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Preparing for an intense month of Spanish | ||
Tags: Spanish | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| lackinglatin Triglot Groupie United States randomwritingsetc.blRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5982 days ago 62 posts - 146 votes  Speaks: English*, Esperanto, Modern Hebrew Studies: Spanish | Message 1 of 17 06 June 2010 at 2:39pm | IP Logged | ||
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Don't walk away immediately! I swear I'm not crazy! :)
I intend to learn Spanish to a decent level in, more or less, one month. I'm living in Israel currently, and will also be working a lot on my Hebrew, but that will just consist of getting a psychology book or something and just reading a fair bit of it with a dictionary and watching some TV in the language. I just got to the point where I feel comfortable saying I "speak" the language (by which I mean that after a 30 minute conversation about my love life in the language, my friend sat in complete shock that I had learned her language in 10 months and that we weren't just talking about classroom situations). But with Spanish, it's crucial and very different to learn it in one month. There are a couple reasons I'm not crazy: I grew up with Puerto Ricans in my house for 7 years; even though I didn't hear it on a daily basis, or attempt to learn or anything of the sort, I received a couple positive benefits. I think they could be summed up as the innate Spanish ability of a 1 year old native, perhaps a bit younger. By this I mean: I have a perfect accent. I can understand surprising amounts of the spoken language, but not know how. I can understand a *very* surprising amount of the written material. I can pick up new vocabulary in this language very quickly, because I've heard these words thousand of times--just need the definition. My production of the language is worse, because I never did that. But it's not terrible. I just never learned how verbs worked before, for instance, or what sentence structure was; when I learn it, though, it seems fairly easy to use, and my intuition frequently supplies the correct answer when I have no logical idea what to do. At the same time, I do make lots of mistakes when I try to speak. But I've never really learned! So that will improve, I hope. Here's the thing: I'm going to be visiting the family of the girl I'm romantically inclined with in France in August. My tests for university don't finish until July 2. After that, I have a month of no real responsibility here. And I want to be more than just some gringo to her family. They're Chilean, though, and speak very little English (or none, depending on the family member). I've been studying the accent online. I'll probably just add a vocabulary deck list with slang terms (Chilean Spanish is infamous for tons of unique slang) to practice during the month. I'll also probably find a Chilean TV show to watch, just to acclimate my ear to the speed (Chilean Spanish is infamous for being very fast, and for dropping final consonant "s", which creates occasional ambiguity for plurals, among other things that require adjustment) and the peculiarities. I also can practice with her, and I get to overhear her speak a fair amount over the past couple of months, which helps. So how can I make the most of July? What would an intense course look like? Should I just power through FSI at a ridiculous rate--maybe 2 lessons a day--and push something like 30 new words a day? (More?) (How many words do I need?) I was thinking reading with a dictionary might be good too. With FSI, I'm worried about learning the formal speech too much. I did the first 7 lessons or so, no problem, but I need to learn informal communication, and everything was usted still... does anyone know if that changes? Any recommendation is greatly appreciated! Will be glad to do a language log of this. PS: I have a strong preference towards material that teaches intuitively, and intend to focus, for obvious reasons, on the spoken language, and on ability to comprehend. Speaking is of second importance, and I can work on with my female friend here... I just want to make sure I understand the jokes they're making about me. Production should flow naturally based on what I understand. PPS: I think this is a good place to put this, as Advice center seems more geared for specific questions to smaller elements of a language, not this broad overall idea. Upon second look, "Learning Methods" might theoretically fit this thread better, but it doesn't seem like a very popular area of the forum, so I don't prefer that anyways... move as appropriate. Edited by lackinglatin on 06 June 2010 at 2:57pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| hypersport Senior Member United States Joined 5883 days ago 216 posts - 307 votes Studies: Spanish | Message 2 of 17 06 June 2010 at 6:10pm | IP Logged | ||
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Learning Spanish Like Crazy is very good and focuses on spoken Spanish. The focus is much more with tu instead of ud. The course is all audio, you can take it with you everywhere.
FSI is a very good, both Basic and Programmatic. In my opinion these are two of the very best courses you can do to learn Spanish (LSLC and FSI). Spanishpod has very good content. Podcasts can be a great supplement to your studies. Start reading books in Spanish and read out loud. Start with childrens books and work your way up to novels. This will help solidify the grammar and increase your vocabulary at the same time. Intensity is key. If you're going to be spending time maintaining another language, the Spanish will slow down. Every place on this earth has their own slangs, phrases, idioms, etc. A guy from Oregon could ask for directions in a neighborhood in Baltimore and need a translator depending on what area he is in. Some street slang is pretty amazing. The point is don't get ahead of yourself. If you can get to a decent level of spoken Spanish after a year that's great. If you have the chance to be immersed with your family from the beginning and listen to their slangs and ways of speaking, that stuff will rub off on you super fast. But don't expect to find those slangs in a book and to be able to pick them up right away during conversations. That stuff takes lots of time with native speakers. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| lackinglatin Triglot Groupie United States randomwritingsetc.blRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5982 days ago 62 posts - 146 votes Speaks: English*, Esperanto, Modern Hebrew Studies: Spanish | Message 3 of 17 07 June 2010 at 12:16pm | IP Logged | ||
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The guy who runs this forum has a story about having learned Spanish in 6 months. That was with no background, and while maintaining normal life responsibilities.
