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Learning Spanish | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Programs, Books & Tapes |  | |
| marklewis1234 Newbie United States Joined 5110 days ago 32 posts - 39 votes Speaks: English* | Message 1 of 5 08 May 2010 at 7:41pm | IP Logged |
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Hello,
I have been studying Spanish for about 6 weeks from the Teach Yourself Spanish Starter Kit (which is quite basic), I have completed this and am planning on purchasing a new home study course. Could anyone suggest any courses which may be useful? I am considering Michel Thomas 8 cd course however I am unsure as I understand this is a completely audio course with no written component (whereas I think it would be more suitable to learn to read,write,speak and listen simultaneously). I also hear that, as he is not a native speaker, the pronunciation/accent is not great. Any help would be much appreciated. Thanks in advance 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| idiomasaur Diglot Groupie United Kingdom youtube.com/user/idi Joined 5297 days ago 45 posts - 50 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: Spanish, Mandarin | Message 2 of 5 09 May 2010 at 8:54am | IP Logged |
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Hello there.
I wouldn't recommend Michel Thomas, his accent is terrible, and the two students on the recordings are annoying. I would definitely recommend 'Assimil Spanish with ease'. Its the best course I've come across for any language. Its expensive, but its really worth the price. Some people just buy the book off of amazon and download the audio online, because its a lot cheaper, but its not very legal. :D I would also recommend Teach Yourself Spanish complete course, its really good also. Good luck! 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Cainntear Pentaglot Senior Member Scotland linguafrankly.blogsp Joined 5807 days ago 4399 posts - 7687 votes  Speaks: Lowland Scots, English*, French, Spanish, Scottish Gaelic Studies: Catalan, Italian, German, Irish, Welsh | Message 3 of 5 09 May 2010 at 2:17pm | IP Logged |
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On the other hand, I would wholeheartedly recommend Thomas. His accent may be terrible, but he teaches something more important than accent, and that's the structure of the sound system. He exaggerates certain sounds to force the student to notice them and learn them. Many courses that use native speakers let you get away with mispronouncing things in a way that sound good at the beginner level, but store up problems for later on.
I compare it to drawing a face. You don't start by drawing a complete eye, then a nose, a mouth, then ears -- that normally leads to drawing things that are out of proportion with each other. No, you start by sketching out a series of lines that describe the basic shape of the head and placement of various features. If you know how to lay out the underlying patterns, it doesn't matter if the detail is all wrong -- the picture still looks like a face. Cartoons don't have correct detail, but often try for correct proportion -- even the Simpsons are proportionally correct for the most part. But once you have learned to lay out the proportions, you can slowly refine your ability to add detail. It's the same with learning sound-systems. If you learn the underlying structure first, you can refine your accent as you go. If you start with accent, you'll do what sounds right to you at the time, but you will get a distorted image of the underlying patterns because an English speaking ear cannot perceive all the subtleties of the Spanish accent. Also, before I did MT Spanish I was very sceptical of the idea of learning without any written part, but I have been converted. Language is first and foremost a spoken phenomenon, and I now feel it needs to be learned that way to avoid some of the traps many learners fall into that lead them to be able to read and write but not speak or listen. Anyway, you don't need to take anyone else's word for it -- Hodder are confident enough in their product that they offer the first CD as a free download. http://www.michelthomas.co.uk/soundclips.htm Try it out and make your own mind up. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Elexi Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5361 days ago 938 posts - 1839 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French, German, Latin | Message 4 of 5 09 May 2010 at 3:36pm | IP Logged |
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I would concur - If you like the free 1st cd do the 'Foundation' and the 'Advanced' courses (i.e. 12-20 hours of relatively easy work) and the overview of the grammar and syntax of Spanish that you get will give you something more valuable for your future learning than accent.
I would add that in my experience you get much more out of the Assimil 'With Ease' if you have already done the two MT courses. Check out your local public library - a good deal of them seem to have MT available for loan. Edited by Elexi on 09 May 2010 at 3:37pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Khublei Bilingual Triglot Senior Member Yugoslavia homestayperu.net Joined 5143 days ago 90 posts - 141 votes Speaks: English*, Irish*, Spanish Studies: Russian, Khasi, French, Albanian | Message 5 of 5 09 May 2010 at 8:11pm | IP Logged |
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As you've seen on this thread already, different programs work for different people.
I started with Linguaphone, not the complete course - just a few CDs that came with a newspaper and I loved it. The guy I was living with at the time really like Michel Thomas but it annoyed me. I've now slowly come around to the MT way of thinking. Also, try Pimsleur. I have never listened to the Spanish version but the Russian one was great. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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