Vishenka

Hi, everybody, i am travelling to Spain for 3 weeks in Chrismas time to study spanish. I have to choose between Bilbao and Seville (not many schools are opened for Christmas). The only thing that is scaring me in Seville - is an accent. I have elementary level of spanish (btw A2-B1), and its difficult to understand people talking fast in the streets, so I am afraid that my 3 weeks stay in Seville wont be as effective if for the whole 3 weeks I will try to understand my host family and people around...
On the other hand Bilbao seems to be less touristic, and language course is better there, but I am afraid it could boring there, no? Any way I want to study language first, and then have fun....
If anyone can comment on this or give an advice - it would be just great, Thank you!!!

mamcalice

From a purely tourist point of view, I would choose Seville. But if your purpose for travelling is to learn Spanish, I would go with the better school. If you believe that is Bilbao, that is where you should go. Try to find out which is the better school and base your decision on that.

kimhe

Bilbao is anything but boring! I've visited frequently since the late 80's. A vibrant city with great nightlife, fantastic food (you will fall in love with the pintxos (Basque tapas), both modern and old world cafés and a very diverse cultural scene.

Some ideas from Mikel who lives there: http://mugalari.wordpress.com/2010/0...ably-never-go/

And of course you have the Guggenheim museum that in many ways has revitalized the whole city since it opened a little more than ten years ago: http://www.guggenheim.org/bilbao

More info about Bilbao: http://www.bilbaoguide.net/

kimhe

And if you go to Bilbao, at least make a daytrip to plain fantastic San Sebastián. Direct bus in 70 mins:
http://travel.nytimes.com/2011/08/07...tin-spain.html

Robert2533

As noted, Bilbao is hardly boring anytime of the year, but one thing to remember is that besides learning a little Castilian Spanish, you will be encountering Euskara, the language of the Basque speakers (www.buber.net/Basque/Euskara/).

Vishenka

Well, dear all, thank a lot for your responses... Its clear about Bilbao now, but can anyone please comment on Seville accent? is it really so hard to understand for beginner?
Another question: - is living in Bilbao much more expensive then in Seville?
And one more - I have been told that people in Southern Spain are very friendly and positive to strangers, and what about nothern part of country? I will stay in a host family. for example, shcool from Madrid answered me that "host families do no usually communicate with students during their stay at home". In this case, what's the purpose of staying in host family then?
P.S. to: kimhe - as for San Sebastian - i do plan to go there for sure!! in fact i was looking for a school there, but it was too expensive for me.
Thanks a lot to those who have responded to me

kimhe

... but even though some 10-20 % speak Euskera/Euskara at some level, everybody speaks Spanish/Castellano (and with a very clear pronounciation) in Bilbao.

The regional tv network en directo: http://www.eitb.tv/es/#/en-directo/844905117001

danon

When our friend, who live in Seville, met us at the train station, he said that I might have a problem with "the accent"
I am hardly a beginner, but like ANY place in Spain some people are harder to communicate with than others.
In my experience, Spaniards have been warm, kind and friendly in Seville and Bilbao ( Basks)
For 3 weeks, it does not matter where you go.
Although I would pick Seville and make trips to Granada, Cordoba, Malaga etc..

kimhe

The Sevilla accent, at least in the universities/language schools - is not much more difficult to understand for a beginner. In the street it might be a bit more difficult, but you will get an idea from watching a few programmes on the regional tv with headquarter in Sevilla: http://www.canalsuralacarta.es/direc...cia-television

I've always found the people in the Basque Country to be very friendly and including, although you might expect a somewhat more withdrawn, more Northern European attitude. My excperience is that the cost of living (also apart from accomodation) is a bit higher in the Basque Country than in Andalucía, but it's very possible to live on the cheap side and still have a great time in both regions.

