that it was just a case of practicing as much as possible.

I set up business as a mobile english teacher. I had to attend courses in spanish run by the chamber of commerce and all sorts of other official things. Resorting to english was not an option as noone speaks it around here.

Malaga province is a different kettle of fish though. I heard somewhere that only about 70% of the population is spanish (could be wrong though), so I doubt speaking spanish is necessary at all.

I moved to the US a year ago after living in Madrid for three years. Good luck with the presentation.

Thats about true. Where i live it is actually difficult to find someone who will speak Spanish too you as most waiters, shop staff etc want to learn English.

And anyway, the Spanish on the Costa del Sol don't speak 'Spanish'!

Imagine a Spaniard learning English as it would be taught in schools/CDs/etc, then he goes and lives in Newcastle and expects to understand most of them. Pointless. Even many Spanish who live in Madrid say they can't understand the Andalucians.

In Spanish...Muchas Gracias (Gratheeas)
In Andalucian...Mucha Grasyaaaa

In Spanish...Hasta luego
In Andalucian...Talogo or Staloago

In Spanish...Dos, Tres, Autobus, Español
In Andalucian...Doh, Treh, Autoboo, Epañol

They don't like the letter s much lol.

This is sooooo true - I was in Seville at the weekend and experienced all 3 in bars, shops and restaurants. I thought I had just heard them wrong but this confirms otherwise!!

It is so cockney here...even my little girl of 2 is speaking cockney spanish..doma for tomar, taluego for hasta luego, abear..a ver. with b & v´s , t & d´s, sometimes ive got no idea what someone is saying to me and vise versa. Until I pronounce a v with a b, they´ve got no idea of what im saying.. vamos, bamos.

In the UK, I took 2 years of evening classes. 3 hours once a week. The first
year was good - because I was starting from nowhere. However, when I
joined the intermediate class in the second year I found that the (new)
instructor started from scratch again.
Add in the new instructor was mexican, and seemed to be following a
completely textbook - even though it was supposed to be part of the same
course, I found I was "unlearning" things Iwas comfortable with after year #1.

I've also tried some of the self-help or teach-yourself courses, like the Michel
Thomas CD's. These teach speaking (not reading/writing) by rote, but miss
out on the more important aspect of conversing in a foreign language:
understanding the replies from the native speaker you're talking to.
There's no point being able to fluently say something in spanish if you can't
understand the reply. None of the spanish people I've since met have
learned spanish from the same courses, so they don't know what replies I
was taught.

Arriving in spain came as a complete shock - while I could stumble through
some simple written text and spot the "salida" signs at the airport, I was
completely incapable of communicating with spanish people. They couldn't
understand me and I couldn't even make out the words they were using in
reply. While I expected some difficulty, I was completely unprepared for this
abject failure.

To summarise, I'd say that while it would be nice to be able to learn spanish
in the UK, in practice the courses I've had have been inappropriate and in
some cases a complete waste of time. There's no substitute for actually
being there, learning the words and accent that real people use in real life.

Pete

Interesting! Are you pleased with the move?

I am going the other way. Florida to Mallorca!

Martin

Not at first but it's getting better. Adjusting status has been much more difficult and time-consuming than I thought. Other than that it's been pretty cool. Still, I can't listen to Manu Chao without getting a lump in my throat.