Spanish lessons

Has anyone attended the Spanish evening course here - www.sandfordlanguages.ie. There's one starting tomorrow and I was thinking about enrolling. Its on Merrion Square in Dublin.

Just interested to see if anyone found them any good.

It looks like no one has used Sandford for Spanish so.

Would anyone have attended either or [broken link removed] for an evening course in beginner Spanish.

I found the Spanish Institute very good [broken link removed]

Hi Jjpd, Thanks for the reply. Were you a complete beginner like I am?

I am inquiring about similar scenario, for a friend of mine.

He is unemployed, but thinks a language would be beneficial on his CV.

Has anyone immersed themselves fully into a language by doing a course or going to a country where the language is spoken.

If so how long did you spend on the course or in the country.

Any recommendations.

There are alot of Irish unemployed at the moment, surely adding another language to your CV would be of great benefit to the person.

I am thinking more of the Des Bishop style when he immersed himself into the Irish language.

Yes, I was a complete beginner - first courses are easy enough but you are expected to do homework and if you don't then you fall behind. Also the exams at end of each term help to keep you focused. There was a good mix of students - of all age groups and backgrounds.

I realise that they are a bit more expensive than some classes but I found them well suited to my temperment and ability.

jpd said:

Yes, I was a complete beginner - first courses are easy enough but you are expected to do homework and if you don't then you fall behind. Also the exams at end of each term help to keep you focused. There was a good mix of students - of all age groups and backgrounds.

I realise that they are a bit more expensive than some classes but I found them well suited to my temperment and ability.

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Jpd, what level are you at now

I did about 6 months here http://www.aisling-ireland.com/
They were superb - I've nothing to base that on in comparison to anyone else but they certainly got me up to speed.
There is loads of homework to do between essay writing and grammar (grammar was/is my nightmare).
After the 6 months I spent some time in Spain and found that within reason, I could pass myself pretty comfortably.
Its up to you what you get out of it - If you're willing to do the work, you'll pick it up.

I finished 3 years but they changed the grading as I was doing the courses - I skipped a year due to personal circumstances. Wouldn't say I was fluent but I can certainly read a spanish novel, listen to radio and TV although I'm still hesitant to speak but that's more my problem than the school's.

It's fairly easy to get to a basic level - pronunciation is much easier to learn than french, for example, but the grammar gets progressively more difficult and requires a certain amount of work.

I'd certantly agree with elefantfresh - if you do the work, you'll pick it up.

You get a much better insight into another country if you speak their language and Spanish is third most spoken language in world, I think - after english and chinese (in all it's guises)

you should also look at your local library.. as i know some of them do conversation evenings.. say you help some one with english and that person will help with spanish..which would help with the conversation.. i seen an ad in one of the local newspapers(dublin) for these library evenings..