Although proudly Catalan, there are few better places to brush up your Castellano than on a language course amidst the winding streets and beautiful beaches of Barcelona

Note book. Check. Pen. Check. Barcelona guidebook. Check. I meander through the dusky, architecturally charming streets of Spain’s Antoni Gaudi-marked city, to be met by the loving linguistic arms of International House – a world class college that teaches English and modern languages – with the kind of butterflies in my stomach reserved for A-level exams way back when.

I’m in the twilight of my thirties, here for a month to have a really intensive shot at getting my Español up to speed. And intensive these classes are - five hours a day, five days a week, not to mention homework, which it’s not in your interest to say the dog ate. I look around the room full of Spanish-hungry folk and notice that there are quite a few eager twenty-somethings, but a smattering of the whole age gamut. Pen at the ready, I don’t feel so out of place as we go into the test to check our Spanish level so as to stream us correctly.

I do ok, verging on good, on the written test, but the oral test is perhaps less of a star-turn. I’m placed in a cosy intermediate class, and that suits me just fine. This isn’t a judgement test – you are not here to make the grade for university or to out-Spanish a contemporary – but to make learning easy. No one else is remotely bothered about which class you are in, so A-level butterflies (not that I can actually remember that far back) can be quashed.

A speedy ask-around of my new classmates finds that some are here to learn Spanish as part of their university studies back home, and some simply want to improve their language skills like me. Then there are those who want to take up work over here but need to be pretty near fluent to do so. Our common thread? We’re all keen to learn and want to dedicate ourselves to the Spanish language for the coming weeks. And we’ve all chosen the city of Barcelona to do it in, partly because of its reputation for vibrant days and excessive nights, I’ll wager.

The people of Barcelona don’t actually speak ‘proper’ Spanish, Castellano. They prefer Catalan, which is ‘proper’ Spanish anyway as far as they’re concerned. So it may seem a strange choice of city to do a Spanish course. But, rambling on in Castellano doesn’t once bring down the wrath of Barcelona’s people on my head. And furthermore, they answer back in Castellano.

I wander for a quick café con leche with my new Spanish chums and a mooch through the striking palm-tree lined Plaza Real, then slip into the matador bar on the corner of my street for a quick cerverca under the bull’s head with the follow-me eyes. I say ‘my street’ because I am lucky enough to be renting a central top floor flat - up 97 steps, to be precise, which throws in a free exercise regime - from an amigo back home. The majority of the others are in the digs next to International House, which in turn means that you can be mega sociable with your classmates at all times - a definite hit with the twentysomething crowd.

Next day I return to the classroom and we go over some basic grammar to refresh our minds, then throw vocabulary back and forth while the teacher scribbles frantically on the whiteboard. Group activities are encouraged and we talk in Spanish throughout the class, building on memories of old and new, unless of course there is something you need to ask in English. Or even German. I head off on the super-efficient metro to Barceloneta post class, to sunbathe on the colourful beach and peruse my latest homework.

Back in my flat that evening, I add the final touches to my homework, then head out to the Ramblas for my daily dose of tapas and people-statue watching, and to meet my new pal Maria at the Jamboree jazz club for some live Latin beats. We wind back to the flat and stop off at the local spit and sawdust club for a nightcap and a quick turn on the dancefloor, by which time my ‘Spanish’ is as free flowing as the sangria we have moved on to.

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Read the full article in our April 2009 edition.