I want to travel to South America for 3 months. What level of spanish should I be at?
Question by stephen J: I want to travel to South America for 3 months. What level of spanish should I be at?
On of my primary reasons for going would be to learn more spanish in a total immersion environment. That, and my love of traveling abroad and adventure! I just want to know, should I be at level 3, and I will learn more as I go, or should I have, like, 8 years under my belt? I am planning on touring the continent a fair bit…
Best answer:
Answer by Silver529
I think level 3 is a great way to go! I actually went to Mexico when I was level 1 and still understood most things going on about (even those gossiping about me).
I think going to South America will be a great trip to learn spanish, if you dont get it all right away you will definetly learn most of it there.
Hope I helped!
Add your own answer in the comments!
As a bilingual person speaking both languages excellent, may I highly suggest that you should be at a higher lever because the people in South America know perfect Spanish.
Just one word of wisdom: Take courses of Spanish in any high school, junior college or even a university.
When you do go to South America at least you can ask questions without feeling guilty that somebody just might call you names.
You are great in level 3 but if you can learn more it will definitely help you out in the long run. Practice as much as you can when you have the opportunity to do so. Remember, the more you practice the more you will know and that will help you out specially when you are in a foreign country
The more Spanish you know when you come to South America the easier you will find your day to day tasks and travelling. But, the best place to learn Spanish will be whilst you are travelling. You will be surrounded by the language and forced to learn, remember and speak. Something a classroom will never be able to do. You will be surprised at how quickly your vocabulary will expand and how your listening skills will develop.
I don’t think there is a certain academic level that you must have reached to begin your Spanish learning adventure in South America, but obviously the more you know beforehand the more confident you will be in your first weeks.
Be aware that there are many different accents across the continent and the way people speak in Chile is very different to Bolivia this is also very true for slang words which will only be recognized in one region, but once you have mastered them will make you feel like a local!
Maybe you should try some of the free online resource for getting an understanding of local spoken Spanish.
http://www.mylanguageexchange.com/
http://www.livemocha.com/
or join the couch surfing group and see if there are anyone who wants to meet up for a chat in Spanish.
If learning the language is your primarily goal whilst in South America you could check out some of the language school like
http://www.vamospanish.com/ in Buenos Aires
http://www.ethniasspanishschool.com in Cusco
http://www.studyspanishchile.com/ in Chile