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Help Me Start Out? (Spanish) | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Advice Center |  | |
| Phlippie Diglot Newbie Canada Joined 3892 days ago 1 posts - 2 votes Speaks: English, Afrikaans* Studies: Spanish | Message 1 of 5 06 February 2014 at 3:20am | IP Logged |
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Hello, linguists/language enthusiasts (the latter likely more appropriate).
I am new to this forum, so please bare with me. I just want to be precise, so sorry for my lack of brevity (scroll down if you are too lazy to read everything). I have personally never learned a foreign language independently before and want to give it a shot. I did not know where to post this, and sorry if this has been asked one thousand times over. Some background: I am an Afrikaner, and my first language during my early childhood was Afrikaans (which is very close to Dutch). However, I was enrolled into an English school while I was living in the United Arab Emirates (my father is a pilot, so I have experienced a lot of geographical instability), and quickly English became my primary language. Now, English acts as my first language, I can speak Afrikaans to an extent (I can understand it perfectly, but I am very much out of practice, as I now live in Canada and do not have a lot of exposure to it, nor do I study it), and I have "learned" French in school for three years (it really does not count, though: the class was a joke and frankly the language never particularly interested me, but at least I am familiar with the bare basics of French). I despise the system the school uses to "teach" languages. French might have been more interesting to me if it had not been force-fed to me on a plate made of dung. Anyway, to the point: I have been interested in Spanish for a good period of time (perhaps four years), but never really felt the motivation to start learning. Then, I realised a friend of mine has been learning languages independently for a while now, and hey, I am dating a lovely Spanish girl and obviously get regular exposure through her and her friends (although love is not the driving force for me to learn, it was probably the inciting incident). Why not give it a shot, I suppose? Basically, I want to quit thinking about and considering learning Spanish, and just, well, do it! So, basically, I am a high school (soon university) student with minimal exposure to language-learning (outside school itself), but with a drive to learn Spanish (which I have researched on this website; thankfully, it seems to be a reasonable start). Essentially, I have limited funds, and although I have searched this web site for some advice, I find it rather intimidating (which might silly, but it is what it is). Also, although I am a matric and have a lot on my plate, I am willing to devote time to learning a new language. My question, essentially is (and this is where those who don't care about who I am or what I already know should scroll down to): How do I start? I apologise for how open-ended this question is, but I really have no idea. Should I be studying a book cover-to-cover (if so, which)? Should I be researching the Internet endlessly somehow? How does one approach a language, specifically Spanish (Castellano)? I know I need an efficient method, and I need to keep to it consistently, but what is an efficient method? What I am asking, in a nutshell, is "how do I learn Spanish?" I am fluent in English, mostly fluent in Afrikaans (consider it a dialect of Dutch if you do not know what it is), and have some exposure to French. Any specific advice you good people can give a lost me? Also, feel free to ask any more questions about me if so you wish. And, again, sorry for the broad question. Cheers, and thanks in advance Phlippie Edited by Phlippie on 06 February 2014 at 3:24am 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Stelle Bilingual Triglot Senior Member Canada tobefluent.com Joined 4090 days ago 949 posts - 1686 votes  Speaks: French*, English*, Spanish Studies: Tagalog | Message 2 of 5 06 February 2014 at 11:33am | IP Logged |
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I started learning Spanish last May using (mostly) free resources. Now I'm using mainly native materials, but
