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How to start Spanish? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Advice Center |  | |
| LanguageWizard Newbie United States Joined 4048 days ago 3 posts - 4 votes Speaks: English* | Message 1 of 12 29 April 2013 at 6:15am | IP Logged | ||
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I need to be able to converse in Spanish on a fluent level in 1 year time. What should I
do? I have had experience with Spanish at a basic level in High School (Only 1 year) so I understand some of the grammar. My friend has given me his Assimil Spanish with Ease and Thomas Michel courses because he is done with it and I told him about wanting to learn Spanish. Is this enough? I did some of the Thomas Michel already and have a good grasp on the grammar so far. It was actually quite easy, and I am able to create sentences to express some of the things I am thinking in Spanish. Gracias! 1 person has 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 2 of 12 29 April 2013 at 3:17pm | IP Logged | ||
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That's enough if we consider the courses you need, but it's not enough to go beyond the low intermediate level.
You also need a lot of native materials, or at least semi-native ones: http://lyricstraining.com/ http://gloss.dliflc.edu/Default.aspx GLOSS http://learner.org/resources/series75.html Destinos start reading something when you are ready, or in 3-4 months even if you still don't feel ready by then. watch movies or telenovelas (those for native speakers). find someone to practise with. write on http://lang-8.com . Edited by Serpent on 29 April 2013 at 3:19pm 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
 emk Diglot Moderator United States Joined 5343 days ago 2615 posts - 8806 votes Speaks: English*, FrenchB2 Studies: Spanish, Ancient Egyptian Personal Language Map | Message 3 of 12 29 April 2013 at 5:33pm | IP Logged | ||
First, what does "converse on a fluent level" mean to you? 1. Talk about familiar, concrete topics in Spanish and/or travel through a Spanish-speaking region without using much English? 2. Function as an independent adult in a Spanish-speaking region, handling all your day-to-day needs in Spanish? (Including, say, arguing with tech support when your internet connection is broken, socializing with groups of friends, dealing with bureaucracy, and dozens of things like that.) 3. Be able to give convincing presentations, negotiate business deals, or take difficult college-level classes, without expecting the native speakers to cut you a lot of slack? Once you know what level of fluency you need, folks around here will be able to give you more detailed advice. But roughly speaking, if you choose (1), be prepared to spend a good, solid hour per day on Spanish for the next year. Assimil and Michel Thomas sound like excellent choices, and you might want to add some fun native media to that mix as soon as possible. If, on the other hand, you really want to aim for (3) in a year, then you're looking at some pretty drastic lifestyle changes, involving either intensive, full-time classes or obsessively dedicating your life to Spanish. 6 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| LanguageWizard Newbie United States Joined 4048 days ago 3 posts - 4 votes Speaks: English* | Message 4 of 12 29 April 2013 at 5:41pm | IP Logged | ||
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Thank you for both responding.
Thank you for the materials, Serpent! Well, in the future, I wish to have employment at a hospital. Due to a large part of the population speaking Spanish, people who speak Spanish well are given priority employment. That is why I want to learn Spanish (but I also want to learn because I love the culture and language!). My definition of fluent might fall between 2-3. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| emk Diglot Moderator United States Joined 5343 days ago 2615 posts - 8806 votes Speaks: English*, FrenchB2 Studies: Spanish, Ancient Egyptian Personal Language Map | Message 5 of 12 29 April 2013 at 8:53pm | IP Logged | ||
Sounds like a fun project! Are you familiar with the CEFRL scale? This is a European standard for measuring language proficiency, and it has six levels, ranging from A1 (beginner) through C2 (good enough to get admitted to law school in some countries). There's also a older, more-detailed checklist from the Council of Europe. It sounds like your definition of "fluent" falls somewhere between B2 and C1. According to various sources, you can supposedly reach B2 with about 500–600 "guided learning hours," which works out to about 1 hour and 40 minutes per day. Now, these numbers aren't really trustworthy, but they give you a rough sense of the scale. You absolutely can get there within a year, but you'll need to be a little bit obsessed about Spanish! Since you've already got two fine courses, your next mission is to figure out how to feed your Spanish obsession. :-) What kinds of books and TV shows do you like? What are your hobbies? What are your favorite ways of wasting time? And, crucially, how many of these activities could you do in Spanish instead of English? Folks at HTLAL can surely help you find books and TV shows which you'll love. This might all sound a little intimidating now, but your Assimil and Michel Thomas courses will surely fix that. Seriously, just here at HTLAL, both tastyonions and Travis.H were doing all kinds of fun things with native media by the time they reached lesson 70 in Assimil. Generally speaking, people here at HTLAL who use those two courses consistently for about 6 months make really impressive progress. I even talked to tastyonions in French on Skype before he finished Assimil, and he could actually speak. :-) Several months later, he's spending something like an hour a day speaking French. If you make Spanish a regular and consistent part of your life, you'll absolutely see great results in 6 months. 2 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 6 of 12 29 April 2013 at 10:21pm | IP Logged | ||
-have a look at this thread -get a "Spanish for doctors" book -if you follow any sport, read the news in Spanish (like, those that deal with injuries) -read native speakers' conversations about health on forums or yahoo!answers (things like "guys, do you think I have appendicitis?" as well as the more detailed stuff) I do all of these and I'm not even a doctor :) 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| dbag Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4833 days ago 605 posts - 1046 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 7 of 12 30 April 2013 at 12:59am | IP Logged | ||
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If speaking at that level within a year is your goal, I really think that your best option is to obsessively work through the FSI basic course / platiquemos in addition to following all the excellent advice outlined above. By obsessively, I am talking 3 + hours a day. After finishing basic / platiquemos ( if it doesn't break you) you will pretty much definitely speak,but if you want to be a genuine B2+ you are going to need a ton of real life practice on top of lots more vocab and idioms.
I have been going pretty much full pelt for a couple of years or more and I still wouldn't place myself as a B2, even having done Assimil, MT, Pimsleur, AND FSI,(and plenty of others) as well as listened to hundreds of hours of native media, and spent over 3 months in Spanish speaking countries. Don't let that discourage you though, if you can finish the FSI course you will still speak way better than the majority of people that have studied Spanish at college, and will have the perfect base for rapid improvement given the right conditions. You can read two inspiring success stories involving the FSI course here and here. 1 person has 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 8 of 12 30 April 2013 at 1:59am | IP Logged | ||
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I suspect your definition of fluency involves very high standards for grammar...
I've never done an FSI course in my life. as it's free, it might be worth a try, but 3h a day? really? Only if you can put in some additional 3h of native/semi-native materials. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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