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Advice for not-so-beginner Spanish? | ||
Tags: Intermediate | Spanish | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Advice Center |  | |
| Heather McNamar Senior Member United States Joined 4593 days ago 77 posts - 109 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese, Latin | Message 1 of 11 24 April 2012 at 2:20am | IP Logged | ||
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Okay, here's the story. I've decided to brush up on my Spanish. It's rather important for me because
there are so many Spanish-speaking people here, it's the gateway to an amazing culture, and it's just so pretty. The thing is, as I'm working with it, I'm finding I actually remember more than I thought I did. In fact, I would almost be tempted to say I'm around a low (VERY low) intermediate level. This being the case, I'm finding it hard to start from scratch. I would really like to find a method that's a little more challenging than just an ordinary beginner's course. Any suggestions? Edited by Heather McNamar on 24 April 2012 at 2:21am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Quinn Senior Member United States Joined 6134 days ago 134 posts - 186 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French, Italian, Spanish | Message 2 of 11 24 April 2012 at 3:06am | IP Logged | ||
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Assimil "Spanish With Ease" is a great course. It's fun and challenging enough that I think it will keep your interest. I highly recommend it.
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| iguanamon Pentaglot Senior Member Virgin Islands Speaks: Ladino Joined 5073 days ago 2237 posts - 6731 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Portuguese, Haitian Creole, Creole (French) | Message 3 of 11 24 April 2012 at 4:01am | IP Logged | ||
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I would recommend that you start using native materials. The Centro Virtual Cervantes has a graded reader section that goes from beginner to intermediate to advanced Lecturas paso a paso. This should help with reading and vocabulary. Their Actividades del Aveteca is a comprehensive, monolingual, Spanish activity workout graded from A1, A2, B1, B2 and C1. Veinte Mundos is a listening/reading magazine with an intermediate level. Lenguajero.com is a site where you can go to meet Spanish-speakers online, practice writing and speaking and be corrected by native speakers. Also start watching Spanish language films, television and listen to Spanish language radio. A good book to have as a guide is "Breaking Out of Beginner's Spanish" by Joseph Keenan.
LibriVox.org has free, public domain, audiobooks with text available for listening and reading. The books are read by human volunteers. Myself, I would just start listening to native materials, reading native materials and speaking with natives as soon as possible. Use "studying" only as a supplement instead of the main learning process. In your case, I'd skip the Assimil and courses in general. All the previous links I've cited are free. I also recommend a paid tutor. PLQE.org Guatemala skype tutor for $10 an hour. One or, better, two, classes a week would help a lot. PLQE is non-profit, community based, fair trade organization designed to aid the local Quetzaltenango community. Good luck, Heather! Edited by iguanamon on 24 April 2012 at 4:34am 4 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6408 days ago 9753 posts - 15779 votes 4 sounds Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish | Message 4 of 11 24 April 2012 at 4:45am | IP Logged | ||
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Try LR.
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| James29 Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5186 days ago 1265 posts - 2113 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French | Message 5 of 11 25 April 2012 at 1:50am | IP Logged | ||
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I second the suggestion of Assimil's Spanish With Ease. I think it would be perfect for your situation.
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Heather McNamar Senior Member United States Joined 4593 days ago 77 posts - 109 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese, Latin | Message 6 of 11 25 April 2012 at 2:00am | IP Logged | ||
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I actually do have Assimil's Spanish with Ease course. I just haven't really worked with it much. Maybe
now I'll start getting into it. I'll also look into the resources iguanamon suggested, though I don't really have a monthly budget that would allow for a paid tutor. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| iguanamon Pentaglot Senior Member Virgin Islands Speaks: Ladino Joined 5073 days ago 2237 posts - 6731 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Portuguese, Haitian Creole, Creole (French) | Message 7 of 11 25 April 2012 at 2:39am | IP Logged | ||
Yeah, I know, times are tough all over. I always hesitate to suggest paid resources for that reason. In that case, definitely get involved with the free lenguajero.com. Start correcting Spanish-speakers' English. Provide useful explanations of your corrections in parentheses, instead of just slashing out incorrect words and constructions. People will beat a path to your door and you will have plenty of opportunities to do a free skype language exchange with a native speaker. Good luck with your Spanish, Heather. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| benzionisrael Triglot Groupie Spain Joined 4476 days ago 79 posts - 142 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese, SpanishB2 | Message 8 of 11 25 April 2012 at 9:48pm | IP Logged | ||
Don´t waste money with a tutor amiga. If you have money invest in a good written course or textbook (with audio) and some decent graded readers or bilingual books. If you still haven´t learned all the grammar I recommend that you buy and use a Linguaphone Spanish course (from the starter-course series). They are available for both European Spanish and Latinamerican Spanish. http://www.amazon.com/Linguaphone-Spanish-Course-Three-slipc ase/dp/B000J2SKEM/ref=sr_1_60?ie=UTF8&qid=1335383088&sr=8-60 Make sure you get a starter-course (substantial and comprehensive course) and not any of the newer boloni. If vocabulary is what you need to improve, then just read through some graded readers or bilingual story books absorbing any new vocabulary as you go along. Also be sure to watch a lot of Spanish TV so that you pick up a lot of vocabulary and improve your auditary skills. 3 persons have voted this message useful |
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