I want to try and do it at least 3 times faster--and if possible, 6 times. Really, sincerely, 1 month. Hadn't heard about LSLC before--is the money back guarantee legit? Can I see some of the transcripts? It seems good from my brief glance over stuff, but the website that sells it seems super cheesy. The box art looks home-printed, too. :\ Can't judge a book by its cover, I guess. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Volte Tetraglot Senior Member Switzerland Joined 6441 days ago 4474 posts - 6726 votes Speaks: English*, Esperanto, German, Italian Studies: French, Finnish, Mandarin, Japanese | Message 4 of 17 07 June 2010 at 12:53pm | IP Logged | ||
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"No background" included being native in French, a Romance language. Furthermore, he had more limited goals with regards to slang, which is quite hard to pick up compared to basic conversational ability.
A second Romance language is significantly easier than a first. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| hypersport Senior Member United States Joined 5883 days ago 216 posts - 307 votes Studies: Spanish | Message 5 of 17 07 June 2010 at 2:10pm | IP Logged | ||
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The marketing and sales pitch of LSLC gets old fast, but the product really is as good as promised. Level 1 has 30 lessons. Level 2 has 30 more plus 12 bonus lessons. All lessons are 30 to 40 minutes and the content is very good. I did Level 1 over 30 times and Level 2 more than 20. The first 12 lessons are really easy, after that it really takes off and challenges you.
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| lackinglatin Triglot Groupie United States randomwritingsetc.blRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5982 days ago 62 posts - 146 votes Speaks: English*, Esperanto, Modern Hebrew Studies: Spanish | Message 6 of 17 08 June 2010 at 11:16am | IP Logged | ||
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Granted, but I have educated English (which at the higher levels becomes French repackaged) and Esperanto, plus having heard copious amounts Spanish growing up in Texas and with the aforementioned family. I think my background is more or less balanced with his, probably better. But you're right, I shouldn't discount the benefit of his native French so easily.
I don't think slang is so difficult, if you can just find it set down somewhere for you--and lists of Chilean slang are not hard to come by. I am sure they won't be exhaustive, and that's fine. I'll work on it. It'd be nice to know a fair amount, though. I don't think my goals for slang are unreasonable. Thank you for the reassurance hypersport. I'll more seriously look into it now. I thought I'd surely get more responses on this: If you had one month to master Spanish, what would your regimen look like? Imagine you have a prize of $100,000 at the end if you succeed in speaking naturally and easily, whatever you like. Just, if you have one month, how could you use it more effectively? 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Volte Tetraglot Senior Member Switzerland Joined 6441 days ago 4474 posts - 6726 votes Speaks: English*, Esperanto, German, Italian Studies: French, Finnish, Mandarin, Japanese | Message 7 of 17 08 June 2010 at 1:58pm | IP Logged | ||
Educated English helps with vocabulary (though not as much as educated French...), but not grammar. Esperanto helps, but a rather limited amount - it's much easier to learn Esperanto knowing a Romance language than the other way around. I'm not saying you can't do it, but you are going in with a background that makes it harder. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Cainntear Pentaglot Senior Member Scotland linguafrankly.blogsp Joined 6013 days ago 4399 posts - 7687 votes Speaks: Lowland Scots, English*, French, Spanish, Scottish Gaelic Studies: Catalan, Italian, German, Irish, Welsh | Message 8 of 17 08 June 2010 at 2:19pm | IP Logged | ||
I don't think I'd have a hope of winning that prize, but if I was to have a chance, I'd have to start with Michel Thomas Foundation and Advanced, and blitz through them in about 3-5 days. I'd then start hammering in vocabulary through SRS. I'd also rattle through the courses at Busuu and Livemocha -- not because they're much good, but they're pretty lightweight and give you a chance to ease off from the more intense stuff -- a sort of holiday for a couple of days, but without actually taking time off. That's the first week to ten days... not sure exactly what I'd do next. One month won't make you a Spanish speaker, so be proud of whatever you do achieve -- don´t be ashamed of what you didn't. 3 persons have voted this message useful |
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