I am an inexperienced traveler who is planning to study spanish abroad next summer (for a full two months). I'm looking at the Dominican Republic, Chile, Costa Rica, or Mexico as possible destinations. Can anyone recommend a language school in these countries? Or are there schools in other countries that I should be looking at?

Well, I'll chime in again simply because our experience with this school has been excellent. Not just in instructional value, but in a caring and helpful sense as well. We have had special circumstances for 2 consecutive summers, and they have reassured and worked with us at every turn.

Check out CPI

www.cpi-edu.com

It is located in Costa Rica, and offers 3 campuses which is a great bonus. Check it out--and good luck!

Antigua, Guatemala is a great destination for studying Spanish. There are at least 50 Spanish schools there, all inexpensive and most include a homestay. I attended Centro Linguisto Maya, had 1-1 instruction. Do a Google search and they probably have a website.

Guatemala is a beautiful country and that makes studying there extra special.

Hope this helps,
Sandy (in Denton)

Where do you live (home) and how do you expect to use the Spanish? If you live in Canada or the USA and want to learn Spanish so that you can use it at home, I recommend you study in Mexico. If this is just "for fun" then you can study anywhere. There are major differences in regional vocabulary, and the Spanish you learn in Spain, or the Dominican Republic, may not be as useful to you, say, in Portland, Oregon (where the vast majority of Spanish-speakers will speak Spanish as spoken in Mexico).

I would agree with both sandy_b and gomexico. The language instructors seem to agree that the Spanish in the state of Guanajuato (here in SMdA) is among the most "neutral" of the MX accents (kind of like US English in Nebraska) if that helps.
M

Thanks for your feedback everyone. It gives me a good place to start. I've been reading some other posts at this forum, and it seems that CPI, Bercari at Oaxaca, Antigua, & Cuernavaca are held in high esteem. I've noticed that there are not many posts discussing schools in Chile or the DR. Should I assume that the language schools from these two countries are not of a high quality? gomexico brought up an interesting point in regards to regional differences in vocabulary. There seems to be a ongoing debate about the importance of learning spanish in a particular country. I read one message by miguelgcuadra, who feels that Latin American spanish would be understood in any country, including Spain, and that differences in dialect would not affect one's ability to communicate. Obviously, gomexico has a different opinion. What do the rest of you think about this?

I still maintain that as a whole, Mexican Spanish is the most useful with 120 million plus Spanish speakers in the country and elsewhere. However, in my office we have two Colombians, an Ecuadorian, a Peruvian, and a Mexican and we can all communicate just fine. There are, obviously, different regional accents and some differences in vocabulary but they are not signifiacnt enough to be a barrier in communication. I must say, when I went to Spain last March, how different it was, between the theta and use of vosotros it seemed very strange to me. Many folks had a hard time understanding me and I sure had a hard time not using Ud. or Uds. in addition to lots of different vocabulary and idioms. It was a relief when I met some Ecuadorian immigrants in Valencia whom for me, were so easy to understand in comparison to Valencians. Finally I just meet some Argentines in Cuernavaca. Their acccents were, for me, really different, nevetheless we could converse with no problem- All this for what its worth

I'll always chime in with my recommendation for Instituto Cultural de Oaxaca, where I went for 2 weeks in Feb. Beautiful campus, efficient administration, quality instruction, and nice homestay. And Oaxaca and its surrounding area is full of wonderful things to see and do.

Proper Spanish is proper Spanish wherever you learn it. There are some words that have different meanings in different countries, but even in that case any one will understand proper Spanish.
Antigua - Guatemala is well known for the Spanish schools, also San Miguel de Allende in Mexico.
How about paticipating on a Exchange Student programm, there are many in the USA and you get to stay with a local family for a period of time.

Level of literacy has to do with quality of Spanish spoken. In any school in Latin America teachers will be educated and teach you the proper one.
Mexican call it "el camion", Cubans "la guagua", Nicaraguan "el bus", who is right , who is wrong, no one. If you ask any one where to take the bus to certain destination, you will be understood with no problem.
The major problem with Spanish in the USA is the SPANGLISH that is becoming more popular and lots of the hispanic kids growing in the USA are the worst speakers.
I listen to two cubans in Miami have a conversation and sometimes i get lost, if i speak to one cuban, we are able to communicate with no problem...DO NOT BE SHY, IF YOU DO NOT UNDERSTAND, JUST ASK..NOTHING TO LOOSE
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED TO LEARN A FOREING LANGUAGE AS LONG AS YOU ALREADY KNOW THE BASICS, WATCH A SOAP OPERA (NOVELA) IN MY OPINION ONES MADE IN MEXICO, SPANISH IS QUITE PROPER AND YO

I had real difficulty with the Celtic based Spanish dialect spoken in Galecia, Spain last July.
I sure enjoyed the fresh seafood and Albarinos despite the barrier.
M

If you'd like to go to Costa Rica check out "El Rancho de Español." It's not far from San José, the teachers are friendly and helpful, and you'll learn a ton. The grounds are also beautiful with a pool and a small butterfly area. We had a great time there. They have a website - www.ranchodeespanol.com - I took 21 students and they had a great time but I also saw small families or single people there. They can also help arrange trips around the country - I'm not sure many people stay two whole months but it's really worth checking out.

I think Miguels comments about Spanglish are right on. I was in Eagle Pass Texas a while ago in a fast food joint and over the loudspeaker comes "Traiga un box para mesa twenty seven." So maybe there is a third langauge we will have to learn.

There is no doubt that Spanglish is a reality in the USA, but it will never be a proper way to communicate in Latin America or Spain, neither will be proper in USA when conversing in Spanish.
"Traiga un box para mesa twenty seven." this is a perfect sample of the way the most illiterate hispanics speak in the USA, i have heard this type of structure mainly in California. Miami's hispanics hardly communicate this way, hispanics in south florida would use words from the English language in a phrase during a conversation but never that structure.
Hispanics in South Florida, are not descriminated like in some other parts of the USA, and that is one of the reasons Spanish is better spoken in this area.
FOR THOSE PLANNING TO STUDY AND LEARN THE LANGUAGE, QUESTIONING WHICH COUNTRY SPEAK BETTER SPANISH NEED NOT BE A CONCERN, SAFETY AND THINGS TO DO DURING TIME OFF SHOULD BE IT.
There is no doubt that some locations are lot more attractive than others in Latin America, as well the more developed countries will have lot more to offer.




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I've been to 4 immersion schools, Cuernavaca, Oaxaca, Costa Rica and just returned from a jungle immersion program in Ecuador. All were through langlink.com and enjoyed every single one of them.