Course of Spanish in Madrid area
 

Hola!
I am planning to take 4 weeks of Spanish in Madrid area but NOT in Madrid itself as i will stay in small village outside Madrid. Preferable cities for study would be Alcobendas, San Sebastian de los Reyes or around. Does anybody know the schools there? Apparently not all language schools in Spain have websites and have any information on the internet :-(
Gracias!

google "español para extranjeros". those towns are well connected with Madrid by commuter trains.. I would not consider them "villages" which would insinuate there was some quaintness to them. Any particular reason those tow?

If you want historic town plus Spanish for Foreigners try Alcalá de Henares or Cuenca. There are curses there for sure.

Find the Spanish version of a community college (Volkshochschule in German) and take a Spanish for immigrants class, an intensive if they offer it.

Yes, yes, already googled "español para extranjeros" but couldn't find anything useful (the sites either don't work or the schools don't have any sites or they simply don't have Spanish for foreigners). I will stay in Pedrezuela which is actually a village and it would be inconvenient to travel to Madrid everyday that's why i'm considering those two cities. Gracias for your suggestions! Gonna try them..

sometimes the city halls offer classes for immigrants but I am not sure of their frequency.

previous typos.. courses.. two..

I MUST spell check . sorry.

Most language academies will be able to get you a spanish teacher so if there is an academy ( academia de idiomas) in Pedrezuela you may not have to go anywhere.


I just called Berlitz in SS de los Reyes. They have courses 2 x week for foreigners max 8 students. here is the info.

Price will depend on group size.

Plaza del Tejar, 1, 28703 San Sebastián de los Reyes, Madrid
916 51 49 23
Berlitz
www.berlitz-madridnorte.es

Thanks a lot! It's actually the only school i found there. I was just thinking that there could be other schools or language centres. :-)

en "paginasamarillas" there are more schools but i don´t know exactly the connections between those small towns. take a look ay neighboring towns. you may be lucky. any language school can help you I am sure..

good luck

Why don't you check with the municipal Casa de la Cultura, at placa de la Contitucion, 6

They have adult classes, yoga, ballroom, etc., so might have some Spanish for foreigners/immigrants. Or maybe they can tell you where there might be some nearby

http://www.pedrezuela.org/pedrezuela...diomas=english

Thanks a lot to everybody for the replies!

I have another question: do you think it's ok to travel to Madrid city centre from Pedrezuela to study like 2 times per week? Or will it take too much time on public transportation?

That's a question only you can answer really. How long of a commute are you willing to commit to?

Up to 1,30 hours each way (maximum).
The reason why i ask is that i've heard there are some road building/repairs and therefore it might take longer than usual to get there.

I think it would be nice to make those your "cultural days" in Madrid. Go to class.. see an exhibit or two.. take yourself out for excellent tapas or whatever, catch a recital or dress rehearsal. Madrid has so much more to offer, so many people only skim the surface with the big three museums. I think you could make good use of the time there and justify the trek if you don't find anything more convenient. Good luck.

I think that's a good idea. If that is the best place for classes, I'd do it for sure. But I don't really understand the idea that road repairs would affect the time of the trains? I thought this place was connected to Madrid by train. Are you planning on driving?

a 1.5 hr commute is pretty typical where I live to go to work, so that wouldn't rule anything out for me, particularly if you didn't have alot else on your schedule.

Olgu,

forgive my chiming in as i have no experience of taking spanish courses in Spain, but i have attended 2 language schools in Italy and have just signed up for a third course in February.

What I am wondering is why, if you are aiming to spend 4 weeks at a language school, you don't actually stay in a place where there is one! for example, there is definitely a language school in Salamanca and this website has schools in Segovia as well. [a google search brought up loads of links]

and I do not agree with those who think that 2 days in Madrid per week is the same as 4 whole weeks at a proper school, especially if you take advantage of the intensive classes and live with a family. in 4 weeks it ought to be possible to learn a lot of spanish if you put your mind to it, but commuting every day or only having lessons twice a week would definitely not be as good.

if you don't mind my saying so, you seem rather to have put the cart before the horse!

