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50 days to learn Spanish *fast*, but how? | ||
Tags: Study Plan | Spanish | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Questions About Your Target Languages |  | |
| fairyfountain Senior Member Zimbabwe Joined 5939 days ago 254 posts - 248 votes  5 sounds | Message 1 of 27 04 June 2009 at 6:19pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Hello,
I need to pick a new language for college, because I ruled out Chinese, German, Italian and Dutch. I sort of settled for Spanish, especially because they keep on speaking Spanish in Scrubs and I ain't taking it no more :-p Anyway, I need to be fluent (as in reach somewhat more than basic fluency) when I come back to college. I'll be competing with people who have been studying Spanish for, oh... 4 to 10 years? I have a pretty good understanding of Spanish, because I studied Italian, and also because I've been flirting with Spanish for 5 years now. The fact that I'm French does help, too. However, I can't communicate - as in build a even non-grammatical sentence - for my life. I had conversations in Spanish, but always answered in English. I'm really busy right now, but I'll be able to spare around 50 hours during the summer vacation. However, I don't want to waste a minute of these 50 hours. I'm totally open to using English to study Spanish. Now, I can use these 50 hours to watch Charmed in Spanish subtitled in English, or Charmed in English subtitled in Spanish, or both. I can also mindlessly follow a method. I can rely on penpals. I can't do all of the above, though. The method needs to be super effective. I have no time to beat about the bush. My passive understanding is good, I just need to learn how to communicate. I don't care about the accent I'd have, I'll prolly pick North American Spanish but that's irrelevant. I sounded native in 2 months in Italian without torturing myself, and I know I sound quite good in Spanish, so since the exam is a "writing" exam, I won't voice chat with people or anything. If people understand me, it's okay. EDIT: At least one of my exams will be an oral exam, so I gotta pick up a good pronunciation too. Duuuh. Okay, goal: fluency when it comes to writing Any advice? :-) Edited by fairyfountain on 04 June 2009 at 8:47pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Bao Diglot Senior Member Germany tinyurl.com/pe4kqe5 Joined 5577 days ago 2256 posts - 4046 votes Speaks: German*, English Studies: French, Spanish, Japanese, Mandarin | Message 2 of 27 04 June 2009 at 8:21pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Michael Thomas. (No, I'm not obsessed by Cainntear's spirit)
1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| TheBiscuit Tetraglot Senior Member Mexico Joined 5734 days ago 532 posts - 619 votes Speaks: English*, French, Spanish, Italian Studies: German, Croatian | Message 3 of 27 04 June 2009 at 8:30pm | IP Logged | |||||
Yes, go with Michel. Read a bit, listen a lot. Speak. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| fairyfountain Senior Member Zimbabwe Joined 5939 days ago 254 posts - 248 votes 5 sounds | Message 4 of 27 04 June 2009 at 8:51pm | IP Logged | |||||
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[quote]
I'm downloading the Spanish courses right now, but Michael Thomas tends to make me cringe (there's something about his voice or his teaching method, I swear I can't put my finger on it). Would Spanishpod be a good alternative? 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Cainntear Pentaglot Senior Member Scotland linguafrankly.blogsp Joined 5822 days ago 4399 posts - 7687 votes Speaks: Lowland Scots, English*, French, Spanish, Scottish Gaelic Studies: Catalan, Italian, German, Irish, Welsh | Message 5 of 27 04 June 2009 at 8:58pm | IP Logged | |||||
Probably him. He does sometimes come over as a bit of a grumpy old sod. You could try out Harrap's Michel Thomas Espagnol Débutant. It's not Thomas on the CDs, it's a French actor. It may be a bit drier and more artificial, but they claim it's an exact imitation of a course he had in his archives when he died.
No. Spanishpod is not a course. It may be useful for extra practise once you've started learning, but you need to start somewhere. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| fairyfountain Senior Member Zimbabwe Joined 5939 days ago 254 posts - 248 votes 5 sounds | Message 6 of 27 04 June 2009 at 9:14pm | IP Logged | |||||
You do have a point. Even if my passive understanding of Spanish (both spoken and written) is quite decent, I can't make a sentence for my life, so yeah. I may suck it up and start off with Michel Thomas' courses, at least for a bit. It's not like 1 hour could kill me. If it doesn't work at all, I'll try switching to Spanish pod or using one of my old books in French. That said, I'd like to avoid French as much as possible in the process. Losing precious English time is hard enough for me, but I'm willing to do it for Spanish. However, French is a no-no. Oh and the FSI courses in Spanish are boring as hell. I tried them a couple of months ago, and I still can't believe how sucky the lessons are. Maybe it's just me again, or the beginner courses are bad or something. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Bao Diglot Senior Member Germany tinyurl.com/pe4kqe5 Joined 5577 days ago 2256 posts - 4046 votes Speaks: German*, English Studies: French, Spanish, Japanese, Mandarin | Message 7 of 27 04 June 2009 at 9:27pm | IP Logged | |||||
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*possessed. Gosh, some day I'll learn English. (Probably not.)
During the first hour Spanish foundation Michael Thomas's accent unnerved me a lot, but I got used to the accent/him/his teaching methods/the two students. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| fairyfountain Senior Member Zimbabwe Joined 5939 days ago 254 posts - 248 votes 5 sounds | Message 8 of 27 04 June 2009 at 9:32pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I'm listening to part of the Spanish foundation course, and it's just crazy. I mean, he sounds worse than me in English, and he doesn't seem to sound too good in Spanish either.
Bad input is bad input. I don't think I can get anything good from bad audio input. I'm going to download all the Spanishpod episodes, and see how it goes. I happen to love the girl's American accent (she is Mexican and sounds real good in English, so I don't cringe). Moreover, I guess I can pick up the grammar and conjugation along the way. That said, I'll have to find something else to help me. Any suggestion, apart from Michel Thomas? 1 person has voted this message useful |
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