just could not let this thread die even though it warrants it... first i must say, that since finding this wonderful site i have appreciated that almost to a man/woman, motorcycle adventure'ers (that's our oficial designation? right?) are very special caring people. Since this thread i have put a heavy underline under the word almost.. now to the point.. learning spanish.. I was really surprised to see that my original suggestion to find spanish speaking people in your area would have negative aspects. some of these were pointed out... I would like to make some points in regards to these, in the case that it might matter to anybody thinking of making friends with local spanish speaking people for the purpose of learning or improving your spanish...

while interacting with mexican immigrants i was surprised to learn that many of my preconceptions of mexicans was wrong. Many of the people i saw dressed poorly, washing dishes were accountants, photographers, etc. Many guys that looked like homeless indigents had autiful loving wives and children.. etc etc.. hope you get the point. At the same time, many were poor, uneducated people from rural backgrounds..
many communities have populations or individuals of spanish speaking people from all over the world.My interactions with all types of people and the friendship i found, was and is a great benifit in my life and one of the reasons i like traveling on my bike..

speaking of traveling,, the pronunciation that i learned turned out to be quite helpful.. since i do not travel exclusively to visit universities, or country clubs..

one of the comments i hear frequently from the people i meet in Mexico about trying to communicate with most gringos is, is that while they understand that the gringos might know spanish (from a book or course) they cannot understand them.. When i first started speaking spanish here in mexico i remember thinking,, hey, i am saying the right word, why the hell don´t these people understand me.. then i realized it was not those peoples responcibility to understand me, it was my responcibility to make myself understood...
some of the components of a language are: reading, writing, listening, understanding, speaking, pronunciation, grammer.. it is possible to learn one component or all.. obviously it is best to learn all if one wishes to travel and take advantage of all of the oppourtunities offered to us... there are many ways to learn one or all of these aspects.. some are great and have been suggested and debated above.. there are others of course and that was the original flavor of this thread.. Ok, i am sure there is more but i am in the cyber in Mexico City and have an appointment in 15 minutes and must run.. I will check back later to see what insecurities i have touched with some people.. haha..
ps TO Grant.. I think i understand why you deleted my earlier post and probably quite a few others too.. However I am quite surprised you did in light of you allowing some of the rather rude ones above..