I learned about this site from Benny Lewis at Speak from Day 1. I think his advice to start speaking right away is sound. Even though there are some folks locally who would help me somehow it seems easier to try italki. I live in a predominately "Old Line" Hispanic community in Northern New Mexico, USA. There are many Spanish speakers here and it would be great to be able to at least understand what is being said around me. Also, my wife and I are going to spend two months in Cuenca, Ecuador soon and anything I can do to help us manage daily life using Spanish will be a plus. I have very few Spanish skills at this point but I do think there is value in having heard the language spoken around me for nearly 10 years. I think each language has its own rhythm and it takes me some time to become familiar with that. Once I do I can more easily absorb what I hear. I only want to be able to carry on a basic conversation at this point. Where that will lead remains to be seen. At this point I don't plan to pursue a language teacher here. We will be doing some of that when we are in Ecuador in early 2013. My biggest hurdle will be overcoming my discomfort with not being able to speak well in Spanish. I tend to avoid situations where I have little competence. I have never tried to help another learn my language though I have a good grasp of what is correct or incorrect. I am sure happy to give it a try.