Universidad de Sevilla (US)

I had studied Spanish in high school and college but was not sufficiently prepared to live in a Spanish-speaking country. When I arrived, I struggled for 3 months to understand people and muster the courage to speak. After that, it was much easier to learn the language and take the risk of speaking to people, despite making some mistakes. Taking classes in Spanish and living with Spaniards enabled me to become fluent in the language.

The most you learn from the spanish people, but there were a lot of foreigners which could speake very well, too.At the beginning it was very hard to understand the sevillians and even now itｴs nearly impossible when they talk quickly. At the beginnig it was a little bit difficult to get to know native speakers, but when knew some it was great and I learned a lot of the life and the language

Andaluz is very difficult to understand at first. None of the courses are taught in this dialect, but rather in traditional castellano, where the soft c's and z's are pronounced like the soft "th" in English, and the s's are pronounced like an "sh". If you are not used to this accent, it will be a bit difficult to understand spoken Spanish in Sevilla (in- and outside the university), and by the time you leave the country, you might notice that you have picked up on some of the accent and much of the slang.

Well, there weren't places above to mark my real ability. I went to Spain with very good Spanish reading and writing skills and mediocre speaking skills. When I left, my Spanish skills as a whole were sharpened, and now I feel very comfortable speaking Spanish in any situation, although I can't say that I'm able to understand all slang.

All courses at my host university were taught in Spanish and I was attending classes with students of my host university, so at the beginning it was a little bit difficult to follow the lectures, but after some time I got used to the the incredible speed with which Spaniard talk and I had no longer any problems with communication.

It was extremely difficult at first to understand and to make myself understood because of the strong Andalucian accent. It became easier as time progressed but slowly. Before going I thought I was reasonably good at Spanish as I had traveled to South America without any problems, Spain is a different kettle of fish.