Mike 3G

Hello folks,

I usually frequent the Aussie board as myself and my growing family of 3 boys aged 10 weeks to 7 years are currently living the dream in regional Victoria 70kms from Melbourne.

We are turning our attentions to Spain again after a couple of brief flirtations with the idea in the past. We have spent some time in CDS and slightly inland (Alora) exploring places to live. We also like the idea of Ayamonte we went there on holiday a few years ago, although we need to learn more about that area.

Couple of broad general questions.

We are looking to move in approx 18 months, we currently speak zero Spanish I am about to employ the services of a local tutor for the whole family. Is this a good way to learn the lingo i.e. the whole family together and will it prepare my 5 and 7 year olds enough to slip into Spanish education?

Has anyone tried this method of learning the lingo before arriving in the country?

what are the health care implications in the long term for British people, do we need insurance for private care?

SaratonyT

Hi Mike, we have 3 children, all will go into Spanish State school when we move to Spain next year. We have been having spanish lessons for nearly a year and will continue until we move. The children have picked it up and our native spanish teacher has been concentrating on them accessing school. It is definately worth while. Hopefully, once they start school they will not be so daunted by learning a new language from scratch and will hit the ground running!!! Good luck!

Mitzyboy

Mike, if you contribute to the system in Spain, i.e. working or self employed then you will qualify for health care as a EU resident.

If you or your partner are of pensionable age then you will be covered - You've made contributions in the UK in the past?

In valencia region you can contribute to the health system at a charge

Other than that in general you will need private health care. It is cheaper than in the UK through copmanies like ASSSA and Sanitas, but will of course still be an additional cost to you

manamama

Hi

Your children are at ages where they will be oK at spanish school. Any older then I would be saying Do´t go.

The spanish lessons beforehand will really help your children and yourself.

My only recommendation is choose your school carefully.
Definitely one where there are few English speaking children..the more spanish children the better.

Good luck

Mike 3G

How is your Spanish after a year of learning? I'm just trying to build a picture of what stage we can expect to reach after 18 months of lessons.

lynnxa

that depends on how many hours of lessons you do a week, how much self-study/homework you do & whether or not you have/take the opportunity to speak Spanish outside the class


one hour a week for a year with nothing else & you might 'know' quite a bit but you wouldn't be able to hold a conversation

5 hours class time + 5 hours self study & speaking Spanish at every opportunity you should be able to manage in most situations


an example

GCSE Spanish uses several tenses & a quite varied vocabulary, although it is actually pretty basic stuff

the usual course lasts 2 school years with say 3 hours of classes a week - around 180 hours of lessons

bear in mind the average teen will do the bare minimum - add maybe 100 hours of homework


so 280, maybe 300 hours of study

to achieve a good grade you need to be able to write well (up to the required level), do a tick the box exam - & to me the most important, hold a conversation

unfortunately the conversation bit is pre-arranged topic wise, so it's almost possible to practice the conversation beforehand - there are no big surprises


most students, even with a good grade couldn't hold a conversation in the real world

HBG

I studied hard and long, but couldn’t get up to normal conversation levels. That only came after long exposure to actual Spanish, either from Spanish TV or listening to conversations between Spanish people. I used to just leave the TV on, news, those inane game shows, the lot. I still do.

It was worth it to see the smiles on Spanish faces when they realise you actually understand what they are saying, for most of the time. If I come unstuck and I’m talking to a woman, I shrug my shoulders and say, ‘Mujeres en pantalones,’ it usually makes them smile unless they’re wearing a skirt.

SaratonyT

We have lessons once a week, but there is homework. The children have fun lessons, based on what they would learn at spanish school, they have completely different lessons to us - they have learnt the alphabet, number, basic things like colours, shapes, animals and objects as well as spanish nursery rhymes and songs. They are also taught a conversational spanish. We are not expecting them to become fluent, but didn't want them to be daunted by starting from scratch in Spain. The lessons they have are fun and they really enjoy them - we go to Spain for all of the school holidays and the children are able to use the spanish they have learnt there.

My husband and I do more formal lessons (again with homework!) and I think we are doing OK.

Many families with children do not prepare for the new language and the children start from scratch when they start school. We don't expect them to be fluent - we just want to make it a little easier for them!

jonnyx

Hi,
You also have to be prepared to the differencies in the Spanish language. The Spanish you learn from your teatcher is not always the Spanish you will meet int Spain.
If you are heading for the countryside in Andalusia then you have to face Andaluz, it can sometimes be quite difficult. They tend to cut the words on the end and sometimes in both the end and in the beginning. And sometimes they have different words which often have an arabic origen.

Not to mention Galicia, Catalonia etc. with more or less total different languages.

Welcome to Spain,

marchena

Hi,
I will give you our family experience, we just moved 2 months ago from Morocco with Carole almost 8 and Paul almost 6 after only one month private lessons back in Morocco. It is almost 4 weeks they are at school and 8 year old is already doing her homeworks without too much help from our side ( by the way our spanish is so poor that we can not help them). They are at public school in Marchena 53 Km east of Seville and we are very happy for the time being with the school and their staff. The school even has a french teacher ( they did french education in Morocco) to help them 4 days a week after school. Please shout if you need any other info.

Mike 3G

Some very interesting replies it would seem we will have to commit to a fairly intensive learning program if we are to progress to decent level in 18 months. Our main concern is to have the kids up to speed as much as possible for starting school.

ted1

Get a Spanish lessons CD and everytime you're out in the car put it on. With traffic in the UK you could fit in a few hours of lessons everyday there!

elspeth sinclair

Get yourselves 'Present Day Spanish' J.R.Scarr volume one ISBN O 1743 9571 X. It should be available on Amazon and all the family can use it. It is based on stories, vocabulary, questions on the stories and conversations and step by step grammar with lots of examples. My students of all ages just love it. I actually had 3 students who also complete volume 2 and one was 75 years old.