Learning Spanish Or Another Foreign Language (Full Version)

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MyCatSmokey2006 -> Learning Spanish Or Another Foreign Language (6/17/2008 9:40:49 PM)

I've decided that I wanted to learn to speak and write Spanish, so I could communicate with more people. Right now, I'm studying from two books, "The Complete Idiot's Guide To Learning Spanish On Your Own" and "Spanish For Dummies". These books say to immerse yourself in the Spanish languaage by reading or listening to Spanish tapes, books, etc. I also have a Spanish-English Bible and joined a Spanish team at sparkpeople.com where I can post in both Spanish and English. I know that they have a Spanish folder here, but Fritz advised me that I needed to know Spanish in order to post in it.

Is anyone else learning a foreign language? If so, how are you doing it? Do you have any tips for anyone wanting to learn a new language?



colliefan -> RE: Learning Spanish Or Another Foreign Language (6/17/2008 9:58:23 PM)

quote:

Do you have any tips for anyone wanting to learn a new language?



Try imersion. If you have access to a Spanish language channel on your cable/satelite system, try watching them for a bit. Although the speak VERY fast, soon you can get things in context.

If their is a Mexican restuarant near you, go there and try and order in Spanish.



Darcyjo -> RE: Learning Spanish Or Another Foreign Language (6/18/2008 6:51:00 AM)

I'm a beginner in espaņol myself. If you have a MP3 player (like an iPod), download podcasts to listen to. I listen to Spanishpod101.com, and the free stuff is more than enough to be a help to you in learning phrases and pronunciation.

Or, if you don't have a player, you can listen to them on your computer. [:)]



lexie -> RE: Learning Spanish Or Another Foreign Language (6/18/2008 7:28:54 AM)

I'm brushing up on my French. I learned enough in school to get by, but I want to become fluent or close to fluent in it.

I have a computer program that I got from Oxford Books to use. I'm also going to take out French books from the library, watch French language television. Also, anything we buy in Canada has to have labeling in French and English, so I always read the French part.

When Dh and I went to Cuba we wanted to learn Spanish, so we bought workbooks. One that I liked was Spanish in 10 Minutes a Day. It came with stickers that you can put all around your house to help you remember what things are called.



mapachito13 -> RE: Learning Spanish Or Another Foreign Language (6/18/2008 7:54:59 AM)

quote:

ORIGINAL: colliefan

quote:

Do you have any tips for anyone wanting to learn a new language?



Try imersion. If you have access to a Spanish language channel on your cable/satelite system, try watching them for a bit. Although the speak VERY fast, soon you can get things in context.

If their is a Mexican restuarant near you, go there and try and order in Spanish.


Watching TV is great it helped me too. Watch it with the captions on although a caution that sometimes the spelling is incorrect.

When I was stuck in an airport in Mexico city I was talking with a lady who was an actress in spanish novellas (soap operas) and when I mentioned that I learned a lot of Spanish watching them she countered that she learned a lot of English the same way!

Trivia note: Learning a new language has been proven to stave off mental degeneration with age such as dementia and Alzheimers. So learning a new language helps keep the mind sharp!



lexie -> RE: Learning Spanish Or Another Foreign Language (6/18/2008 9:21:17 AM)

I was going to mention....

When my father moved here, he learned English by being with other people who spoke English. Find people who speak Spanish and ask them to speak it only with you and challenge yourself to only speak Spanish with them.

My grandmother learned English from reading the newspaper. She already knew what was going on in the world, so she would then try to make sense of what the articles in English were saying about it.



PolarBear -> RE: Learning Spanish Or Another Foreign Language (6/18/2008 1:06:21 PM)

No substitute for being there. Go find a (maybe) three month immersion program where you live with a Spanish speaking family and study 5 hours a day. It will be grueling, but you'll come back knowing a good amount of Spanish.

Be careful not to go to where there are tons of gringos. Antigua, Guatemala, is such an example. It is a beautiful colonial town with tons of Spanish schools -- and tons of gringos, and all the tours have English speaking guides.

Sorry, no specific recommendations. I used a Mennonite language school in Guatemala City, and a non-church school in Quito, Ecuador that had a lot of missionary students. Capital cities aren't too bad, much better than little tourist towns, but there are still a lot of people around that know English, and a lot of younger people will want to practice it with you.

Best is a small community out in the middle of nowhere where they ONLY speak Spanish, and virtually no tourists.

In general, Ecuador and Guatemala are good countries to study in -- the Spanish in both countries is relatively easy to understand. It will be harder to understand in places like Chile and Nicaragua. In Argentina they will teach you a somewhat different dialect of Spanish, then Mexicans will look at you funny. [:)]



Miss Giggles -> RE: Learning Spanish Or Another Foreign Language (6/18/2008 1:19:13 PM)

You absolutely cannot learn a foreign language from a book or tapes. I took 4 years of spanish but cannot speak well with a fluent speaker due to the dialects and slang.

best thing to do is ask someone who speaks fluent spanish to help you , and if you have spanish radio and tv, try to follow along with that.

there are books at borders, etc that have the slang in them but some of them are kind of crude so you have to be careful in which ones you choose. however you do need to know when you are being insulted. LOL

the reason is the formal spanish is taught in the books and classes, while slang is usually used in everyday speech

same with people learning english, someone that just started speaking english, if you asked them "what's up" or "hey" they will get really confused and ask what you are talking about [:D]



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