moving to barcelona to learn spanish

notmeagain

Hey,

I'm finished college this summer and i've been thinking about moving to barca to learn to speak spanish. At the moment i am a complete beginner in the language, having never taken it in school but will obviously work on it before i leave. Just wondering has anyone done anything like this before?? Was it hard to get a job/get by with only basic spanish? Did you have to take classes or did you just pick up the language once you got there??

Any help greatly appreciated.

Gurgle

I think you'll find they mostly speak Catalan in Barcelona.

They can all speak spanish too, but they've been making a point of reviving their native language since Franco popped his clogs.

Paulj

A friend of mine did this last summer, and he's still there. He picked up a job in a IT company which works through english. His spanish was basic enough going over there but it's enough to get by in shops and pubs etc. He just learned from one of those "Learn Spanish in 30 days" type cd's. But don't expect to be able to carry out a good conversation with the locals.

Catalan is the local language but most people will speak Spanish aswell.

LegacyUser

I know basic spanish and i went over there and asked some old lad where a place was and he started speaking Catalan which i didn't have a clue about. World Class place though. I love Barcelona.

notmeagain

Cool, thanks so much for the quick replies. So you think its feasible to head over there alone with only basic Spanish then?? Seems pretty daunting but id say would be ok as long as i'm willing to do some pretty rubbish jobs while i learn the language...

Paulj

Ya i think you should go for it...but if you like it, start doing spanish lessons (classes) when you can afford them, i've heard it helps an awful lot.

It is a great city no doubt. If you have the right mentality going there i'm sure you'll have a great time...and if things dont work out you're still only a flight away from home