Any recommendations for Spanish language schools?

You want academic credit? If not, I have ideas.

No need for academic credit. Already have a degree. Want to do this for personal reasons.

Going to a country would be the best way, total immersion.

Well, then you probably want to be in a really interesting town. Mexico-wise, look into Oaxaca, which is old, beautiful, lively. Try the Instituto Cultural Oaxaca; they’ll fix you up with a homestay which will force you to work the language muscles. And they’re fun there – you can learn to cook, dance, etc as well as talk – good practice. And a beautiful site.
San Miguel de Allende is very gringo/gringa-friendly but probably more expensive; Cuernavaca bristles with language schools; and they say Antigua, Guatemala is fabulous because (can’t say why this would be true) you come away with a pleasing accent.

Or go to Spain and learn to lithp.

@JLeslie Yes, that is why I said in either Latin or South America.

@susanc Thanks I will look into those. I’d prefer to live in a small town or village, but I’ve heard that by studying in a small town you may learn a specific dialect that won’t necessarily transfer well to other places. Is this true?

Oh, I misunderstood, forgive me. I thought you wanted to study in the states to become fluent to live in Latin America. I read too fast.

I’m generalizing, but the Spanish spoken in major cities will be more articulate and easier for you to understand and easier for other Spanish speakers from other countries to understand. Lots of it has to do with class structure also, similar to the US, lower classes means more slang, poor grammar, and poor pronunciation.

I learned French as my second language with the Living Language French edition and I loved it!! They have spanish too and I think it’s worth checking out, it’s not crazy expensive and I know that the French program was fantastic!

I studied at the ICADS school in Costa Rica about 10 years ago, but it was in San Jose, definitely not a small town. Things may have changed since then, but at the time I thought the teachers were excellent and I learned a lot in my one month there. At the time it was much cheaper than taking a summer class at the university I was attending. They provided room and board with a local family. I have also heard that there are great language schools in Guatemala where you can study for even cheaper, but I don’t know of specific names. I have heard of some language schools in Guatemala that were quite good, but don’t remember names – I’ll send this question to some friends and see if they can weigh in. Central America is cheaper to get to from the U.S. than most South American countries, if you have a tight travel budget…However, I lived in South America for 7 months and had an absolutely amazing time traveling around Chile and Argentina. The main thing is to go somewhere where you can make friends with locals, not other Americans. So if there are any countries where you have friends or friends-of-friends, look into studying in a place where you have connections and might have some spanish-speaking friends. Hope this helps!

What @occ says about avoiding places full of English speakers is very wise. It’s SOOOO tempting – you get homesick for your mother tongue.
How about this: go somewhere very serious for, say, two months, and study as hard as you can, while meeting other English-speakers you can cheat with for relief; then go traveling to places where there aren’t many Anglos and you’re forced to use your new skills.
Wish I could come with.

Thank you all for the replies, all helpful. @susanc this is exactly what I was thinking – spend a month or two in language class, then another month or two exploring…thanks @occ I would be interested in guatemala…

Ok, I asked my friend who studied in Guatemala, and he said, “Proyecto Linguistico in
Quetzaltenango in Guatemala is THE place!! Amazing teachers, one on one!
Home stay, food, movies and trips all for 600/month, back in 2005.
Amazing community, and a fellow school in the mountains Escuela de las
Montanas.”

I’m using LiveMocha to learn French. This is the way to go if you can’t go to a country where they speak it naturally.
-It’s free (there are things you can buy and download onto your phone or MP3 player to do it on the go, but you don’t have to buy anything)
-natives of your language (in your case, native spanish speakers) will help you and grade your stuff
-there are parts of the lessons where you read a paragraph or so outloud and it records it and natives grade it (don’t try it in Firefox – I tried. it doesn’t work. Chrome works better anyway)
-you get to teach people your native language (english)

@ChocolateReigns I was pretty set on going to a country for total immersion since I finally have the time to do that, but that website you suggested sounds pretty cool! I like that it’s free, I like that you can connect with other people on there, I love the ‘bartering’ of language lessons. What a brilliant idea! Thanks! Even if I do go abroad, this looks like a great way to brush up on what I already know, and make progress on other languages I’m studying (like Swahili – where no one where I live speaks it).