To many people, the dream of learning Spanish in Costa Rica seems like a dream come true. How many people stop to consider the reality before jumping in? These days it's no longer necessary to travel for miles to get authentic Spanish tuition. There are lots of great Spanish courses that can make you an expert, all from the comfort of your own home. I've laid out some of the points you may want to consider before making a decision.

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Have you considered the cost? Travelling all the way to Costa Rica to learn Spanish could run you into thousands of dollars, whereas you can get some great Spanish courses on CD or MP3 etc for around a hundred dollars or so. That's a pretty big difference! Obviously the experience will not be the same with a CD course, but at least with CDs/MP3s you can review the course material as often as possible!

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Make sure you find an organisation you can trust. When you begin an endeavour like this it's always good to try and find an organisation that's been recommended to you by others, or which you can find good reports or testimonials of. Going on a trip of this nature requires somewhat of a leap of faith, so it's very important to reduce the risk as much as we possibly can before undertaking it.

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Do you have the time? The idea of travelling somewhere exotic in order to get a leg up in a different language may seem great, but do you have the time to follow it through immediately? If you don't plan on continuing your studies in an intensive manner, you may find you forget more than you learned. This is another advantage of courses that come on CD or MP3, you can move as fast or as slow as you want to.

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Interact with real Spanish speakers. If you take a trip like this it's very important to make the most of it. Many people will spend too much time getting to know their class mates etc, when they could be in the local market practicing their Spanish on local merchants. The best way to absorb a foreign tongue is to immerse yourself in it-the more time you spend around native speakers, the more you will learn.

There may be more to learning Spanish in Costa Rics than meets the eye-to be extra sure that you don't wind up in a situation you don't want to be in, try to follow some of the pointers above along with your own good judgement. If you would like some information on the various Spanish courses available, check out the links below.