Hey, Steve, and thanks for the comment! Don’t worry about being late to the party–I’m glad you’re here. My approach to learning Spanish was to use the best learning tool I could find for adult language learners, and that is Fluenz. They have a “Spanish for Spain” version that is outstanding. The nice thing about Fluenz is that it’s built for adult learners and provides a thorough review of grammar, vocabulary, and learning strategies. As an educator, I have nothing but admiration for the Fluenz product and developers. When I arrived in Spain, I had a solid background for speaking and communicating, and although I was often swamped as I navigated my life in Spain, I am very happy with my depth of knowledge and ability to communicate.

What would I do differently? Well, I looked for courses here near where I live, and since I am very comfortable as an independent learner I decided to go with the self-study route. If you need a more social aspect, then definitely find and enroll in a class or two. Check out Meetup.com for Spanish speaking events. Get comfortable being totally clueless about the conversation (it happens!) and speaking bad, albeit well-intentioned, Spanish. Really, you have to start somewhere, and I would guess that you know how you learn best. Go in that direction!

Best of luck, and I responded to your LinkedIn message with more information. Let’s communicate directly soon!

Kind regards,
Christopher