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A Spanish Learning Challenge | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Advice Center |  | |
| med7737 Newbie United States Joined 6498 days ago 3 posts - 3 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 1 of 8 16 April 2007 at 5:08pm | IP Logged |
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Greetings,
I am very hopeful that someone from this website will be able to provide me with some advice regarding a new professional assignment. I work in a professional capacity at a large, multinational company in the United States. Due to the “unexpected pregnancy” of a work colleague, I have been asked to assume a temporary assignment in Ecuador beginning on September 1st of this year. This assignment will require “good” verbal communication skills in Spanish. This is obviously a very short period of time (4 ½ months) to become really proficient and I need to be certain that I am spending my time as productively as possible. The “good news” is that the resources for learning Spanish that are available to me are numerous and I will be dedicated to this learning task for the immediate future. I have the following materials available for use: Pimsleur I, II, III, and ‘Bonus Lessons’ Platiquemos – Entire Course Learning Spanish Like Crazy – Level 1 and Level 2 Destinos: An Introduction to Spanish – All videos, Textbook, Student Workbooks, and Student Audio Tapes Assimil – Spanish with Ease, Audio and Book Several grammar books, dictionaries, and bi-lingual readers Also available are native Spanish-American Speakers who could serve as occasional resource persons, if needed. At the present time I have completed Pimsleur Level 1 and have made very minimal headway into Platiquemos which I am finding to be very difficult at times, but also clearly worth the investment. I am hopeful that there are forum members who can provide recommendations regarding my situation and how I can most profitably invest my time. Fortunately, the Language Learning assignment will be my top priority over the next several months. I recently realized that too much of any one method produces very limited returns, so I am hoping for suggestions as to how I could vary my approach, combining some or all of the materials available, to good advantage. Many Thanks, Martha 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Rmss Triglot Senior Member Spain spanish-only.coRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6562 days ago 234 posts - 248 votes  3 sounds Speaks: Dutch*, English, Spanish Studies: Portuguese | Message 2 of 8 17 April 2007 at 6:07am | IP Logged |
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Have you read the page "Success stories" yet? It contains a nice story about how you can acquire the Spanish language with some serious work.
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| med7737 Newbie United States Joined 6498 days ago 3 posts - 3 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 3 of 8 17 April 2007 at 9:50am | IP Logged |
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Yes, I have read this and see that FSI course was used to acquire proficiency in 6 months -- including lots of hard work!
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| awake Senior Member United States Joined 6634 days ago 406 posts - 438 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Esperanto, Spanish | Message 4 of 8 17 April 2007 at 12:32pm | IP Logged |
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Your time is so short, you need to immerse yourself in Spanish as much
as possible. Go into a cocoon for the next 4 months where you eliminate english as much as possible and fill your life with Spanish. Don't watch english channels on TV, just Spanish ones. the same goes for radio (if there are any hispanic broadcasts in your area). If there are none available, buy an mp3 player and download Spanish podcasts for your news. It will be unbelievably frustrating at first (though your motivation is very high so you can probably manage that). The idea is to create an environment where your brain has to learn. Eventually you'll start to be able to pick out words here and there, then phrases, then whole sentences. When you find yourself in Ecuador you'll find that it's less of a shock if you've already started the process of immersion. Personally, I'm a fan of the Assimil approach. Do a search on this forum for "Shadowing" to see how other people here have greatly improved the Assimil methods. With dedicated practice and 2 or 3 hours per day devoted to study, you could probably complete the entire Assimil method in the time you have. (Although, it's better to break it up into 4 or 5 shorter periods of study during the day.) The only downside (for you) of the assimil program is that it teaches Spanish as spoken in spain, not latin america. (It would be like learning to speak british english before moving to america)...you'll sound a bit off but you'll be able to communicate which is the important thing. Whichever approach you take, you just need to realize that for the next few months you're going to need to study like a monk. If you do that, you can reach ecuador with a good starting proficiency in the language. Of course, you'll keep learning when you're there. It's really going to be a great opportunity for you to learn Spanish. It's unfortunate that you'll have the stress of having to learn it so quickly, but it will be a great skill to develop once you have it. Best of luck! 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Linguamor Decaglot Senior Member United States Joined 6616 days ago 469 posts - 599 votes Speaks: English*, German, Italian, Spanish, Swedish, Danish, French, Norwegian, Portuguese, Dutch | Message 5 of 8 17 April 2007 at 1:03pm | IP Logged |
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My recommendation:
Pimsleur I, II, III Lights, Camera, Spanish (Book + DVD) Destinos: An Introduction to Spanish – All videos, Textbook, Student Workbooks, and Student Audio Tapes Assimil – Spanish with Ease, Audio and Book (with the caveat that it is Iberian Spanish, rather than Latin American Spanish) Converse with Spanish speakers whenever you can. Watch Spanish language TV if it is available. Edited by Linguamor on 17 April 2007 at 1:06pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| leosmith Senior Member United States Joined 6548 days ago 2365 posts - 3804 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Tagalog | Message 6 of 8 17 April 2007 at 4:29pm | IP Logged |
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Hi Martha,
Congratulations on your new assignment. Is it in Quito? I lived there for 2 years when I was a kid, and visited for a couple weeks in 97. It's a very nice country, and the people are quite friendly. I hope it will become a great immersion language learning experience for you:) 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| tujiko Senior Member United States Joined 6531 days ago 140 posts - 144 votes Speaks: English* | Message 7 of 8 17 April 2007 at 5:15pm | IP Logged |
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Go through Platiquemos 1-8, as many times as possible from now until September. Learn every dialogue by heart. Be able to answer every question, translate every prompt. If you take it seriously, and follow awake's immersion idea (TV, radio, music, reading), you'll be more than ready for Ecuador by then.
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| med7737 Newbie United States Joined 6498 days ago 3 posts - 3 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 8 of 8 17 April 2007 at 6:34pm | IP Logged |
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Wow, Thanks to all who have responded here with such great suggestions! I have already begun to surround myself with all things Spanish, but had not thought about TV and radio -- what a good idea that is!
I especially appreciate the comment from Awake regarding the feelings of frustration. I think that I really reached a bad place over this past week. There are days that I feel like I am only going backwards and have now forgotten what I knew very well yesterday. I guess this is consistent with any big learning experience. I do recognize that my success will probably be reflected by my diligence in putting in lots of time. I do not expect to "finish" learning Spanish by September -- more likely that will be the REAL start! Tujiko, I have found that Platiquemos is particularly hard for me. When you say 1-8 are you referencing the 8 levels (all 55 lessons)? On some level I certainly recognize that it is of really top quality, but I feel like I may not know how to use it properly. I like Pimsleur so much better but believe that in the long run I do need the type of work that only Platiquemos can provide. Would spending (on average) less than 2 days per lesson on Platiquemos really benefit me, given my time line? Do you have any suggestions for using it very efficiently, is there a post somewhere here that I have missed? I happened to read someone's post regarding French FSI that seemed pertinent, but I would be really interested in specific Platiquemos suggestions from anyone. Leosmith, yes, I will be in Quito for the bulk of the assignment but it will also involve some travel to Guyaquil. I am currently also thinking about tacking on a couple of days vacation -- perhaps to the Galapagos, but that is still very much undecided. I am truly grateful to this group for such great assistance and will post periodically with updates or when I really feel discouraged! Martha 1 person has voted this message useful |
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