I just returned from a week in Barcelona (not the best place to learn Spanish btw). My primary objective was to push my Spanish up to a higher level. Here is what I did:
1.) I spent one hour a day every weekday with a professor one-on-one. I found her on a web site (link below) where prices varied from 10 to 16 euros for an hour of instruction (which I thought was a terrific value):
http://www.tusclasesparticulares.com/clases-idiomas/espanol-para-extranjeros.aspx
2.) I stayed with an elderly woman (who was largely restricted to her apartment). I found her on airbnb.com at 25 euros a night (which I also thought was a terrific value). Almost every night we would spend a good couple of hours talking in Spanish.
This in addition to taking every opportunity to speak with everyone I could (never in English!) during the day.
As I was quite pleased with the result, I thought I'd pass this idea on to you all. I think getting some immersion in addition to the online learning is essential if you want to achieve true conversational fluency.
1.) I spent one hour a day every weekday with a professor one-on-one. I found her on a web site (link below) where prices varied from 10 to 16 euros for an hour of instruction (which I thought was a terrific value):
http://www.tusclasesparticulares.com/clases-idiomas/espanol-para-extranjeros.aspx
2.) I stayed with an elderly woman (who was largely restricted to her apartment). I found her on airbnb.com at 25 euros a night (which I also thought was a terrific value). Almost every night we would spend a good couple of hours talking in Spanish.
This in addition to taking every opportunity to speak with everyone I could (never in English!) during the day.
As I was quite pleased with the result, I thought I'd pass this idea on to you all. I think getting some immersion in addition to the online learning is essential if you want to achieve true conversational fluency.
