I totally agree.

And I totally disagree, and I explain why:

Spanish is spoken in a VAST area, so vocabulary varies enormously (not slang, but regular vocabulary). However, we all understand each other, we only need to understad the word in the context or just ask. Yes, it's the same for me as a native. When I'm told a REMERA (translates to rower woman) in Argentina, which is a Camiseta (T-shirt) for me in Spain. Like you, I don't know the word. Well, you'll only have to ask "¿qué es una remera?", since you may understand the rest of the sentence and you already have the sufficient knowledge and confidence to ask. Say I go to Scotland and don't understand anything people say. Well, I still can read or ask!

So, what you studied before the trip provided you with the "structure of the language", and that's what allowed you to put in the right place every bit you learnt during the trip. I'm 100% sure that you learnt much more and way faster than someone who knew nothing: you already knew that all infinitives (verbs) in Spanish end with "ar", "er" and "ir", so you could identify them easily, you knew anything ending in "mente" is an adverb (if adjectives define nouns, adverbs define actions=verbs), you knew most words ending in "o" are masculin, while those ending in "a" were femenin, etc. You built the house on well laid foundations. Now look at all those who learnt almost NOTHING in 6 months/1 year and now remember absolutely nothing. Needless to say that you were able speak 100 times more correctly than them while in South America ("me want pork stick").

Of course, getting there will boost your knowledge and cannot be compared to classes once a week. But studying before the trip played a key role and was not a waste of time at all, I'm sure.

But even most important: consider a language as a long term investment, you want it to last, and "what you learn quickly, you forget it quickly" and the language you learn "naturally" (hearing and speaking), you forget it also "naturally" when you don't use it that much. I know this 1st hand.

That applies to ANY language, but much more to difficult ones. And READ once you are back. Get an easy and interesting book and read. You only understand 30%, no problem, go ahead, check only the meaning of essential words, but keep on and you'll improve.

But to keep alive a "naturally learnt" language really requires a titanic effort once you'r back. Then you really have to go to classes and study a lot (although you never know your level: you talk a lot better than others in your class, but make many mistakes in grammar, talk as a football player). Of course, you can be naturally talented, have an excellent memory and be a genious, but just like people who smoke two packets of cigarrettes a day and live up to 100 years.

PS: It may sound weird, but people who speak the language save a lot of money compared to those who doesn't, since they cannot be scammed so easily, can find out more info and get better deals, etc. I've seen it many times and experienced it myself in Latin America, where people took me too often for a "gringo". PS2: All this had to be very boring to read...

Well put. Now back to lessons...