Hola mis amigos!
(Let me first off apologise for yet another thread asking which Spanish city is the best to live in, I’m aware there are many of them around and it probably gets a bit old giving people the same answers. However, a lot of the stuff I have read is quite old and I’m sure things can change in a few years, and despite all my reading I have still been left searching for answers. So here goes…)
I’m going on a one year exchange to Spain next year, my only choice of destinations are
Santiago de Compostela
Granada
Barcelona
Valencia
By the end of this year I will have completed two years of Spanish at university level here in Australia, which will be far from fluent, but enough to get me by when I first arrive. (hopefully
) Improving my language, communicating with the locals and achieving fluency is a big reason for taking this exchange. Infact, I can theoretically choose any country in the world but picking Spain and improving my skills actually gives it more of a purpose and makes it seem more worthwhile/rewarding. So I want to return from my exchange not necessarily being 100% fluent, but at least feeling pretty close.
Having said this, at the end of the day I also have to live in the city for 12 months. I don’t want to return home being fluent in Spanish but also having spent 6 months being really bored. Another factor is that my fiancé will be accompanying me, and her Spanish is, at this point, non-existent haha. (She does want to learn the language and will take some courses over here before we go, and continue them over there) so a bigger city with more to do may keep her entertained while she learns rather than being in a smaller town and feeling completely isolated and homesick.
Ideally neither of us will need to work, we’re not planning on it, but if the option was there it would be a plus, mainly for the reason that it would give my fiancé something to do. We don’t plan on buying a car while over there so for this reason we are hoping for accommodation no more than 1000Euro per month and as close to the city as possible. Decent public transport will probably save us a lot of stress haha and obviously a city where there’s always something for us to do! Somewhere that we can fall in love with and not get bored.
Barcelona
My initial choice was Barcelona, mainly because it offers some university courses in English which will be good for me when I first arrive. I have researched Barcelona more than the other cities and identified Gracia as a possible barrio to live. I am obviously aware that in Barcelona they speak Catalan however I have now come across so many different opinions that I’m very confused. I understand that everyone over there can speak Castellano as well as Catalan, but I’m concerned with how much I will be “surrounded” by the language, i.e., how likely am I to achieve fluency??
Some people have said that locals would rather address me in English if they can tell I don’t speak Catalan and even if I try to speak Castellano, they will still speak English. Others have said it’s a terrible city to learn from scratch, but if you have some background knowledge then you can definitely improve your skills dramatically. I have read I won’t learn anything at all and will just be recycling what I already know. I have also read that nowadays Castellano is heard more and more, and that at university the other students will be speaking in Castellano, and when I walk down the street I will hear Castellano, the TVs and newspapers are in Castellano, etc. Are food labels and what not in Castellano? I have no problem learning a bit of Catalan but I really want to get to practice my Castellano and not feel like I’m forcing other people to speak it with me.
Apart from that main concern, what is the general opinion on living in Barcelona/Gracia for 12 months? Am I going to constantly be surrounded by tourists and English speaking people? I hear that there are a lot of international students and I thought that this might be really good for my fiancé in terms of making new friends? She might “settle” in a little better in a city like Barcelona? Again though, I don’t want to be there for 6 months and feel like I could have been living in any other European city for all this time because I know nothing more about Spain.
Valencia
I have heard lots of good things about Valencia, and that it’s almost like a smaller version of Barcelona – lots to do, on the coast, but less touristy. This may not be the case nowadays I’m not sure. Obviously with Valencia the concern is again that they speak their own dialect of Catalan, so my questions about Catalan in Barcelona all apply here as well. Will I be somewhat surrounded by Castellano – the TV, newspapers, restaurants, supermarkets etc. and will I return after 12 months with dramatically improved language? Valencia has only just opened up as an option for me, and thinking about it also made me wonder if I should consider the other options as well and not jump so quickly onto Barcelona. I initially ruled out everywhere else because they didn’t offer English courses at uni, but I now think I could probably struggle through a few courses early and after a few months be much more comfortable studying in Castellano. Theoretically I would study Spanish, Italian and then just have to get through one other course taught in Castellano. I have also read that when Valencians do speak Castellano that it is pretty clear.
Granada and Santiago
I don’t know much about these cities, but my concerns are that they are a little small, I may get bored after a few months and my fiancé may find it harder to make friends and settle in. But at the same time it seems a little rash to immediately rule them out without trying to find out more. Whilst I’m sure I would probably get better language skills a lot faster, I can’t help but think that maybe I would return from my 12 months and be like “I really should have gone and stayed Barcelona”. Almost as if I’ll have less of an experience by choosing these smaller cities? Again I think I also read that Santiago has its own dialect and that the accent there is particularly hard to understand? But perhaps these cities would be much cheaper than Barcelona and Valencia?
Ideally I would be able to visit each city before I made my choice, but as that’s not possible I have to base my decision largely based on the opinions of others. So just trying to get as many as I can basically! And obviously the opinions of those who have lived/are living there are worth much more than people who holidayed for a week.
Sorry for the wall of text, longer than I anticipated
Muchas gracias!
