I hope you have a great time when you do head off, and I hope you’ll keep me updated on your progress.

Mucha suerte tio!

Thanks for stopping by, always a pretty big surprise when you do… I hope India was good for you, I can’t see the photos on your post because my work blocks them and I’m currently waiting for 2 weeks for my new ISP at home to connect me. I went there for non-holiday reasons in 02 and it was a shock but also a pleasure.

Yeh I have tried other cds before as well and they were woeful :S The talking to a native thing is great, but being able to understand the logic behind a language has helped so much.

For example I randomly saw a Spanish verb somewhere today and just for the heck of it sat down and conjugated it 12 different ways, because he teaches you how.

I head off probably in early August.. which might cause you to go.. ‘uh… huh?’ but that’s the way the timing works out with the European summer and the program I’ll be doing. The idea is to stay until the end of November and come home. I’m gonna do a lot of study between now and then just so I can get a good jump on the language.

The idea is just to have an extended stay abroad in a non-English speaking country, trying to pick up the language. I chose Spanish because it’s easy on the ear and good for English speakers to learn!

Re: Michel Thomas, while the technique is awesome and the learning awesome, I would never use it without combining with an overseas trip. Like you said, the best way is with the natives.

Sounds pretty immense.

I once tried learning Spanish from CDs, before I went to teach in Spain, but found them pretty poor. There’s obviously no substitute for speaking to a native, but I’m glad you’re learning a lot.

When do you head off? For how long?