New to Forum, have had Villa in La Fustera beach area for 2 years

Your social contact is largely down to you.  There is the U3A which you can join which regularly hosts get-togethers and days out, you have paddle tennis in Moraira which is great for socialising or simply go to one of the many cafes/restaurants and you'll meet lots of people to chat with.

I do wish you luck in progressing your Spanish though.  Unless you have a natural ability to pick up a language you may struggle.  I have lived here for 7 years, I've tried Spanish classes, Duolingo and even learning the odd phrases or two but nearly all the Spanish in La Fustera/Moraira just want to speak English.

I was even told by a Police Officer once "Good luck learning Spanish from us, we just want to speak English!!"

That aside, be prepared to completely change your way of life over here.  

With Blessings

If you really want to learn Spanish, then we suggest you do not install Satellite TV, or whatever system British people use to continue watching British T.V.

Get a Spanish TV, watch Spanish programmes, but get Teletext working, so that you see the Spanish words at the bottom of the screen, displayed as the actors speak.

Not all programmes appear to have had that facility attached to the film, but a large amount do, and that way you can hear the Spanish spoken, and read the words at the bottom.

Frequent a Spanish bar or restaurant, so you have the opportunity to speak Spanish, or hear Spanish, not an Irish, or English-speaking bar.

Some people say buy children´s books, or comics, to begin reading basic Spanish. Some Town Halls offer free lessons, but you might need to keep up with homework, if that is required of the Teacher.

Don´t be discouraged, Rome was not built in a day, but it is much better to do a little studying of some "learn Spanish book" each day i.e. 20 minutes per day, than 1 hour, once a week, where you might have forgotten half of what you learnt.

Try writing down some Spanish words that you are learning and making a sentence of them, then go on GOOGLE TRANSLATE, type in the English, words and Google will tell you what those words are in Spanish.

Don´t give up, Spanish people are normally gracious, and appreciate somebody trying to speak Spanish. I took NVQUS in Wales before coming to Spain, but I learnt loads from a little Collins verb/phrase book, and did 20 minutes each day in my lunch break.

You will find great satisfaction in being able to express yourself in Spanish, Decide what is best for you, and go for it.

There are people here  who have lived here for many years, and who hire translators to go to the Doctors/Hospital etc., as they have decided to just live in Spain, but not integrate, not study Spanish etc.,

You will be very proud of yourself/yourselves if you make the effort and succeed, however small the advancement, keep on building on what you have learnt and retained. ..Spanish is a lovely language, much easier than French which has silent endings, or German, with Spanish what you see is what you say, so Colgate, is Col Gat Eh. Google is Goog ley. Every letter is pronounced.

Hope some of that helps.

Eileen 

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I would also suggest, as a starting point, to learn the Spanish alphabet as their letters are not all pronounced the same as English.

My wife and I drink Soya milk, pronounced Soy-ya in English and Soy-cha in Spanish.

The difference is massive as I found out when we first moved to Spain and I'm stamping my feet in a MasyMas asking for 'Soy-ya Leiche' (Soya Milk)  and becoming increasingly frustrated as to why they couldn't understand me, only to later discover that the Spanish translation I was saying was, "I am milk"!!!

Big lesson learnt!!

My , as I later found out, funniest mistake in trying to speak Spanish was to ask for coffee and a cat. (Cafe and Gateaux).

🤣🤣🤣

The Spanish word for Soya milk is SOJA (pronounced SO HA). It is all in the pronunciation, as for a foreigner speaking English, the word Blood to them should be BLOOOOD. not pronounced blud.

Eileen

My friend, wanting ro speak spanish decided he would ask for the bill and said ' La caca por favor'  and got a quizicle look from the waiter.

For those non spanish speaking its... The Poop please.   !!!!!

My friend, wanting ro speak spanish decided he would ask for the bill and said ' La caca por favor'  and got a quizicle look from the waiter.

For those non spanish speaking its... The Poop please.   !!!!!