Learning Spanish in Barcelona - with Metrocultura Language School

It feels like forever ago that a friend and me decided to do a spanish language course in Barcelona. At that time we were studying Spanish as our second foreign language at our college in Munich. We wanted to go to Spain to deepen our knowledge and we also sneakily kept in mind that students, who are doing an educational trip, were getting the last two weeks of the semester off. I’m not gonna lie, that was right up our alley ;)

Where exactly in Spain we wanted to go, was decided very quickly. Although we also had Malaga and Madrid in mind for our trip, Barcelona made the race in the end. Barcelona was calling for us and we obeyed ;). We asked our teachers for help to decide on a language school because there are soooo many out there, it’s hard to decide. They told us to go with the Tandem Language School in Spain, who have a small school in Barcelona called Tandem Metrocultura Barcelona.

http://www.metrocultura.de/index-e.html

Prices

We decided to do a 2-week language course in July. We chose the option to be accommodated with a spanish hostfamily.

Language Course: 280 € *

Accommodation: 220 € *

Naturally these prices do not include the return flight to Barcelona. Flying from Munich, you can usually snag a flight for more or less 100€. Of course prices differ depending from where you fly.

*the prices quoted are the amount that we paid back in 2008, they can vary from the prices you pay today, simply check it out on their website

Living with a spanish hostfamily

We were accommodated with a very lovely eldery Señora. She had a tiny guest room in her tiny tiny flat on the first floor of a typically spanish apartment building. Tiny front door, tiny staircase, tiny balconies. We shared the kitchen and the bathroom with her. Our hostess didn’t speak English at all, so we were forced to give our best at speaking Spanish. It was quite challenging since she was very talkative and we were only spanish beginners at that time. But communicating somehow worked anyway. 

It was at our hostesse’s flat that we learned that in Spain it is completely normal to visit your neighbours unannounced and just sit down in front of the TV with them. It was a frequent occourence that a stranger would sit on the couch in the living room, greeting us very friendly and we only thought: who the hell is that??? None of the casually visiting neighbours ever wondered who we were and what we were doing here. The Spanish simply are a very open, friendly and social people.

If you don’t like to live with a hostfamily though, the language school also offers the option to accommodate you in a flat that you share with several other language students. That might be a good option if you are travelling and studying alone. You automatically meet people who are here because of the same reason you are. You might make some new friends. We only chose to live with a hostfamily since it was the cheaper option.

The language course

At the beginning of the course everybody has to take a small assessment test. Depending on your results the teachers decide on which language level you are and put you in the according class. There are classes for Beginners up to classes for Advanced spanish speakers.

Classes are held mondays to fridays from 09:00 am to 12:15 am. At 11:00 am there is a short lunch break, during which you can test your spanish in the bakery around the corner, if you didn’t bring a small lunch yourself already. „Un bocadillo con queso por favor.“ was my go-to sentence everyday at 11:00 am. ;)

The class I we were in had 6 students including us and we had two alternate teachers. Classes with such a small amount of students are quite effective because they are so interactive. Everybody gets plenty of chances to speak. The atmosphere in class is very relaxed and friendly. Learning spanish in this environment was really fun!  We were also given work sheets to work with and from time to time we were given a little bit of homework. But spanish homework in Barcelona is best done at the beach with a Caipirinha in hand ;).

Besides having fun in class, we also had a lot of fun with the fellow students we were in class with. They were about our age and we got along so well, we even met up with each other after class. Most of the time, we all lay at the beach together and in the evenings we would go to Bars or go clubbing. A great possibility to meet new people are the cultural guided tours through the city, hosted by the staff of the language school once a week. So, even if you are travelling alone, you always get plenty of chances to meet people.

My conclusion

Due to the fact that most teachers hardly speak english (some do speak it very well though), you kind of have to take the leap and jump in at the deep end and actually speak spanish. Since we weren’t complete beginners anymore, I kind of liked that challenge! If you are a beginner though, don’t worry, there is always someone to speak english to if there is something important to discuss or if you need any help. But nevertheless, in class the main language is spanish! Even if you only know basic spanish you will discover that you really are able to communicate and that your language skills improve considerably over the time oft he course! I noticed that I was getting a lot more fluent after just one week! I actually would have like to stay longer than two weeks, but my budget back then didn’t allow it. To really improve your language skills, I recommend a four-week course. Even longer if you can afford it!

After two weeks in Barcelona, I was in such a spanish speaking flow, I even accidentally thanked the cashier at the grocery store back in Germany with a „Vale, gracias!“ instead of „Danke“.^^

Hasta luego mi amigos!

Did you ever do a language course abroad?

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