Immersion
Spanish language immersion for adults in Madrid
How to turn daily life in Madrid into Spanish practice: hours per level, a typical week and where to speak.
You have been living in Madrid for a few months. You work in English, your children go to an international school and your own language is spoken at home. Every day you step out into a Spanish-speaking city and, even so, your Spanish is barely moving forward.
It is a common situation. Living in Madrid is not the same as being immersed. Immersion has to be organised: deciding where, when and with whom you will use Spanish each week. The city provides the settings. Lessons give you the tools to make the most of them.
What to expect: hours per level
Before you plan, it helps to have a realistic benchmark. This is the Institute’s internal estimate for one-to-one lessons:
| Step | Approximate hours |
|---|---|
| From A1 to A2 | 60 |
| From A2 to B1 | 80 |
| From B1 to B2 | 100 |
These figures are a guide. Above all, they depend on how much you do outside class. At three hours a week, 80 hours is just over six months. That is why it is better to think in quarters, not weeks.
Each level takes more hours than the one before. It is not that you are progressing more slowly. It is that, from B1 onwards, the language has more nuances to work on.
A typical week
Here is an example for someone who works full time and has a family:
- Monday and Thursday. A one-to-one lesson of an hour and a half, before or after work. You bring whatever you did not understand during the week.
- Tuesday. Ten minutes of Spanish radio on the metro or in the car.
- Wednesday. A mid-morning coffee at your usual café. You order in Spanish and chat briefly with the waiter.
- Friday. A real written message: to the concierge, the school or a colleague.
- Saturday. Shopping at the neighbourhood market.
- Sunday. An hour in a municipal library, with the day’s newspapers.
That is three hours of lessons and another two or three of practice. Almost all of that practice happens within things you were going to do anyway.
Where to practise in Madrid
The neighbourhood market
In the municipal markets, each stall has its own informal queue. When you arrive, ask «¿Quién es el último?» (“Who’s last?”) and note who you go after. Then order by weight or by the piece: «¿Me pone medio kilo de tomates?» (“Could I have half a kilo of tomatoes?”). It is concrete, repetitive vocabulary, very useful when you are starting out.
The mid-morning café
In Madrid it is customary to take a mid-morning break for breakfast. If you keep going back to the same café, conversation comes naturally: «Un café con leche y una tostada, por favor» (“A white coffee and a slice of toast, please”). To pay, «¿Me cobras?» (“Can I pay, please?”) is all you need.
The pharmacy
The pharmacist listens and gives advice. It is a good place to practise describing things: «Tengo tos seca desde hace tres días» (“I’ve had a dry cough for three days”) or «Me pica mucho la garganta» (“My throat is really itchy”).
The concierge and the property manager
Parcels, breakdowns, building works, the residents’ meeting. These are short conversations with concrete vocabulary: «Hay una gotera en el techo del baño» (“There’s a leak in the bathroom ceiling”), «¿Cuándo es la próxima junta?» (“When is the next residents’ meeting?”).
Municipal libraries
They offer daily newspapers, book lending and, in many cases, reading groups. Reading the newspaper regularly broadens the vocabulary you hear in the street.
Language exchanges
You will find them in cafés and cultural centres all over the city. They help you lose your fear of speaking and hear different accents. They do not replace lessons: in an exchange, hardly anyone corrects you systematically.
Social codes worth knowing
- Mealtimes. Lunch is between 14:00 and 15:00, and dinner around 21:00. «Quedar para comer» (“to meet for lunch”) means meeting at midday.
- The sobremesa. When the meal is over, nobody gets up straight away. That unhurried conversation is part of the meal, and a chance to hear real Spanish.
- «¿Qué tal?» It is a greeting (“How are things?”), not a question. Reply «Bien, ¿y tú?» (“Fine, and you?”) and move on. Nobody expects a summary of your week.
- Tú or usted. In Madrid people switch to tú (the informal “you”) early on, even between strangers of a similar age. «Usted» (the formal “you”) is kept for older people and formal situations.
The Institute’s tip. Choose a café, a greengrocer’s and a pharmacy in your neighbourhood, and always go back to the same ones. After a few weeks they will recognise you, and «¿Qué le pongo?» (“What can I get you?”) will become «¿Lo de siempre?» (“The usual?”). That familiarity gives you the confidence to speak more.
How one-to-one lessons fit in
The lesson is there to prepare what you will experience outside and to review it afterwards. If the concierge left you a note you did not understand, you bring it to class. If you were missing a word at the market, you work on it in the next session. That way, the classroom and the street reinforce each other.
If your mother tongue is Arabic, your teacher will take that into account. The Institute’s teachers are bilingual native Spaniards of Arab origin, philologists specialising in Spanish as a foreign language. They work with contrastive linguistics and anticipate the mistakes that come from your language. We explain this in Spanish for Arabic speakers.
Private lessons are booked in packs. At Gran Vía 40: 5 hours for €325, 10 for €600, 20 for €1,100 and 50 for €2,500. Online: €240, €450, €850 and €2,000. There is no enrolment fee, and cancellation is free with 24 hours’ notice. More than 300 international professionals have followed the Institute’s programmes. The first step is a free 30-minute level test. You will find the details under prices.
