Is this a stupid idea? Learning Spanish in Spain.

[DandelionDahlia]

The DC want to learn Spanish this summer.

They’re 13 and 10.

I’m happy to take them to Spain (DP can’t take holiday then).

I can’t drive and we like town/city not countryside.

I actually speak good Spanish but am a bit shy and have a comedy English accent. DC speak basic Spanish, they can hold a conversation.

I have 2 options and would REALLY value any feedback.

1. Two weeks in Castelldefels near Barcelona, language camp for the kids during the day (it’s called Don Quijote), lessons in the morning, activities in the afternoon, sleep in a holiday flat with me at night.

Advantage: not too scary. Fun place by the sea. Plenty for me to do during the day while they’re in camp.

Disadvantage: we are pale and don’t love the heat. Also will they just talk English all day? Also will they hear lots of Catalan and get confused?

1. A northern town - maybe Santander? Gijón? Bilbao? And a daily holiday camp aimed at Spanish kids. Something sporty or cookery. Sleep in a holiday flat with me.

Advantage: much cheaper. Cooler. The possibility of actually talking Spanish to Spanish kids.
Disadvantage: not sure their language level is really up to it. Hard to find and book from the UK. Feels like a leap into the unknown.

What would you do?
Any other options I’ve missed?

Thanks all, lots of good advice here.

Gijón does look nice and I’ll make a note of it for next year. Ricitosdeoro can you tell me the name of your friend’s school?

I couldn’t find a home-stay in Castelldefels with space for three of us, so have booked an apartment. The camp is 9am-8pm so I think they’ll just come home and sleep.

OP here, just finished this trip.

Am updating the thread as requested :)

Hope it will be helpful to anyone else wanting a Spanish language summer school.

Thank you SO much to all the contributors who took the time to share advice and thoughts. It was genuinely really useful. When I was planning I read and re-read everyone's thoughts - it was a huge help. Shout-outs in particular to @pixie5121 and @Pafmo.

We chose Don Quixote Spanish Camp for two weeks in Castelldefels (a beach town near Barcelona).

DC (aged 13 and 10) did Day Camp, which is Spanish lessons for three hours in the morning and then activities for the rest of the day.

It cost €850 per kid for the fortnight.

I stayed in a nearby apartment and dropped them off and collected them. They slept in the apartment with me.

It was a great holiday and we all enjoyed it. I’m glad we came and I’d do it again.

I’d score the actual Spanish progress at a 7/10 though.

Castelldefels is a really nice place to be based. People have been friendly and kind, except for the taxi driver from the airport, who over-charged us.

Although I’m a huge supporter of smaller languages, I did hesitate over choosing a Catalan-speaking region for our Spanish course. I needn’t have worried about this at all. Of course Catalan is everywhere on the streets and on signs but DC haven’t found it confusing and it hasn’t affected their Spanish acquisition.

Don Quixote / Don Quijote are the same company as Enforex. They are called Enforex here - I haven’t seen any mention of the DQ brand at all.

What I like about the camp is the staff. There are loads and loads of them, all very friendly, keen to help, cheerful, smiley, full of energy, endlessly patient and enthusiastic.

I wouldn't say the camp was perfect but I'd definitely do it again. Happy to answer any questions.

I'm keen for another language-learning trip next time - might look out for a language exchange.

Huge thanks to everyone for their help.

It would have been heaven to me to go to a 2-week language camp in Spain!! Are you all going to do the course? I did a month Spanish course in Malaga when I was a teen and it was totally bloody marvellous and extremely great at accelerating my learning. Its Still a favourite memory!!

Brilliant to hear your update! I'm just back from Salamanca!
Glad you all had a great time!

Sorry i was a bit late there, glad you really enjoyed it!

I'm glad it went well.

I did a Don Quijote school in Salamanca many years ago, and it was excellent. I strongly recommend actual lessons, they do help. And it's unlikely they'll end up talking English all day, we didn't in lessons, rarely used it. I ended up making friends with people who were Japanese, German, Russian, Chinese... the only language we really had in common was Spanish, so we used that.

I spent 6 weeks learning Spanish in 3 different parts of Spain with Don Quijote back in 2003. Salamanca was definitely the highest regarded in terms of learning the proper Kings Spanish (Castellano).

1. My 1st 2 weeks were in Valencia. Unbearable heat during both the day (40 degrees) and night (30 degrees). Lots of Valencian spoken too (bit like Catalan). But great bustling city with bus to beach etc. I also learnt how to sail a boat there!

1. My 2nd 2 weeks were learning to scuba dive in Tenerife. Again, the Spanish accent in the Canaries is different to central Spain (more like South America). Great island despite the black volcanic sand.

1. My 3rd 2 weeks were in Malaga. Absolutely loved that trip. Since then, Andalusia has been my favorite Spanish region to visit. Accent OK (apart from the silent s). Weather good. Loads to see and do.