here's what I used as a complete beginner: Pimsleur - free from the library. It's a purely audio-based course, and it's very useful for pronunciation. It moves slowly, and builds confidence. It's very expensive, so I wouldn't pay for it, but I highly recommend checking at your library. I basically live in the middle of a hayfield - if my library has it, then yours probably does too. I only had the first 16 lessons, but found them very useful. Duolingo (http://www.duolingo.com) - you need to register to use this site, but it's free. It's a gamified language learning site that's surprisingly fun and addictive. It's good for learning basic grammar and sentence structure, but not enough of its own to learn Spanish. Best used as a supplement, not as the cornerstone of your language learning. anki (ankisrs.net) - free spaced repetition flashcard system. I used anki from day one, making cards that went from English to Spanish. Practice Makes Perfect - not free, but inexpensive on Amazon. These are useful workbooks for learning Spanish grammar. I started with Spanish Verb Tenses, which I've found *very* useful (I take long grammar breaks, so I'm still not finished with the book). If I were starting over from scratch, I'd probably get the basic Spanish grammar book, since the verb book requires some basic knowledge of sentence structure. Destinos (http://learner.org/series/destinos/) - 52-episode telecourse. I found this to be an amazing resource. It's cheesy and dated, but it really works!!! Notes in Spanish (http://www.notesinspanish.com) - very well-made podcasts (beginners, intermediate and advanced). I found these extremely useful, and I'm still listening to them now. Children's novels that I've already read in English - I started reading Charlie and the Chocolate Factory a few months into my Spanish journey. Once you have enough Spanish to hold a simple conversation, you can find a language exchange partner and start practicing. It's by far the best way to become conversational in a language! You have to be able to hold up your end of the conversation in an exchange, so if you're a beginner, you have to prepare in advance (vocab, topics, etc). I started working with language partners in June, after just a few weeks of learning. My conversations were *very* simple at first, but I worked hard so that I would be prepared - and not bore my partners to death. If you have any money at all to invest in learning Spanish, I highly recommend getting a tutor on a site like italki.com, especially as an absolute beginner. My Spanish tutors cost about 10 dollars an hour, and have helped enormously with my progress. If you need tutor recommendations, let me know - I've studied with some very good teachers. Hope this helps! Good luck learning Spanish! S Edited by Stelle on 06 February 2014 at 11:35am 4 persons have voted this message useful | |
| iguanamon Pentaglot Senior Member Virgin Islands Speaks: Ladino Joined 5208 days ago 2241 posts - 6731 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Portuguese, Haitian Creole, Creole (French) | Message 3 of 5 06 February 2014 at 1:23pm | IP Logged |
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First, welcome to the forum, Phlippie! Stelle's advice is excellent. What I would add to it is the materials don't necessarily matter as much as the process. There is a staggering amount of materials available, both paid and free, to learn Spanish. Paid materials aren't necessarily better than free ones. Throwing money, which you won't have anyway as a perpetually broke student, is not the answer. What will work is being consistent and persistent in your learning. Never give up.
Choosing materials for a widely spoken language like Spanish can be daunting. My advice to you as a beginner would be to try to pick two complimentary courses and follow the multi-track approach to language-learning. The FSI (US Foreign Service Institute) Spanish Basic Course is available for free download. Destinos is a great complement to the course and is also free. Centro Virtual Cervantes Aveteca has good multimedia exercises available for free, graded from A1 (beginner) to C1 (advanced). Paid materials can often be had from your public or university library. Don't despair if your local library doesn't have the resource(s) you need. Ask for an "inter-library loan" from the librarian. It helps to provide the librarian with the ISBN (International Standard Book Number), which can be found through a simple google search. Solid paid materials include Assimil New Spanish With Ease (Assimil can be had for around $30-$35 from Amazon or ebay. Assimil has it's faults- some find the grammar isn't sufficiently explained. The audio is unnaturally slow and clear- even in the latter lessons it doesn't equate to native speech. Still, it is very cost effective and gives a lot of bang for the buck). Pimsleur Spanish is an audio only course which serves as a good compliment to any other non-audio only course. (Again- ask your librarian. Don't buy the course and don't depend on Pimsleur alone to teach you the language. It won't. Despite it's many faults, it is a good complement to a more comprehensive course.) Another paid alternative to Pimsleur is "Learning Spanish Like Crazy". Michel Thomas paid courses are also audio and use a "student-teacher" "simulated class" artifice to teach basics of grammar. Some love it and some hate it- just like the other courses, systems and methods I've given. For me I find the MT course' design to be very annoying. I can't stand the "students" or Michel Thomas himself, but the course has helped a lot of people. Many