My first experience of learning Spanish was reading Spanish for Dummies whilst working the bar at the local pub in my native Somerset. As usually happens when I decide I want to do something, I eventually resolved to go all in on learning Spanish. I signed up to a 3-month intensive Spanish course in San Sebastian, Spain. Little did I know that 6 months after starting the course at A2 level, I would be working in a Spanish-speaking role.

The Spanish I learnt in a 3-month period was actually enough to land me a Spanish-speaking job; however, between starting the course at A2 level, and starting the Spanish speaking job, the process took 6 months.

Who does this method suit?

This kind of method is most suitable for people with few commitments and flexible circumstances. I did a French course in Bordeaux more recently (read about it in my How I reached C1 French in 3 months after 21 years of struggling post), where I studied alongside a lot of people who worked flexible hours remotely, who were able to structure their jobs around the hours of the course.

This kind of course is also perfect for when you’re in your early 20s and you haven’t yet figured out what you want to do with your life. I worked in my local pub and later did a stint of TEFLing over the course of a year in order to save up enough money to do this course. I saw it as an investment into my future life overseas.

Here’s how I reached working-level Spanish in 6 months:

1. I committed to studying Spanish in the Basque Country for 4 hours a day for 3 months
2. I signed up to do exams (B1 and B2)
3. I lived with Spanish people
4. I only made Basque and Spanish friends who didn’t speak much English
5. I got into the culture of the city
6. I consumed Spanish material in my free time
7. I did practice exams
8. I pursued job opportunities

I committed to studying Spanish in the Basque Country for 4 hours a day for 3 months

I’d never done an intensive language course abroad before, so I made sure to do my research (which later formed my 9 tried-and-tested ways to live your best short-term language immersion abroad post). The receptionist at Lacunza International House was really helpful, and she agreed to have a Skype call with me (it was that long ago!), where I asked her every question that popped into my head. Check out my Why you should study at Lacunza International House San Sebastian for more on this school.

I signed up to their Trimester course, where I studied 4 hours of Spanish a day for 3 months. When I turned up, I had to do a placement test, and I was put in an A2 class – this means “working towards A2 level.”

Below I list everything I did outside of class time, which gave me something to talk about every lesson, as well as ample opportunity to learn outside the classroom.

I signed up to do exams (B1 and B2)

I signed up to do the B1 DELE exam (Diploma of Spanish as a Foreign Language) as soon as I arrived. The exam calendar was such that the exam would take place one week after I’d finished the 3 months of study, meaning that I remained motivated towards this goal throughout.

I later signed up to do the B2 DELE exam, once I was already working in the Spanish-speaking role.

If you’re interested in taking a DELE exam, see the prices and exam centre dates.

I lived with Spanish people

During the 3 months of my course, I lived with native Spanish speakers. For the first two weeks of the course, I stayed with a woman called Esther, who I was paired with through the school’s accommodation system. After this, I lived with a Basque woman who’d advertised her spare room publicly. Combined with my course, it meant that I rarely spoke English.

I only made Basque and Spanish friends who didn’t speak much English

As soon as I turned up at the school, I set about creating a network, where on every night of the week, I hung out with someone different. I used the school’s tandem system for this, where locals post announcements of their search for a language exchange partner. I met two women this way, one of whom introduced me to her brother, who also wanted to practise his English.

My Spanish host in my first apartment introduced me to some of the chefs who worked at Kokotxa restaurant, with whom I practised my Spanish – and eating – a lot. She also introduced me to the daughter of one of her friends, who was my age. Essentially, I took any opportunity to socialise in Spanish.

I got into the culture of the city

I also got really into the culinary scene of the city, which meant my food vocabulary really developed, and my palate got more discerning!

I consumed Spanish material in my free time (films, series, books)

The school had a really good selection of books in Spanish, many of which were graded readers, meaning that I started reading in Spanish (A2 texts) from day one. For the first two months, I read every day (to the annoyance of the receptionist, who had to give me the bookcase key and sign in and out my borrowed books every few days!).

I was in San Sebastian back in 2013, meaning that Netflix wasn’t yet popular. My housemate had a large selection of DVDs of Spanish films, which I raced through!

I did practice exams

There are practice exams available for all levels online (note that changes have been made to the A1 and A2 exams). Here are some sample exams for the revised A1 and A2 exams, and sample exams for levels B1-C2.

The school was able to provide me with many more past papers for levels B1 and B2, meaning that I was really familiar with the format by the time the real exam came round.

I pursued job opportunities

I approached various companies and organisations in San Sebastian before my course finished, because I was desperate to stay. The most promising lead was with the school I’d been studying in; the school offered paid internships for some of their admin roles, and one of the interns at the time was about to finish her internship. She had had a similar trajectory to me, having come to the school to study, and she was able to stay thanks to the internship.

I worked as a receptionist and was in charge of student accommodation, meaning that I communicated with students and local landlords, which gave me plenty of opportunities to practise my Spanish on the phone (the scariest format!). My Spanish improved significantly as a result of this job, and I passed B2 a couple of months after starting the role.

Factors that made learning Spanish easier

It’s worth noting that learning this quickly was dependent on a few key things for me. Firstly, I know that some language learners hate it when people evaluate how “easy” a language is, but in my opinion, I wouldn’t have been able to progress as quickly in German, or Mandarin, for example.

Secondly, since I’d already done a degree in Italian, this made deducing meaning from a lot of words of Latin origin easier, and getting used to grammar structures different from English, but similar to Italian (e.g. the subjunctive) simpler.

Thirdly, I think the fact that I assumed I’d only be in Spain for three months meant that I really wrung that experience sponge to get everything I could out of it. If I’d moved to Spain knowing I’d end up living there for a year, as I did, I probably would’ve been lazier about the whole thing.

Fourthly, the nature of my job and the environment were conducive to trial and error learning. I found the multi-cultural environment of the workplace to be a comfortable space for making errors, where native speakers would help by correcting me. Also, it’s one thing completing administrative tasks using fairly common language, compared to doing a more highly-skilled job that requires technical language and absolute precision.

Finally, I didn’t work during the 3 months I completed the Spanish course! I didn’t have the stress of managing a new job in a new city, which can sometimes leave us feeling too tired to gear back up to language learning in our free time.

Final thoughts

Frustratingly, Brexit has somewhat hampered the opportunity for British people to do something like this in the future. I always find 3 months to be my learning sweet spot, which exhausts the 90-day restriction British people now have to spend within the EU in a 180-day period. This means it’s still possible to do a course of this length, as long as you don’t plan to return to the EU in the following 90 days.

As for this this kind of job opportunity, these days, UK citizens would need to pursue job opportunities in Spain and other EU countries more formally due to the need for a work visa. For example, UK citizens can au pair in Spain under a student visa, as long as it’s combined with a language course like the one I’ve written about in this post. More information on au pair student visas here.

There’s nothing stopping us from doing a course abroad (within the 90 day limit for us Brits!) in order to get a Spanish-speaking job in our home countries, or in another country that doesn’t have visa restrictions, of course.

If your nationality is listed under one of the Latin American destinations here (a number of Commonwealth, European and Asian countries are listed), you will be eligible for a working holiday visa if you want to go somewhere other than Spain.

Is a course abroad something you would consider? Comment below and check out my recommendations for living your best language immersion abroad.