Best way to approach learning Spanish?

[Martynt74]

Another thing I've noticed is just how many people - everyday people not people on the TV news, for example - drop the "s". Estamos (we are) and it's like "e'tamo'" and "me gusta" is "me gu'ta". Terrible butchery I suppose if you visit and pronounce everything as it should be, you'd stick out like a sore thumb.

Yeah, i guess similar to us speaking English, we probably don't realise how much we cut out letters whilst speaking.

Having lessons is certainly useful at times though. I got confused when doing a run in Spain, as the crowd would shout "Vamos Chicos" or something along those lines, which i always thought meant "Go on boys" and thought it a little mean given there were also women involved.
However, i then learnt about children and how if you were saying you had multiple children and both boys and girls, you would always say "hijos" to describe a mix and only use "Hijas" if they were all girls.

 

[AndyCr15]

I just find it unusual and strange the way that some foreign language sentences are structured i.e backwards.

Example being - "un sombrero rojo" which directly translates to "a hat red" whereas we would say "a red hat" (un rojo sombrero)..

Also some, I think, like Spanish and German have different phrasing for the same meaning but depends if it's masculine or feminine where we don't e.g. "a boy" or "a girl" uses "un nino" and "una nina" - different phrasing or "a"

Tbh, I often find it makes more sense and is easier than how our language constructs sentences.

Yeah, I don't really get the need for masculine or feminine, but it seems thankfully most feminine seems to end in an 'a' to make it easier.

I've resurrected this thread as I visited Spain twice this year cycling and think it's likely to happen more in the future. In Mallorca everyone seemed to speak English, but a couple of times in Girona they didn't and it would have been handy, even what I know already to ask for agua or a sandwich con carne.

The info about American Spanish is interesting, thanks. I've been using Duolingo for a couple of months now and was even thinking of paying for it, then I wondered if I was going to dip my hand in my pocket, are there better options? I google'd learning Spanish and I landed on this site. Does anyone recognise those top options? Interesting that Rosetta Stone and Duolingo are both quite low-rated, but maybe the ratings are more about how good their commission is?

I have thought about watching films I know really well, but with Spanish audio turned on. Likewise, maybe some Spanish podcasts, but I feel I learn better when I'm more involved, as with Duolingo.

 

[ic1male]

I still keep meaning to try http://www.lingopie.com but can't quite make time for it yet.

 

[D.P.]

Hehe, that’s nothing compared to having to know two sets of verbs depending on different circumstances. I haven’t got round to tackling the subjunctive mood yet.

TBH, i actually really like it in french and I am often wishing we had similar in English. It is just more expressive of the situations with multiple subjects or hypotheticals. There are many interesting but subtle expressions where the subjunctive hints at the doubt or unknown qualities of the situation.

 

[AndyCr15]

I still keep meaning to try http://www.lingopie.com but can't quite make time for it yet.

That looks an interesting method. Is it all just videos/stories? What I do like about Duolingo is how it hammers things home with repetition. I see a new word and then within 15 minutes I've used it several times. I worry watching stories I might see a new word, but then not see it again for days?

I note there's a friends and family plan, which is nice. I know one other person learning Spanish. I guess in theory we could split it with a few of us on here?

I've found a few other sites that recommend Babbel. I think someone else mentioned it earlier in this thread too?

 

[ic1male]

I worry watching stories I might see a new word, but then not see it again for days?

Hmm, that's a good point, never thought about that. I'm hardly likely to be saying "move up, two by two formation, trackers at the ready" a great deal in Spain after watching Aliens in Spanish.

 

[AndyCr15]

I'm hardly likely to be saying "move up, two by two formation, trackers at the ready" a great deal in Spain after watching Aliens in Spanish.

Oh, is it not purpose-made video? I realise you're likely joking, but I got the impression it was custom-made? I assume it tries to teach in stories, but the lack of repetition was my concern still.

 

[ic1male]

Oh, is it not purpose-made video? I realise you're likely joking, but I got the impression it was custom-made? I assume it tries to teach in stories, but the lack of repetition was my concern still.

I have been watching Aliens in Spanish but it was on Disney+.

Lingopie uses real TV shows from each country's national broadcasters (so RTVE in Spain). I haven't investigated closely to see what exactly is on offer. But according to Michel Thomas (who is my favourite resource to use) we only use about 600 or something words in our normal day-to-day speech. And those 600 will keep coming up time and time again so you will begin to learn them. The only thing I don't think Lingopie can teach you properly is grammar, i.e. how would you learn how to conjugate verbs except by purely memorizing each and every one, instead of knowing the patterns for the regular ones and doing them yourself.

But then again, there are literally millions of people around the world who can speak English to be understood. They've had no formal lessons or anything like that but they've done it by watching American TV shows and films.

 

[AndyCr15]

I've signed up for Lingopie as you get a free week (let's hope it's nice and easy to cancel) and I've done a few videos. I don't know if it's good for a beginner like me. Even at half speed, it's flying by so fast, the actual audio is next to useless to me at this point and instead, I'm trying to read the subtitles... but it's moving too quickly to read both languages.

What I do like is, if you pause, you tap on a word and it shows you the meaning. It then adds this word to the ones you're learning and it makes you some flashcards and includes them in some games/tests.

