Chicago is a
great place to learn Spanish, not only because of the windy
city's active Spanish community - giving you plenty of
opportunities to practise - but also because there
are many job opportunities going to people who speak Spanish
as a second language.
I always
highly recommend that anyone beginning to learn Spanish
in Chicago makes it a habit of practising in between
lessons. The Spanish you talk in a classroom does not
prepare you to speak with native Spanish-speakers. This is
why it’s often better to study intensively with a good
home-study Spanish course, and then find the opportunity to
make regular conversations with Spanish speakers.
Two ways you
could do this in Chicago are to a) find yourself an
inter-cambio conversation partner – a native Spanish speaker
who will meet with you regularly to practise your
Spanish and their English. This will get you accustomed to
how real Spanish sounds. And b) to investigate what
activities you might be able to join in with in your local
Spanish community.
You could look into both of these at the
Spanish Action Committee of Chicago (www.spanishaction.com)
or the Chicago’s largest Hispanic bilingual newspaper
(www.lawndalenews.com).
A good start
could also be to visit some tapas and Mexican restaurants
and chat with the waiters
J. Be confident,
you will learn five times faster than others who don’t practise
at all!
Chicago is a
beautiful and historic city to study anything in. Some of
the United States’ greatest leaders got their start in
Illinois – from Barack Obama to Abraham Lincoln, Ronald
Reagan and Ulysses S. Grant.
The windy
city has a great history and a rich collection of museums to
visit. And while listening to your Spanish audios you can
take a short trip to the city’s scenic lakefront, with its
miles of sandy beaches. It’s a great idea for anyone to
learn Spanish in Chicago and just to live in Chicago in
gereral.