(Let me first off apologise for yet another thread asking which Spanish city is the best to live in, I’m aware there are many of them around and it probably gets a bit old giving people the same answers. However, a lot of the stuff I have read is quite old and I’m sure things can change in a few years, and despite all my reading I have still been left searching for answers. So here goes…)
I’m going on a one year exchange to Spain next year, my only choice of destinations are
Santiago de Compostela
Granada
Barcelona
Valencia
By the end of this year I will have completed two years of Spanish at university level here in Australia, which will be far from fluent, but enough to get me by when I first arrive. (hopefully
) Improving my language, communicating with the locals and achieving fluency is a big reason for taking this exchange. Infact, I can theoretically choose any country in the world but picking Spain and improving my skills actually gives it more of a purpose and makes it seem more worthwhile/rewarding. So I want to return from my exchange not necessarily being 100% fluent, but at least feeling pretty close.Having said this, at the end of the day I also have to live in the city for 12 months. I don’t want to return home being fluent in Spanish but also having spent 6 months being really bored. Another factor is that my fiancé will be accompanying me, and her Spanish is, at this point, non-existent haha. (She does want to learn the language and will take some courses over here before we go, and continue them over there) so a bigger city with more to do may keep her entertained while she learns rather than being in a smaller town and feeling completely isolated and homesick.
Ideally neither of us will need to work, we’re not planning on it, but if the option was there it would be a plus, mainly for the reason that it would give my fiancé something to do. We don’t plan on buying a car while over there so for this reason we are hoping for accommodation no more than 1000Euro per month and as close to the city as possible. Decent public transport will probably save us a lot of stress haha and obviously a city where there’s always something for us to do! Somewhere that we can fall in love with and not get bored.
Barcelona
My initial choice was Barcelona, mainly because it offers some university courses in English which will be good for me when I first arrive. I have researched Barcelona more than the other cities and identified Gracia as a possible barrio to live. I am obviously aware that in Barcelona they speak Catalan however I have now come across so many different opinions that I’m very confused. I understand that everyone over there can speak Castellano as well as Catalan, but I’m concerned with how much I will be “surrounded” by the language, i.e., how likely am I to achieve fluency??
Some people have said that locals would rather address me in English if they can tell I don’t speak Catalan and even if I try to speak Castellano, they will still speak English. Others have said it’s a terrible city to learn from scratch, but if you have some background knowledge then you can definitely improve your skills dramatically. I have read I won’t learn anything at all and will just be recycling what I already know. I have also read that nowadays Castellano is heard more and more, and that at university the other students will be speaking in Castellano, and when I walk down the street I will hear Castellano, the TVs and newspapers are in Castellano, etc. Are food labels and what not in Castellano? I have no problem learning a bit of Catalan but I really want to get to practice my Castellano and not feel like I’m forcing other people to speak it with me.
Apart from that main concern, what is the general opinion on living in Barcelona/Gracia for 12 months? Am I going to constantly be surrounded by tourists and English speaking people? I hear that there are a lot of international students and I thought that this might be really good for my fiancé in terms of making new friends? She might “settle” in a little better in a city like Barcelona? Again though, I don’t want to be there for 6 months and feel like I could have been living in any other European city for all this time because I know nothing more about Spain.
Valencia
I have heard lots of good things about Valencia, and that it’s almost like a smaller version of Barcelona – lots to do, on the coast, but less touristy. This may not be the case nowadays I’m not sure. Obviously with Valencia the concern is again that they speak their own dialect of Catalan, so my questions about Catalan in Barcelona all apply here as well. Will I be somewhat surrounded by Castellano – the TV, newspapers, restaurants, supermarkets etc. and will I return after 12 months with dramatically improved language? Valencia has only just opened up as an option for me, and thinking about it also made me wonder if I should consider the other options as well and not jump so quickly onto Barcelona. I initially ruled out everywhere else because they didn’t offer English courses at uni, but I now think I could probably struggle through a few courses early and after a few months be much more comfortable studying in Castellano. Theoretically I would study Spanish, Italian and then just have to get through one other course taught in Castellano. I have also read that when Valencians do speak Castellano that it is pretty clear.
Granada and Santiago
I don’t know much about these cities, but my concerns are that they are a little small, I may get bored after a few months and my fiancé may find it harder to make friends and settle in. But at the same time it seems a little rash to immediately rule them out without trying to find out more. Whilst I’m sure I would probably get better language skills a lot faster, I can’t help but think that maybe I would return from my 12 months and be like “I really should have gone and stayed Barcelona”. Almost as if I’ll have less of an experience by choosing these smaller cities? Again I think I also read that Santiago has its own dialect and that the accent there is particularly hard to understand? But perhaps these cities would be much cheaper than Barcelona and Valencia?
Ideally I would be able to visit each city before I made my choice, but as that’s not possible I have to base my decision largely based on the opinions of others. So just trying to get as many as I can basically! And obviously the opinions of those who have lived/are living there are worth much more than people who holidayed for a week.
Sorry for the wall of text, longer than I anticipated
Muchas gracias!
