Gap year: live somewhere I’ve always wanted or Spanish speaking country?

[Rayatbh]

Hello,

I wanted to ask for some opinions. I’m taking a gap year and am currently looking into applying to programs and jobs abroad. I figured this might be my only chance to do this while I’m young, and I’d love to experience living in a foreign country for a year. I will mainly be pursuing research related jobs.

I visited Morocco recently for a short period of time and absolutely loved it! I would really love to experience living there. This would be my top choice if other things didn’t come into play.

I also started learning Spanish for the first time during college, and am minoring in it (even did a semester abroad!). A huge benefit of pursuing something in central/South America is that I would be immersing myself in a spanish speaking country. I really want to be fluent and be able to use it somewhat comfortably before medical school. I think being immersed for a year would be a huge huge benefit.

Which option would have more pros in your opinion? Basing it on the environment or language benefits?

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[ElloMellowYellow]

Si yo fuera tu, elegiria vivir en america de surrrr.

 

[Cheeezcake]

if you don’t speak French or Moroccan dialect Arabic, you will have a brutal time (from personal experience). I’d say go Spanish if you’re familar with the language and want to become fluent.

Also, people in Morocco do not speak spanish. In Tangier you may find some, but even then, their spanish will be worse than yours.

 

[Lucca]

If you have the opportunity and the language skills necessary or a structured way to develop them while living there, I’d say go to Morocco. If you’ve always wanted to live there then do it. You have one life to live, and you’ll never have more freedom to do what you want than on a gap yr. That said, as a South American there are many great places to live in South America as well.

 

[907914]

For a gap year, I would remain in the United States where you can maintain service hours, make money, and be consistently available for interviews and other things that being in the US would be best for.

Edit: sorry, I am lame and boring and have no notion of living abroad longer than a month.

 

[Alex1234*]

I lived in Morocco for a few months, and I actually came across quite a few people who spoke Spanish. This was mostly in the North, such as Tangier and even places like Chechaouen. It’s also super close to Spain so you could easily take a flight/ferry to Spain for short trips and practice. Even though you may come across Spanish in the North, however, it will still be really hard to gain fluency while living in Morocco. If your main goal is fluency, I would live in a Spanish speaking country. Also, I can’t imagine it will be easy to find a research position in Morocco (especially if you don’t speak French or Arabic)

 

[Cheeezcake]

I lived in Morocco for a few months, and I actually came across quite a few people who spoke Spanish. This was mostly in the North, such as Tangier and even places like Chechaouen. It’s also super close to Spain so you could easily take a flight/ferry to Spain for short trips and practice. Even though you may come across Spanish in the North, however, it will still be really hard to gain fluency while living in Morocco. If your main goal is fluency, I would live in a Spanish speaking country. Also, I can’t imagine it will be easy to find a research position in Morocco (especially if you don’t speak French or Arabic)

Ive met 0 people in chefchaouen who spoke spanish haha, but i have met a handful in tangier and tetouan haha. Chefchaouens one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever been though, and OPs gotta check it out

 

[Alex1234*]

Ive met 0 people in chefchaouen who spoke spanish haha, but i have met a handful in tangier and tetouan haha. Chefchaouens one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever been though, and OPs gotta check it out

Yeah I probably just got lucky haha, it’s definitely not as common as Tangier. I also met more travelers who spoke Spanish, rather than locals. The country is definitely not Spanish-speaking...I would have been screwed without French.

 

[MexicanMamba]

¿Donde esta la biblioteca?