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13 year old learning Spanish by himself? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Advice Center |  | |
| EnglishEagle Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4574 days ago 140 posts - 157 votes  Studies: English*, German | Message 1 of 22 17 October 2014 at 11:55pm | IP Logged | ||
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My brother had said to me he interested in learning Spanish by himself and asked me where to begin. He has just
turned 13 years old and can only concentrate for 30 mins at a time before he gets restless and bored. Is it wise to suggest that he uses Assimil or is there any alternative method. What could you suggest for a younger child that get's bored quickly? I have purchased Spanish with Ease book already but having not used it I can't tell how good it would be for a younger learner. Not sure if this topic should be in general discussion, so sorry it's in the wrong category. Edited by EnglishEagle on 18 October 2014 at 12:38pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Lemberg1963 Bilingual Diglot Groupie United States zamishka.blogspot.coRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4238 days ago 41 posts - 82 votes Speaks: English*, Ukrainian* Studies: French, German, Spanish, Polish | Message 2 of 22 18 October 2014 at 12:29am | IP Logged | ||
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What does he do in his free time? Have him do that in Spanish.
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 jeff_lindqvist Diglot Moderator SwedenRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6908 days ago 4250 posts - 5711 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English Studies: German, Spanish, Russian, Dutch, Mandarin, Esperanto, Irish, French Personal Language Map | Message 3 of 22 18 October 2014 at 12:36am | IP Logged | ||
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Show him Duolingo and Memrise. Both are free, and don't require a lot of time. ~15 minutes should be enough to review old material and learn something new.
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| EnglishEagle Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4574 days ago 140 posts - 157 votes Studies: English*, German | Message 4 of 22 18 October 2014 at 12:51am | IP Logged | ||
Interesting, he likes to watch YouTube videos and play sports after school. He said he would be interested in Assimil, but some of the Spanish lessons look really long. It seems like the the Assimil Spanish book from 1987 is a really in depth course. Edited by EnglishEagle on 18 October 2014 at 12:52am 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Xenops Senior Member United States thexenops.deviantart Joined 3824 days ago 112 posts - 158 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Japanese | Message 5 of 22 18 October 2014 at 4:01am | IP Logged | ||
My question is: why? I don't learn languages alone because that is my preference, I do so because I have no native speakers in my area (nor high speed Internet at home). But as someone recommended, try something that's free if he's bound to loose interest. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Michel1020 Tetraglot Senior Member Belgium Joined 5016 days ago 365 posts - 559 votes Speaks: French*, English, Spanish, Dutch | Message 6 of 22 18 October 2014 at 9:17am | IP Logged | ||
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He could begin by getting rid of all your negativity.
At 13 you are not a young child any more and you are able to put more than 30 minutes a day to reach your goal. By the way 30 minutes a day are more than enough - I would be more worry about him stopping after a week, a month or anywhen along the road. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| cpnlsn88 Triglot Groupie United Kingdom Joined 5036 days ago 63 posts - 112 votes Speaks: English*, German, French Studies: Spanish, Esperanto, Latin | Message 7 of 22 18 October 2014 at 11:36am | IP Logged | ||
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I agree on learning that is less than 30 minutes a day if boredom is an issue. Most of
us have a cut off point between 30 minutes and an hour unless the task is absolutely engrossing (here I must confess there is a slightly addictive aspect to memrise where you can totally get hooked into it, so you never know!). I think having a relaxed attitude to it, not running before you can walk and expecting too much of yourself. I kind of guess that at 13 he will learn via apps and the Internet in small bursts and it may well be that that is the best way to start out. Most people who start out learning a language give up (sad fact). So might your brother. He shouldn't be discouraged if that happens as nothing he has learned will be forgotten so he can pick it up just as easily if he wishes to. But if he has some good learning materials (in which I include apps) chances are he may well make some good progress. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Solfrid Cristin Heptaglot Winner TAC 2011 & 2012 Senior Member Norway Joined 5333 days ago 4143 posts - 8864 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, Spanish, Swedish, French, English, German, Italian Studies: Russian | Message 8 of 22 18 October 2014 at 11:40am | IP Logged | ||
Funny how we interpret things differently. Where you see negativity, I see concern, a genuine interest to help and a realistic assessment of a particular student's challenges which would better enable the rest of us to give good advice. At 13 I would recommend music videos or any topic that interests him in YouTube, computer games and Pimsleur together with Assimil. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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