I'm possibly moving to Colombia, any advice?

Question

I'd be moving to Bogota. Would love some advice on good sources of information for daily living, for example:

Buy or rent, property prices

Typical apartment sizes

Areas in Bogota that foreigners live in

Is Rosetta Stone good for learning Colombian Spanish? If not, what is?

Taxes for foreigners

Will I be able to use my electric equipment down there?

What's driving like in the city for foreigners?

Etc.

Literally, everything from the necessary to the mundane. Would love some resources I can dig into.

Thanks a lot for your help!

Answer 1

ok i live in colombia i can help u

1) the best option is buy because bogota is one of the most important city in latin america . and the prices of the properties are quite economicals.

2) you can find apartaments of all sizes from 80 m2

3) the best bogota`s area for foreigners is the suburb, because is similar to the american suburbs

4)yes rosetta stone is the best to learn colombian spanish.

5) for trip to colombia you need pay 2 taxes

6)dont take public transport because is very risky for foreigners

Answer 2

2 great resources for all of your Colombia related questions are :

www.colombianblog.com and www.poorbuthappy.com/colombia

I think cblog is easier to navigate though.  

Rosetta stone is good but you would be better off taking spanish immersian classes one you are there or in addition to rosetta stone.

Traffic in Bogota is crazy if you can walk or take public transportation it would be better.

For more detailed info on costs of living and what to bring check out those blog sites.

Answer 3

I tried Rosetta Stone for Spanish. It does not have any translation, grammar or conjugation instructions so it will be very hard to go beyond the basics with it. There is no way to be fluent with it. Their program is based on the same thing where you see these 4 pictures over and over again. I was disappointed especially for the price I paid.

My college uses a software called tell me more. It covers not only the basics, but also intermediate or advanced level. It is also a lot less repetitive. My goal was to become fluent so it was perfect for me and I bought their individual version. It has a lot of different activities: picture/word association, videos, dialogues,..., includes also grammar and conjugation. It has also more content than any other language software. Their speech recognition is great so you can have a dialogue with the computer. You can check out their website for a free demo and compare too. You can check out independent reviews on the web too Top Ten Reviews or about.com websites.

The best way to learn a language would be through immersion, visiting these countries. Learning a language will require some time. In addition to software, you can have books which are useful as well. Audio CDs like Pimsleur for instance might help you out but you cannot get any feedback on your pronunciation so I did not like it so much