Is study abroad really necessary in learning language?

<p>I have two years left in college and am learning Spanish. Unfortunately I am not sure if I will have enough time to study abroad for a semester and would much rather spend that time doing internships and other school-related things to prepare for graduate school. If I live in an area where there are a lot of Spanish-speaking, is it really necessary for me to study avroad to become fluent? Should I at least try to study abroad during the summer?</p>

<p>You’re kidding, right? There are plenty of swimmers living around me but if I don’t get in the pool, my practice of strokes on deck isn’t going to make me a swimmer. ;-)</p>

<p>No of course it isn’t necessary, with the internet it is now possible to practice speaking with native speakers without leaving your room. I don’t think there’s much benefit to studying abroad unless you’re already a proficient speaker - you don’t go abroad to learn a language, you go abroad to practice a language you’ve learnt.</p>

<p>^ I absolutely disagree.</p>

<p>You won’t become fluent without really LIVING in a language. Speaking to somebody on a computer is a completely different experience. You need to talk to cashiers, waiters, train conductors, policemen, doctors, taxi drivers and so forth. You need to be totally immersed in the language, and only then will you even approach fluency.</p>

<p>I’ll agree that studying abroad is probably easier and maybe more helpful if you’ve studied the language before. But it sounds like you’ve been studying Spanish already, so that isn’t an issue.</p>

<p>No, of course it’s not necessary. Places that really train people to speak languages fluently (not American college ‘fluent’) like the Defense Language Institute do it in a traditional classroom and self-study way. People who say that it’s just a lack of immersion holding back their language skills are just making excuses.</p>

<p>But that’s not to say that it isn’t <em>helpful</em> to be immersed. Of course it is.</p>

<p>But if you took 5 hours of classes a week with a native speaker (real classes, not ones wher the teacher coddles you so when you actually go to the place you find you’re not as good as you thought you were) and study for 2 hours a night, hard, then you won’t need ‘immersion’.</p>

<p>Apollo6 - I LOVE YOUR RESPONSE!</p>

<p>But to the OP, no of course it is not necessary to study abroad for the sake of “learning” the language. Many people learn languages without EVER going abroad. With that being said, there is a benefit to studying abroad. For instance; going to the middle east (Jordan) to study Arabic is going enhance your language learning, for many reasons, but immersion is proven to work. When I say immersion I mean immersing yourself in the local culture with natives, speaking and practicing the language 100% of the time. </p>

<p>So while you can stay here in the US and study a language you may just benefit from studying abroad. Many who have studied abroad will tell you what an incredible experience they have had. I urge you to explore it further.</p>

<p>thanks everyone. i think i’ll just add on another year and study abroad. ive been learning spanish for 3 yrs now and also french for about 5 yrs</p>

<p>You will not regret your decision!</p>

<p>I learned more Spanish in a week in Mexico than I did in a year of high school study.</p>

<p>Could you do a summer session abroad?</p>

<p>@Schokolade-I was thinking about doing that- one summer session in a Spanish-speaking country, and another in France- but I’m not sure if that would be enough time for me to reach a level of where I could say I’m nearly fluent. I’m currently at an intermediate stage in both languages.</p>

<p>I have heard of some people splitting up their study abroad between two different countries. That works well for some…</p>

<p>Like Summer/Fall in France and Winter/Spring in Spain or something along those lines - that should be enough time in both countries to enhance your language capabilities…</p>

<p>thanks collegemom82 I will look into doing that</p>

<p>You really, really should spend time abroad. Spending time abroad gives you a level of language fluency that you will just not get at home. Add to the benefits the cultural understanding you get from living abroad, as well as the cultural understanding you develop of the States when you get back (by way of comparison), and studying abroad is an advantage-maker for you.</p>

<p>I studied abroad several times independently at language schools in Spain (Salamanca, Barcelona, and Madrid).</p>

<p>Twice I stayed for the whole summer and once was just a month long course. </p>

<p>At prices now for language schools in Spain, you’d be looking at about $900 a month for tuition and housing.</p>

<p>(That’s for intensive courses that have anywhere from 20 to 25 classes per week).</p>

<p>If Europe interests you, check out Spain. Although you have to pay for the airfare, sometimes the Spanish schools in Spain are a lot less than the ones in South America – I have no idea why…</p>

<p>I found my schools here:</p>

<p>[Language</a> School Links.com Learn Spanish in Spain at a Spanish language school or Spanish university program for foreigners.](<a href=“http://languageschoollinks.com/spain/index.html]Language”>http://languageschoollinks.com/spain/index.html)</p>

<p>The site seems to list quite a few Spanish schools that are affordable (I found Spanish schools in Spain on this site that I didn’t find on other sites and they were pretty cheap.)</p>

<p>There are also Spanish schools all over South America…you’ll see them. </p>

<p>In your case, I would look at a lot of schools and really compare prices. Since you mentioned summer study I figured you’d be doing it independently…and that is sooooo much cheaper than U.S. university programs.</p>

<p>Have fun!</p>

<p>One of the problems with studying Spanish is that it is spoken differently in different locations.
It is rare that you will be speaking Castilian Spanish anywhere outside of Spain or the classroom. If you go to different locations within the United States you will find quite a few different types of Spanish being spoken, all with different cultures. Florida, Texas, New York,and New Mexico all have huge numbers of native Spanish speakers, and they are all different. </p>

<p>First you need to ask yourself why you need to become fluent. If you are not using the language because you are moving to a Spanish speaking country or to go to classes in Spanish, then why worry over actually speaking the language at all. You need to study for graduation purposes, and if there is nothing more, then why bother.</p>

<p>If you do decide to study abroad to learn more, then you will need to decide where you want to study based on which dialect and culture that you want to be immersed in. That will depend on where you want the language to take you.</p>