Do you think I can learn Spanish quickly by going to high school in Chile for 2 months?

Question

Im going to Chile for July and August where school is still taking place due to winter time. The program I am getting into will consist of living with a host family while at the same time attend at a high school for 2 months. My questions is will I be fluent in Spanish by time I come back in the US? I have been taking Spanish for 5 years and I am pretty good at it.

Answer 1

I think so, if you have no one else to practice English with.  Just concentrate on the Spanish for the entire 2 months and you will see you will do very well.  Good luck.

Answer 2

It sounds like you have a good start (having already studied Spanish in the US). I don't know if you will be fluent (it's hard to compare oneself to ppl who speak Spanish all the time for example at home), but you will be much better after living in a Spanish speaking country.  Going to Chile sounds exciting.  If you are a native speaker of English, you will have one advantage when you come back to the US-- when you translate from Spanish to English, the translation will probably sound more smooth than someone who speaks Spanish as a first language, but doesn't speak English well.  One problem in the US I have noticed is that when a Spanish language translator translates, he/she is usually from a Spanish speaking country and speaks great Spanish (but unfortunately often speaks poor English and doesn't know enough English to do a good translation).  Have fun!

Answer 3

yes, totally.  Especially if you have been studying for so long.  I worked in a car wash as a manager for some time in Kansas City, as well as in the restaurants, and I became fluent in Spanish, having never taken any Spanish courses.  I used to hang out w/the people I worked with, at their homes, and we ate and drank and communicated with relative ease, and they knew like 5 words in English.  Have fun in Chile, try to get to Rapa Nui....

Answer 4

You probably won't be fluent, but you will make great strides if you work at it.  It may sound low class, and I dont know anything at all about you, but I would recommend that if you really want to learn Spanish that you hook up with a local. I lived in Central America 4 years, and it wasn't until I started dating this girl from El Salvador that I really picked up Spanish.  Having someone that you really want to talk to for hours on end will motivate you to learn what they are saying to you....

Worked for me....I speak Spanish fluently, but I didn't learn it in two months.

Regardless of whether you start dating someone down there or don't, if you are serious about speaking Spanish always (except when talking to expats from North America or Europe) you will learn quite a bit of Spanish, just be social and you will have a great time...

Answer 5

You will pick up quite a lot. I took Spanish for five years and then did an exchange to Monterrey, Mexico for one week and came back knowing much, much more and I even had trouble speaking in English when I came back! I wouldn't say that you're going to be fully fluent, but you'll definitely put your knowledge to use and learn how to get that knowledge from the brain to the tongue much quicker.

Answer 6

total immersion is the best way to learn any language. Once you start conversing with people there and listening to what's being taught in the classes, you will find yourself actually thinking partly in spanish and partly in english. This is a good thing...let it happen. Don't try to translating the spanish you hear into english. Especially common phrases. If you hear the phrase and know what it means, automatically think of a spanish response for it--not an english one translated into spanish. This worked for me when I went to Argentina with my fiance (he's from there). I all ready had a pretty good understanding of spanish, but actually being in a place where most people DON'T speak english really makes you step up and work with the language. Whether or not you become fluent is up to how hard you study and how much you practice. In two months I think you will gain a lot of spanish...especially conversational. Buena suerte!