All in all, I would have said stay away from Catalonia for learning Spanish (was there myself back in April). But you're back now and I'm glad you had a good time. Definitely something great for kids to do 😉

I am prepared to be an outlier.. While I get the need for standard Castilian Spanish, I have no background in the language. I was taught French in the 1970s and have spent a lot of time in the Midi in the years since then. I found Catalan a bit of a mish mash between Occitanie, French and Spanish, and I can even as a tourist follow what's being said, or easier, what I read. I miss all the subtleties. Given that Cataluyna is the most economically successful area of Spain, I would probably favour learning Catalan first. We might retire in Portugal, so if I were to consider that and prepare, I'd go to Galicia and aim to learn both Gallego and Portuguese. We stayed in a hotel in Santander which speaks fairly impeccable Castilian AFAIK, and the regional dialects/languages are quite distinctive. That said my sister found that her Brazilian learnt Portuguese worked fairly well in Vitoria with a Spanish inflection.

I agree with you.

People doing degrees/learning Castellano in the UK seem unaware that there is always going to be a mandatory dialect/language. (With maybe the exception of Madrid) While Castellano is the most important, Valenciano/Catalan are hugely important too. Most jobs in these (enormous) areas require official exam status plus at least 50% is taught in that language. Other areas like Seville I do not know.

Working In Spain:
For DD to go to uni she will have to pass subjects in that language.
For me to get a job in the supermarket I have to speak that language.

Working In UK:
You will probably be OK with just Castellano. Exposure to Catalan will have been an asset.

I am so glad you had a great time OP!

OMG!
OK.
Living here with my Spanish DD and Spanish husband 18 years.

As I said, Castellano is the most important language, but in Valencia, you won[t get a job in Mercadonw without Valenciano. My DD will not get into university without it either.

None of this is rubbish. How odd.

Are you OK? You sound so angry.

Backs away from thread.

Another Spanish (castellano) speaker.

500 million native speakers of castellano across Spain, central and South America.
4 million native speakers of Catalan.

It's like someone saying they are thinking of moving to Aberystwyth and telling them not to bother with English, Welsh is where it's at. So they learn Welsh and discover that although they have their pick of the jobs in parts of Wales, if they want to go to other parts of the UK their Welsh won't get them very far.

It may be compulsory for school children in Barcelona to learn Catalan just as it was compulsory for them to learn Euskera when I lived in Bilbao. And quite possibly the local government jobs require people to speak Euskera/Catalan or whatever IN ADDITION to castellano. But there are thousands of people living in Barcelona and Bilbao who don't speak the regional language, just castellano. And who get by just fine.

I echo what others are saying about avoiding regions with other languages.

I think the Spanish learning language camp idea sounds great. If the camp is well organised, they would surely have some strategies in place to ensure children don't speak English the whole time.

If their level is up to it though, going to a camp aimed at Spanish children would be a great experience and two weeks wouldn't really be enough to make much improvement. I would just be cautious though that if their level isn't that great, they might struggle to speak to other children and might not get much out of the experience. It's like when we have children who don't speak English start at the school I teach, the first few weeks they are very lost and confused, and it's only over time that they start being able to keep up once their level improves. If you choose this option, I would maybe look at getting them some private lessons beforehand so they have more of a chance of fitting in.

Of COURSE you need to speak Castellano. That is the BASIC requirement. That is the national language.

You want to get a job in any public sector in the province of Valencia? You need to ALSO speak Valenciano.

No idea about anything else. Why are people so angry and talking about South America? In Spain, different provinces require different languages. It is on road signs, official documents, spoken as default in shops, the news and a requirement for jobs. 50% of lessons are taught in it. FACT.

I was reassuring the OP that knowing a bir of Catalan will not hurt, for a job anywhere.

Jo vaig, adieu. Bona Nit.

Because @XingMing was the poster who said she wouldn't bother with castellano at all, and that Catalan was what people should be learning:

"Given that Cataluyna is the most economically successful area of Spain, I would probably favour learning Catalan first"

And most of us are pointing out that she is spectacularly wrong. And really, how many English speakers, living in the UK and learning Spanish as a second language are going to end up working in one of the autonomous governments or ayuntamientos?

I know I think you are deeply unpleasant.

The equivalent of a Sainsburys was a very good example. If you cannot get a job there then where do you work?

Sorry OP, again, glad you had a good holiday and your DCs enjoyed learning Spanish.

Oh give over. She just knows stuff you don't. The only person sounding "angry" in this exchange is you.

Okay, I understand you all think I am wrong. But I speak very decent Midi French and I understand more heard Catalan than Castellano because it's not far off Occitanie. And thanks to a classical education with tons of Latin I can make a stab at reading most Roman languages. If I wanted to learn a language ab initio, I would like most sensible people learn the most universal form. But if I were considering moving, I'd try for the classic version. For my holiday requirements, I'd rather try to please by trying out Catalan.. Si us plau is hardly more difficult that s'il vous plait surely.