Hi spirituallyawake, I'm here for two purposes: To make contacts I might visit in Spain and to improve my Spanish. I'd like to pass on something that I found extremely helpful.

Using 'Google translate' a certain way really helps in learning word position, usage of pronouns, correct verb tense endings and more. The way I use it when talking to a Spanish speaker is type into Google's left hand box in English while the right hand box is set to automatically translate into Spanish simultaneously as I'm typing in English. But the neat thing is that It is translating individual phrases rather than whole sentences or paragraphs. This enables me to put phrases into memory rather than just words.

Oh, and if you don't know where to find google translate: on the upper right of goodle's search page select the 9 dot icon (I guess that is their apps symbol. That icon will produce a drop down menu of things to select; go to the bottom and select 'more' and you will get another drop down menu; go to the bottom of that second drop down menu and select 'even more'; now you'll get ...ALL... of their various applications. The translate is the 16th one down on the right hand side. good luck. If this is helpful, pass it on. Thanks, Felipe