Best Places To Practice Spanish Conversation

Unless you live in a Spanish-speaking country, chances are you have limited opportunity to practice your Spanish conversational skills on a daily basis.  This is a problem because the learning process is basically a numbers game:  the more you practice, the more quickly you’ll learn.  If you want to eventually become fluent, you really need to practice every day outside of your core study program.  Fortunately, there are a few opportunities to practice Spanish open to almost everybody in any town in the U.S.

• Mexican Restaurants- Mexican food is my favorite so this is a no-brainer for me.  Most servers in these restaurants are hispanic and are happy to speak Spanish with you.  They seem to get a kick out of it.  Impress them with your skills and you may even get a free enchilada out of the deal.  It’s a win-win.
• Spanish-Language Chat Rooms – This is one I used extensively back when I was first learning.  Venture over to chat.yahoo.com, register a username if you don’t already have one, and navigate to the Spanish-language chat rooms.  Not only will you get some much-needed practice, you’ll also get a feel for how real Spanish-speakers communicate, which often quite  different from what you’ll find in the textbooks.  It’s also a good place to pick up some slang and Spanish pick-up lines.  If you’re lucky, you may even get a long-term Spanish pen-pal out of the deal.
• Your Local Latin-American Association – Many Latin American associations conduct group Spanish lessons for speakers of English as well as facilitate language exchange programs.  A language exchange program is where you are paired with a Spanish-speaker to meet with a few times a week and practice conversation.  Half of the time you’ll converse in Spanish to hone your skills and half the time in English to help your partner.  This is a great way to learn the language, culture, and have some fun at the same time.