Buy food and drinks at the markets/grocery stores and invite people to your place or get invited to theirs, and you will be living like kings and queens at very low costs.

jpie

We just got back from taking a two week course in Spanish in Nerja, which is the south of Spain near Malaga. Since we drove from France, we stayed in Bilbao, Sevilla Granada, Madrid and some other places on our month long trek.

Because of the guggenheim I think, we found more people responding to us in English in Bilbao than almost any other place. I loved Sevilla and would go back there in a heartbeat, especially in winter. But I think you will love either place. Nerja was great, but like Bilbao, lots of English spoken there since there are lots or UK citizens who are retired there or live there part time. In terms of understanding, I found it about the same in the north and south to be honest. I am kind of a beginner/intermediate and my husband is more of a beginner. But I do think that since the southerners are a bit more expressive with their hands and more of talkers in general, that helped a bit.

If you do decide on Seville, our favorite tapas place of the whole trip was there in the Macarena neighborhood:

Eslava
C/ Eslava, 3
41002 Sevilla, Spain
954 90 65 68

Aduchamp1

In the south they have a tendency to clip off the end of words. Euskara/Basque is non-aryan language of unknown origin.

One would assume that the schools in question both know their subject matter and as noted above, it is matter of choice as to which city and region you prefer.

kimberly_spain

Hello!

My name is Kimberly and I am an American living in Spain. I have lived here for almost 7 years, I know Spain very well.

First, I have to tell you that there are other destinations that offer Christmas courses. I happen to work for one which has destinations all over Spain, but I am not here to advertise, so if you want information about that, contact me.

Regarding Seville: Seville IS beautiful and for touristic reasons, it is a great choice. For Spanish reasons, their accent is very difficult to understand. Some Sevillanos are hard to understand for the Spaniards themselves, and yes, I am very serious. The main difficulty, apart from colloquial language, is the fact that they drop off the "s´s" from words. For example: Buenos días, would sound more like "bueno día" Of course, this would be understandable, but you apply this to a whole sentence spoken quickly, and all I can say is it is difficult.. and some people are nearly impossible to understand. With 10 years going back and forth from Spain, I understand Andalusians well, but if you have basic Spanish... it will be very difficult.

However, keep in mind that with a basic level, any Spanish will be difficult. So I would choose the lesser of evils in this case

Bilbao is a better option, but again, this is in Pais Vasco (Basque Country) and it is important to know that for many people in this region, Spanish is not their prefered language. They speak the Basque language. Most people speak Spanish as well.

I personally chose Salamanca, known to have the purest Spanish in the world, and it is a perfect place to study. If you prefer a big city, Madrid is a really good option.

I now work for a Spanish study abroad company with schools all over Spain. We do have a Christmas course (1 or 2 weeks long) in many different cities in Spain. So if you would like more info, just let me know!

Cheers!

Egbert

Seville is a magical place. Don't worry about the accent. When you are a beginner Spanish is hard to understand anywhere. Bilbao is a great city and people are as nice as in Andalucia if you can generalize. Weather will be better in Seville at that time of year and you can make a trip to see Malaga which they say has the best christmas lights in Spain.

Pegontheroad

I'm with Egbert. I've studied Spanish--sporadically and not very assiduously--in a senior center for 10 years. Until just this spring, I had difficulty understanding people in the street, but this year I had a sort of breakthough and suddenly found that I understood it much better. In fact, I learned of Osama bin Laden's death from a taxi driver. Wow! I actually understood.

I suspect that you won't understand much in either place, but that a three-week stay will still help you. If I had to choose--especially in winter--I'd choose Sevilla.

mikelg

Kimberly, everybody in Bilbao speaks Spanish as their mother tongue...Basque is spoken mainly in towns, but everyone is fluent in Spanish.

Also, I wouldn´t take into account the "Purity" of the language, as such thing does not exist. A language is something that is alive and is formed by the totality of its speakers. There are several languages and an infinity of accents in Spain...all of these accents are just different ways of speaking Spanish. There´s no better Spanish in one plae or another, just a different way to talk it.