Learning Spanish

[madmuffy]

Did anyone try Rosetta Stone or any other aid to help them get a small jump on the language before they went over? If you did what did you use and how helpfull was it? What was the easiest way for you to learn the language? We will be headed over for a 2 year assignment and don't speak any Spanish at all. Any help would be great.
Thanks

[nerja_boy]

Originally Posted by madmuffy

Did anyone try Rosetta Stone or any other aid to help them get a small jump on the language before they went over? If you did what did you use and how helpfull was it? What was the easiest way for you to learn the language? We will be headed over for a 2 year assignment and don't speak any Spanish at all. Any help would be great.
Thanks

hiya
not tried the software but i remembard a running horse from the advert so it must be tidy, but getting cabbio correr in a sentance is proving hard
good start would be learn the common verbs, hablar, vivir, comer, etc, and i want, i need, how much and so on, and allways start a sentance, "lo siento mi espanol es muy malo" always gets a smile and then lots of help
lee

ps any one know of any good teach your self spelling and grammer books?

[owdoggy]

For a standard, bury yer head in a book learning course I found "Pasos" level 1 to be pretty good but Mrs Doggy got the Rosetta Stone level 1 s/ware as a retirement prezzy & I reckon that was pretty good if a little unusual at the start. You have to get a good way through the course to suss where they're going with it but it does work. The bad news is of course that it's a tad on the pricey side. I fancied getting level 2 and nearly fell off me chair when I saw the price

However, here we are in sunny Mojacar and I thought I knew quite a bit of Spanish but when it get's down to nut cutting time and I have to use it in real time with real people I have come to the conclusion that I know just about ................. naff all! ...........hey ho



Doggy

[jojo]

Originally Posted by owdoggy

However, here we are in sunny Mojacar and I thought I knew quite a bit of Spanish but when it get's down to nut cutting time and I have to use it in real time with real people I have come to the conclusion that I know just about ................. naff all! ...........hey ho



Doggy

You've hit the nail on the head Doggy!! All these lessons, books, pc programmes..... are good for learning the structure and one or two words, but placed in situ with real Spanish and the need to understand and answer quickly, they're all pretty useless. The only way to learn is to listen and be totally absorbed in the real thing! - and even then it takes months and months and months..........!!!!!!!

Jo

[thrax]

A Spanish friend of mine, who speaks 6 languages (but curiously cannot understand a word spoken in Andalucia - he is from Barcelona) told me that his advice is that there is no substitute for being in the country and being totally immersed in the language. When he is learning a new langauge and when he is not in that country, if available he tunes in to a TV channel spoken in that langauge and leaves it on most of the day. He told me that it is the way a baby learns (and we've all done that at least once) by constantly listening to the language even though it cannot, at first, understand a word. Gradually words become familiar from repitition and if you are also occassionally getting visual clues it begins to stick. Couple that with the technical side of learning from books and then visits to the country and you begin to learn the language the natural way. It works for him so now when I am at home I have TVEi on and it is beginning to work.

[SteveHall]

Thrax, spot on. I have Learning Spanish - Learning Spanish and there are numerous resources there including a free 6 part Spanish course but the ONLY way to REALLY learn Spanish is get out of the expat bars, buy El Sol instead of the Sun, cancel your Sky subscription and watch the (appalling) telenovelas. Watched dubbed films ...the Spanish is often dumbed down and the slang translated into standard Spanish, leave the RBL and walk into the Spanish pensioners club, stop playing pool and learn petanca with the locals. If you need to throw arrows make sure they are dardos and not darts. PRACTICAR, PRACTICAR, PRACTICAR.

Most of all do what you ENJOY. If you enjoy fishing, buy the Spanish angling magazines, if you are a football fan buy Marca, if you an Arsenal fan go to church and learn to ask for forgiveness!) if you watch porn there's plenty of Spanish porn (if you don't understand the words you can at least tell the wife you are trying to learn!)and if you like gossip you are half way there - the Spansih love their Prensa Rosa.

There is no way I'd buy a magazine about embroidery so would not claim that my vocabulary on cross-stitching is extensive but as a football fan I'd be upset if there was a word in Marca I did not know ......and if there is I look it up. Likewise with IT/telecom/www and cooking!

Good news? The Spanish do not "invent" words like the English press and there are many less puns, plays on words etc


¡Os deseo mucha suerte!

[Bevdeforges]

While I'm in full agreement that you don't "really" learn a language until you're tossed into the middle of it and have to sink or swim, it still is useful to study up a bit on your own before you arrive.

Personally, I like the Assimil language learning materials Assimil - Le don des langues - in part because they're just plain fun, but also because they are "listen and repeat" type lessons. What you need to get started are whole phrases or expressions, not the understanding of grammar. (Make sure you know how to say things like, "I'm sorry, but I only speak a little Spanish - can you help me?" "Please speak slower, I'm having trouble following you." "Could you please repeat? I didn't quite understand that.")

The big thing once you get in place is to take on a sort of "oh what the heck" attitude and just try your luck. You're gonna make mistakes. You're gonna get into situations where you can't make yourself understood and where you'll have no idea what people are trying to tell you. You'll feel like a fool for the first weeks and months. Learn to laugh it off, be gracious about it and you'll be surprised how quickly you'll pick it up when you have to.
Cheers,
Bev

[jojo]

I'm doing everything, I have lessons twice a week, I go to a spanish conversation gruop once a week and I isten to Spanish radio in the car and at night in bed (our TV wont pick up Spanish stations for some reason??) I've been doing this since September. I guess I'ml earning a bit, but its slow, I can understand most of whats said to me, but I couldnt begin to hold a conversation. I think as we get older, our brains take longer to retain information.... or is that just me???!!

Jo

[SteveHall]

Originally Posted by jojo

I think as we get older, our brains take longer to retain information.... or is that just me???!!

Jo

Jojo, I thought you were getting YOUNGER ...at least that's what your other post indicated! Last week you admitted to being over 30 but today you are 21!!

Women and ages!

Seriously, you are doing all the right things and I am sure that one day it will all "click" Te deseo mucha suerte

[thrax]

We start learning our native tongue from around 3 months of age until??? How long before you could say you were really fluent in your own language and that using a pristine brain not one addled like mine with alcohol and enough useless facts to make me good at trivial pursuit (if only I could remember those facts...). A professor of biology (a really clever bloke mind) once told me that as we get older we don't, in fact, forget more, but simply remember more often how much we forget. When we are younger forgetting stuff doesn't bother us but as we get older it causes concern because we associate getting older with forgetting more. Make sense so far? The real problem for some of us with learning a foreign language is that we have forgotten how to do it and our brains refuse to accept this new information. People who are good at learning new languages haven't forgotten the technique. Now even knowing this hasn't helped me much because I seem to have forgotten what that technique is.....