Segovia was the easiest. Seville was the most difficult. The rest of Andalucia (Granada, Arcos de la Frontera) was second easiest. Barcelona was frustrating because they substituted Catalans words or, when I asked for the Spanish translation of an English word, I was almost always given the Catalans word.

I spent a month in Spain this May-June both as travel and to check out places to live next year for 3 months, where I will work to convert my 'good enough to get by' spoken Spanish into something resembling conversational skills. I visted (in order) Granada, Jaén, Sevilla, Arcos de la Frontera, Mérida, Cáceres, Salamanca, Segovia, Madrid, Cuenca and Toledo. The first trip to Spain the year before, where I also tried to use Spanish as much as possible, included Cádiz, Cordoba and Barcelona.

FWIW I know about 2000 words in Spanish. Since retiring in 2008, most days of the week I did 15 minutes with my electronic flash card program to keep that vocabulary alive. Lived most of my life in Southern California where I acquired a decent version of the overheard accent.

Prior to my trip this spring, I scored Level A1.2 (Initial) on the placement test for Aula Virtual de Español, or Virtual Spanish Classroom. While traveling I could have short, halting, simple conversations with patient native Spanish speakers. By the end of the trip such simple conversations flowed. My post trip score was between Level A2.1 and A2.2 (Elementary).

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Dialects in every region other than Madrid can make communication difficult. In Valencia, there is Valenciano, in Barcelona, Catalan, and in other regions there are other dialects. In Murcia, the lack of the ending of pretty much any word takes a bit of getting used to. As far as the cheapness of the area, that also depends on what services you need, such as hospitals, work environments, public and national transportation, and restaurants. Most areas have a wide variety of living expenses, so you will probably be able to find something within your price range! Best, Christopher

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