people hate Pimsleur as well. Despite the love for Assimil here on the forum, it's not for everyone either. Starting to get the picture? All of these programs have knocks against them. A lot of the hatred of particular courses comes about because people are depending on that particular course alone to teach them the language, buying into the hype. NO COURSE ALONE WILL TEACH YOU A LANGUAGE- DON'T BELIEVE THE ADVERTISING HYPE! My personal advice (others may differ) is to choose two complimentary courses and go through them simultaneously, i.e.: one in the morning and one at lunch, or in the evening. In that way the gaps of any one course are usually covered by another and there's the opportunity for synergy to take place. There will be good days, bad days and going half mad days in your language-learning. Be persistent and try to be consistent. The bad days won't last. The going half mad days will be fewer and fewer as you climb the hill. You have to build a critical mass of the language and it takes time. My own personal philosophy is to engage the language on all fronts as early as possible. Listening from the beginning is very important. Don't be afraid of speaking and writing as early as possible, being imperfect and making mistakes. Perfectionism is your enemy in language learning. Making mistakes and being corrected helps us to be better. Language learning on one's own, by definition, is a highly individual process. What works for one may not work for another. Don't be afraid to chuck everything and try something new if you feel a resource isn't helping. ¡Buena suerte con tus estudios! Edited by iguanamon on 08 February 2014 at 6:03pm 5 persons have voted this message useful | |
| James29 Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5321 days ago 1265 posts - 2113 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French | Message 4 of 5 06 February 2014 at 1:58pm | IP Logged |
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Do this:
Pimsleur 1 and 2 (you can get them from your library) Michel Thomas Foundations course twice (you can get this from your library) Assimil Spanish with Ease (book costs $20 and you can get the audio from your library) Michel Thomas Advanced course twice (you can get this from your library Assimil Spanish with Ease Active wave again FSI (free online - do each lesson three times) If you do the above on 30 minutes a day until you reach FSI and then do 60 minutes a day on FSI you will have a very solid base in Spanish in only about 1.5 years. You will be able to speak properly and understand quite well. Then you can jump into native materials and really enjoy the language. 4 persons have voted this message useful | |
| tomgosse Groupie United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 3938 days ago 90 posts - 143 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French | Message 5 of 5 06 February 2014 at 3:29pm | IP Logged |
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Welcome to the group Philippe. All of the advice given above is excellent. Here are a few things that have helped me.
First, a small bite of varied things everyday help me more than trying to cram a lot of one thing into my head. I listen, memorize, and read using various programs. My favorites are Pimsleur, Duolingo and Memrise, and simple Spanish books for beginners. I find the read-listen method very helpful. And even though I haven't started this yet, find a person to practice with. Since your girlfriend is Spanish she may be a logical choice. But, and this is important, just because you love someone and they love you doesn't mean they, or you, are patient enough to be in a teacher-student relationship. If not, ask her friends if one of them would be willing to sit down with you in a one-on-one meeting to practice speaking and listening. One-on-one is important. The Foreign Service Institute says that following multiple conversations in a group is one of the hardest things to do. It is for me, even in my native language. Dive into the culture. Read about Spanish countries. Learn the history of Spain and Latin America. Become the "history of Spanish culture" expert among your friends, even if you can only discuss it in English. A few years ago I wanted to study Irish and took a course in it. I found that the majority of my fellow students had no interest in learning about modern Ireland. They couldn't tell the name or title of the head of the Irish government. I could never figure out why they were there. Last of all, have fun! Enjoy the journey and celebrate the little victories when something becomes clear and you understand it for the first time. Don't worry about setbacks. We all have them. All the best, Tomás P.S. My two favorite YouTube teachers are Señor Jordan and Spanish Is Your Amigo. Check them out. Edited by tomgosse on 06 February 2014 at 3:39pm 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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