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Would you stay in one city, or divide up the time between different cities?
I'm going there this coming October. In Granada, Carmen de las Cuevas offers a 3-month curriculum in flamenco and intensive Spanish courses. If I enroll then I would stay the whole time in Granada on the weekdays, and see other cities by train during the weekends.
Or alternatively I could stay one month in Granada, one month in Seville, and one month in Jerez, taking lessons from different schools.
What are your opinions?
I am thinking that Carmen de las Cuevas has a quite a few teachers, and the continuity in the 3-month long lessons would be more beneficial to a beginner like myself than changing to schools that may or may not offer better styles of teaching, and even potentially confuse me with different styles of playing.
RE: If you had 3 months to stay anyw... (in reply to apak)
Considering this myself too since I can't do a full year yet due to personal reasons. I was aiming for Granada and Carmen de las Cuevas as well. But then there's still the Fundacion and Taller Flamenco in Seville and I can't quite decide what's right for me.
Does anyone know which of the three would probably the best if I'm between beginner and intermediate guitar-wise as well as mostly a beginner Spanish-wise?
Posts: 6447
Joined: Jul. 6 2003
From: England, living in Italy
RE: If you had 3 months to stay anyw... (in reply to Munin)
Flamenco is way more accessible in Jerez with 20 odd peñas if you want flamenco around you all the time. Not sure how these operate for the public outside of the festivals though.
Granada is a more interesting, larger city with more activities a bus ride away, the mountains, coast, desert etc.
I really liked Sevilla but cannot comment on the flamenco scene outside of school.
RE: If you had 3 months to stay anyw... (in reply to apak)
Yeah I realize that. That's why I also intend to take a Spanish course along with it. I'm not a total beginner with Spanish, I can write and read decently well and can do some basic conversation, it's just that my speaking/listening skills are near 0 because well, I haven't been in a Spanish environment since I started learning it.
So I was wondering which of the 2 (or rather, which of the schools) would be "friendlier" with someone more struggling with Spanish at this point.
I also wonder what the "beginner/intermediate" etc levels of the schools actually constitute. Do they more refer to a native skill scale? If I use the foro as a reference, I'm probably just short of intermediate or something. But that may not mean much in Spain. I'm a bit worried that whatever, say, Carmen de las Cuevas considers "beginner" is too easy for me, while "intermediate" would be too difficult. Or something.
Posts: 2277
Joined: Apr. 17 2007
From: South East England
RE: If you had 3 months to stay anyw... (in reply to Munin)
I took a language course at Carmen Cuevas 3 years ago. There was an online assessment which placed me in an intermediate class and that was about right. But people changed classes if they found they weren't in the right level - that wasn't a problem at all.
RE: If you had 3 months to stay anyw... (in reply to apak)
By the way munin,
if you want to get a major head-start in your Spanish, especially conversational, so you can converse as soon as you get to Spain, I would highly recommend a self-study program called "Platiquemos".
It is extremely thorough, and not for the faint of heart. But you can finish it in 3-4 month with one hour of study each day.
I did it before I went to Cuba for a stay, and even I amazed myself. But that was 3 years ago, so I'm reviewing the material for my visit to Andalucia this year.
RE: If you had 3 months to stay anyw... (in reply to apak)
UK newspaper The Independent are giving away (no, really!) a complete spanish language course.
I have downloaded all 70 mp3's (20 mins each) + pdf's and I'm working through them now.
Wouldn't recommend for complete beginners, but if you have some knowledge, they're better than nothing.
One thing I like about them (touched on in another thread on learning stuff really slowly) is that they repeat each dialogue super-slowly, so you can get the intonation correct.
RE: If you had 3 months to stay anyw... (in reply to apak)
quote:
ORIGINAL: apak
By the way munin,
if you want to get a major head-start in your Spanish, especially conversational, so you can converse as soon as you get to Spain, I would highly recommend a self-study program called "Platiquemos".
It is extremely thorough, and not for the faint of heart. But you can finish it in 3-4 month with one hour of study each day.
I did it before I went to Cuba for a stay, and even I amazed myself. But that was 3 years ago, so I'm reviewing the material for my visit to Andalucia this year.
Wow, thanks a lot for your recommendation - and for flybynight's one too. I'll be seeking those out ASAP. And sorry for hijacking your thread but I made a bunch of threads on this topic already and my plans are constantly changing, haha. But I hope to make it to Andalusia in one or two months finally.
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