Learning Spanish

Off Topic
21

Any book will help, but if you’ve really taken Spanish for so many years, your best bet would just be to find someone that speaks the language and talk to them.

(This is coming from someone who speaks Spanish.)

22

Rosetta Stone has a very good system, pricey though. They have a vast selection to choose from. I listened to some of their Learning Italian, and its pretty spot on. You probably wouldn’t pass as a local, but you could easily be understood and understand others.

23

[quote]Shammy wrote:
nephorm wrote:
I am not a fan of Rosetta Stone.

You should do a search (both here and on Google) before investing in it, to make sure you know what you are buying.

Any particular reasons? I’m curious about learning a new language as well.

[/quote]

I have a laundry list. The quickest reasons are:

  1. It takes a lot of time. The drills just go on and on.
  2. I do not believe that adults learn languages well by mimicking children. It takes a child 5 to 6 years to gain a high level of proficiency, and that is while the child is essentially working non-stop, while totally immersed. Adults also have the advantage of being able to learn the rules of a language, rather than having to derive those rules themselves.
  3. RS does not take you to a very high level of proficiency. I am sure you can learn from it, but I do not see what you will gain that you would not have learned faster from the Pimsleur CDs.
  4. It is less portable than other options.
  5. There is less spontaneity than you get even in a classroom.
  6. It lacks any sort of external motivator for success. This does not apply to everyone, but a classroom environment sets goals along the way and has a schedule. Software and CDs do not penalize you for skipping lessons or waiting too long between practice sessions.

But do a search on it… there are lots of reviews out there. Search for the individual language you are interested in, as well.

24

I don’t like Rosetta Stone. I bought the Japanese one a couple years ago for about $400, and it just didn’t cut it. I ended up eBaying it and going the college route.

College classes just take forever, have a ton of homework, and aren’t really effective for becoming conversational. I took 2 years of Spanish when in college to meet my requirement and can’t even read the allergy warning in Spanish at taco bell.

For me, I did this combination for Japanese, and it worked. I’m sure you can do the same with Spanish.

I bought a 10gig MP3 player and ripped all the Japanese language CDs from the library onto it.

I then started following JapanesePod101.com. They have a Spanish version here:

They also have ones for Russian, Arabic, etc.

The podcasts are free and are very good. You have to pay a membership fee to get the flashcards, notes, grammar guides, etc for each podcast. It is very worth it. The podcasts are very nice, and starts with Newbie lessons, then beginner, advanced beginner, intermediate, etc, all the way to Advanced Lessons.

In addition, I started memorizing all the vocabulary words I could, because it’s so much easier to pick up grammar when you can understand all the words in a sentence.

I also bought children books in those languages and tediously transcribed them into English. This was so boring, but I started progressing very fast with reading speed and comprehension when I did this.

I do highly recommend you check out SpanishPod101.com, whatever route you take. The podcasts are excellent, with native speakers for the conversations. In addition, each podcast has work sheets, vocabulary sheets, and grammar guides.

Good luck.