How is everyone else doing with their Spanish?
Where I live we have free Spanish lessons provided by the Ayuntamiento. It is not much, but helps to keep us ticking over. Most of my neighbours spesk English and very few attempt more than a few words in Spanish. Five minutes away there is a Spanish town where I have many Spanish friends, and speak with them regularly. The local accent took some getting used to. Instead of hasta luego they use hasta lugo or logo. My scariest moment was being interviewed on local Spanish TV. I watched the programme later in a Spanish bar and cringed, but my Spanish friends thought that I did alright. (or so they said). I think a lot of Brits give up with Spanish because the grammar is so different than in English, with the various past tenses, which take time to understand.

CD