No, the place is not connected by train. She will have to take a bus into Madrid (it also stops in Alcobendas and SS de los Reyes), and I think that if everything is normal, it can take almost one hour to get to and from Madrid.

The worst traffic times is early in the morning, around 7 am coming into Madrid, and also coming into Madrid from 17:30 to 19:30 aprox.

It is true that there are works in the A1 road north of SS de los Reyes, so it will affect you for certain.

If by any chance you decide to go to Madrid for your classes, you will need at least half an hour from Plaza de Castilla to get there, so add that to the bus trip downtown. It is going to be expensive, so remember to buy a 10 trip card for the bus ( zones A-C1 ) and then a metrobus card for the metro in Madrid.

I have the feeling that you are going to end up extremely tired. Hope not, but all that travelling up and down ...

Rgds, Cova

I forgot, timetable for the bus
http://www.horariosautobuses.org/lin...adrid.html#ida

Christina, i won't drive, i will need to use public transport.

Annhig, yes, there are lots of language schools in Spain and the most effective thing would be just going there and staying with a Spanish family but in my case the situation is a bit different. A language school is not the reason why i go to Spain, i just want to do something useful like studying while my boyfriend works. Unfortunately he lives almost in the middle of nowhere :-) that's why it's a little bit complicated with all these Spanish courses.

Cova, thanks a lot for your reply! I've heard more or less the same about traffic that's why i was so concerned about travelling to/from Madrid city centre. I did find something in Las Tablas and according to the map it's not that far from Alcobendas so it might be a good solution for me.

aha - the detail makes everything a lot clearer.

Olgu - how inconsiderate of your BF to live in the middle of nowhere. I can see that your ingenuity is going to be stretched for you to find a decent language school that's not too far away.

OTOH there should be plenty of opportunities for practice in your little corner of Spain!

Olguita, I had that feeling that you must be visiting family or something similar. One of the guys at work decided to live at El Molar, and he tries and tries to convince us of what a good place it is ! ;)

Anyway, if you are thinking of studying in Las Tablas, a good transportation option would be to stop at Hospital Infanta Sofia and then get the Metro Norte to Las Tablas. The bus goes accross all San Sebastian de los Reyes and Alcobendas and then joins the A1, and it only has a stop near the Corte Ingles in Sanchinarro, so you would have to walk a lot.
http://www.metromadrid.es/es/viaja_e...ioLinea10.html

There is an amazing french restaurant in Las Tablas, Lafayette (expensive though) and if you want tapas, 80 grados is a good option. They are a bit more elaborated than your usual ones.

bye, Cova

I think most language courses expect you to be in class at mornings from 9-1 (at least for group lessons). It would be difficult to do day trips unless you take private lessons.

My daughter's Spanish teach in high school always took groups to Enforex in Salamanca. Perhaps they have a school in Madrid also.

http://www.enforex.es/languages/

You might be underestimating travel time. When my daughter lived in Madrid, it took close to an hour to get to school in Madrid (she attended two different colleges - Complutense and and Politecnica) and she lived in Madrid.

Hi Olga,

I would say that nowadays all serious school have a website or they won't exist for long. I'm not sure if there are schools in such towns because not many students are going there. However you can try to find a private teacher there. It's cheaper and at such small places you would anyway be the only in class. I know there is a school in Toledo (http://www.aulatoledo.com). Also in Ávila between Madrid and Salamanca there is a school but I forgot the name. Ávila is 1-2 hours away from Madrid so eventually not what you have been looking for. I took some while ago classes at Ailola Madrid (http://www.ailolamadrid.com) which was great experience. The school is not directly in the city center but neither outside of Madrid what you are trying to find. But as said: If you are looking in very small towns right outside Madrid for some lessons, your best bet is a private teacher. I also heard about Lessons at Teacher's Home. Probably you can find more about this via Google.

Good luck,

Colins

colins - this thread is nearly 2 years old, the OP is either fluent or has given up!