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Need some Spanish advice | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Programs, Books & Tapes |  | |
| jhois777 Groupie United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4963 days ago 43 posts - 47 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Portuguese | Message 1 of 9 08 August 2011 at 7:55pm | IP Logged | ||
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I am basically hitting a wall in Spanish. I can only understand part of people's speech
and my vocabulary seems to be lacking. Basically I am looking to buy a book with some good phrases in it and I will start listening to more podcast. I will be watching more shows too. So, if I were to buy book that teaches some more advanced Spanish phrases which one would you recommend? 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| iguanamon Pentaglot Senior Member Virgin Islands Speaks: Ladino Joined 5262 days ago 2241 posts - 6731 votes  Speaks: English*, Spanish, Portuguese, Haitian Creole, Creole (French) | Message 2 of 9 08 August 2011 at 8:18pm | IP Logged | ||
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The "Street Spanish" series by David Burke is a good guide to informal speech.
"Breaking Out of Beginner's Spanish" by Joseph J Keenan is a very useful book. Both are available at Amazon. You should also look into a good "idioms" guide. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| patuco Diglot Moderator Gibraltar Joined 7015 days ago 3795 posts - 4268 votes Speaks: Spanish, English* Personal Language Map | Message 3 of 9 09 August 2011 at 12:07pm | IP Logged | ||
To improve your aural understanding, I was going to suggest listening (radio, podcasts, etc.) and watching TV but you've already thought of that. I've always found that by far the best way to increase vocabulary is lots and lots of reading. This obviously doesn't mean that you should get a copy of Don Quixote and start on it straight away, but there are plenty of other options, e.g. graded readers, bilingual texts, children's books, etc. If on top of that, these books are accompanied by an audio track, even better. Edited by patuco on 09 August 2011 at 12:08pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| jdmoncada Tetraglot Senior Member United States Joined 5034 days ago 470 posts - 741 votes Speaks: English*, German, Spanish, Finnish Studies: Russian, Japanese | Message 4 of 9 09 August 2011 at 6:04pm | IP Logged | ||
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jhois, you could try the reading with audio technique as mentioned above, but don't forget to visit your local library. I write this as a librarian who knows there are often more resources for the patrons than they often realize.
For example, at my library we provide free streeming audiobooks. They were called Tumble Talking Books, but the name has just changed to Audio Book Cloud. With that I listened to some Spanish translated books that I had never heard before, including Gogol's The Nose. It's not original Spanish content, but when you have nothing, anything helps. The nice thing is that with those audios, there is often a print edition available so you could definitely use the LR method to study and increase your vocabulary. I know it's not the phrase book method you were asking for, but it can still help. Good luck in whatever you do. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| TrentBooks Triglot Groupie United States TrentBooks.com Joined 4854 days ago 43 posts - 98 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Guarani Studies: Biblical Hebrew, Japanese | Message 5 of 9 11 August 2011 at 8:53pm | IP Logged | ||
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Just out of curiosity, how is your grammar situation? I'm not sure how far along you are in your studies, but there comes a point very early in your study when vocabulary is no longer the answer. Are you comfortable with all regular verb conjugations for -ar -er and -ir endings? Are you comfortable with the common irregular verbs, such as querer, haber, saber, etc.? Are you familiar with/comfortable with the concept of subjunctives? These are all verb-related topics.
The reason I say this is because I feel that study of the verb in early to intermediate language learning is FAR more important than a study of vocabulary. Verbs are the dynamic part of languages (along with sentence structure), so if you're having trouble understanding conversations that may be the place to look. The vocabulary will come, whether you like it or not (assuming you keep learning), so your time will be better invested in verbs than vocabulary. Vocabulary is sort of like the pieces to a puzzle. If you don't know how they fit together to describe what you want, the pieces alone aren't worth much. And to fit them together in a proper sentence, you need to understand verb conjugations (this is also true for decoding the message you're receiving from the other person). As a side note, you may find it useful to learn inquisitive phrases and descriptive vocabulary to help in mid-conversation to both understand the other person and convey what you are trying to say. Here are some examples of the most useful words and phrases I use regularly (even to this day, when necessary) to ask for help in mid conversation: ?Como se dice...? = How do you say...? ?Que significa...? = What does ... mean? largo = long plano = flat rodondo = round grande = large pequeno = small alto = tall bajo = short flaco = thin gordo = fat quadrado = square etc. Also, learn the common colors and numbers, as well as the question words who (quien), what (que), where (donde), when (cuando), and why (por que)...and for good measure, how (como). Finally, be sure you have mastered the "to be" verbs, ser and estar. They are highly irregular and are ubiquitous in Spanish (as with most languages, I'm sure). I know it's a lot of info, but since I don't know exactly where you are in your studies I'm hoping you can find where you fit in this list and move on from there. Good luck! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| jhois777 Groupie United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4963 days ago 43 posts - 47 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Portuguese | Message 6 of 9 11 August 2011 at 9:53pm | IP Logged | ||
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Thanks for all of the advice guys.
@Trent Great advice. I am comfortable with almost all of the common verbs and the main irregular ones. Those I have seen so many times it has become second nature. I know all the question words too and yes those are very important. The subjunctive is probably where I should be putting more work into. As for the tenses, I can do the present, past,imperfect, present perfect, and future easily. As for the other tenses I understand the concept I just need to see them more. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| TrentBooks Triglot Groupie United States TrentBooks.com Joined 4854 days ago 43 posts - 98 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Guarani Studies: Biblical Hebrew, Japanese | Message 7 of 9 12 August 2011 at 6:12pm | IP Logged | ||
That's great! It sounds like you're well along in your studies. If you feel comfortable with 90% of the things I posted before, then your foundation of the Spanish language is there, you just need to build on that. I don't mean to sound high and mighty or anything, but in my language research at graduate school I found that after establishing that foundation language learners who achieved fluency *always* did the following two things: 1 - Use the media to further language study. Spanish is much easier to find in the media than many other languages, so it shouldn't be too difficult to do. Find a local radio station, watch Telemundo (or some other Spanish TV station/program), watch movies you already know in Spanish, find a good book (as you mentioned in your first post), etc. 2 - Speak with people. This is crucial for obvious reasons. As you try to form thoughts and concepts, the people you speak with will generally help you by providing that phrase for you (once they discover what you're trying to say). You can then find those words and phrases reinforced in the media, which helps memory retention. I hope that information helps. Because you're so far along, I might suggest that you find a book IN Spanish, not necessarily one that TEACHES Spanish. It sounds like perhaps the knowledge you have just needs to come together. Also, if I'm off base on my assessment, feel free to let me know. =) You're on the brink of fluency, don't give up! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Jake Day Newbie United States Joined 5029 days ago 30 posts - 35 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 8 of 9 13 August 2011 at 7:07pm | IP Logged | ||
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A book I could recommend for vocabulary is Barron's Household Spanish by William C. Harvey. It's got a ton of
vocabulary sorted by subject, and a handful of phrases to use. It's grammar is somewhat lacking, though, and it uses sketchy phonetic pronunciations that you can safely ignore. Edited by Jake Day on 16 August 2011 at 7:04pm 1 person has voted this message useful |
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