I've picked up a few new words, but as I said, I worry because they've not been hammered home, I won't remember them tomorrow. I'll try and use it every day this week, but I can't see me keeping it past the free trial.

 

[Martynt74]

I note there's a friends and family plan, which is nice. I know one other person learning Spanish. I guess in theory we could split it with a few of us on here?

I'd be tempted by that.It's a shame there's no Polish option as i've a mate who'd also have jumped on.

My wife used Duolingo and signed up for it, she seemed to learn quite a bit but it didn't seem to line up with "Spanish Spanish" from what we found, and then similar to what you've found, we've use other methods like flash cards and the words again didn't match up. It made it difficult to know what was what. Similarly we went to a class for 10 weeks and the words used there differed too.

I downloaded a good looking app called 10 minute Spanish or something like that. It had a similar repetitive vibe like Duolingo but you could choose Catalan Spanish, and it seemed a little more detailed and the pronunciation was good. The issue being that beyond the free trial it's subscription only compared to the free version of Duolingo being Ad based. Again the issue being that it's 2x subscriptions for my wife and i.

I keep talking about looking for a zoom based tutor. For ~£10/hr and an hour a week it's not a lot of money but i imagine it'd be the best value for money, especially as there's 2 of us.

 

[AndyCr15]

Having watched a few reviews, I'm leaning towards Babbel, which has a BF deal of £36 for 12 months.

I keep talking about looking for a zoom based tutor. For ~£10/hr and an hour a week it's not a lot of money but i imagine it'd be the best value for money, especially as there's 2 of us.

The Babbel review I watched talked about the live classes you can pay more for, but they're quite pricey, so he recommended iTalki. Might suit you?

 

[Martynt74]

I've always heard talk of Babbel being referred to as a more "serious" app, although never spent much time on it.

I hadn't thought of checking out BF deals for this. Makes sense! I think having something available on demand certainly makes sense. I sometimes thing Podcasts would be good, just to listen to during running/cycling. Just have never found one i can gel with.

 

[panthro]

My new company is Spanish owned and I have a lot of Spanish colleagues in Spain and the UK. I've started Duolingo and trying to practice with them in the office/Teams and it definitely works but it's a slow process.
My previous experience of living abroad is that being totally immersed in the language will get you speaking at a good conversational level within 6 months if you are actively learning at the same time.

 

[Martynt74]

My new company is Spanish owned and I have a lot of Spanish colleagues in Spain and the UK. I've started Duolingo and trying to practice with them in the office/Teams and it definitely works but it's a slow process.
My previous experience of living abroad is that being totally immersed in the language will get you speaking at a good conversational level within 6 months if you are actively learning at the same time.

This is definitely the best method if it's available!

 

[M1k3H]

As someone whose english is not his first language I'd say coming to the UK and staying here improved my english 100-fold.

My english was still good before coming over, mainly because of movies/music and having English and American relatives, but reading back some of the emails I used to send when I was at Uni, or my dissertation, I realise that although people understood me, I could have been clearer/more grammatically correct, etc.

I did a similar amount of years of french language lessons in school, and I cannot speak it, apart from a few sentences.

In short; immerse yourself as much as possible alongside having the lessons, be it listening to music, watching foreign TV or even better, travel there and converse with the locals.

 

[AndyCr15]

I've always heard talk of Babbel being referred to as a more "serious" app, although never spent much time on it.

Interestingly, the reviewer says Babbel is only really suited for Beginner to Intermediate. 'Enough to get you by' I think he says... which is probably what I'm after at this point.

I looked at his review of Pimsluer, which seemed more serious. Hour long classes and such.

 

[D.P.]

I have been watching Aliens in Spanish but it was on Disney+.

Lingopie uses real TV shows from each country's national broadcasters (so RTVE in Spain). I haven't investigated closely to see what exactly is on offer. But according to Michel Thomas (who is my favourite resource to use) we only use about 600 or something words in our normal day-to-day speech. And those 600 will keep coming up time and time again so you will begin to learn them. The only thing I don't think Lingopie can teach you properly is grammar, i.e. how would you learn how to conjugate verbs except by purely memorizing each and every one, instead of knowing the patterns for the regular ones and doing them yourself.

But then again, there are literally millions of people around the world who can speak English to be understood. They've had no formal lessons or anything like that but they've done it by watching American TV shows and films.

The notion you only need a few hundred words because they account for 80% of the common words is a fallacy. These common words afe things like the, a , one, he, they, to, etc. Very common but don't actually provide context. You have to learn thousands of nouns, adjectives and verbs to become more fluent, or even basic conversation.

The problem is if you don't understand 1 key word in a sentence then you might not understand any of it, so knowing the other 12 words is irrelevant as you miss 100% of the understanding. This is actually where the word frequency distribution works against you, because many important words will occur infrequently so to learn them requires significant exposure. And the you don't get a good spaced repetition frequency to move the word to long term memory.

Grammar can be picked up easily with some books and online resources, hut building a sufficient lexicon takes a long time.

 

[AndyCr15]

In short; immerse yourself as much as possible alongside having the lessons, be it listening to music, watching foreign TV or even better, travel there and converse with the locals.

I think this is where http://www.lingopie.com/ could really work. But I feel like you need to get to a reasonable point before it really starts to help. I expect when you can understand 50% of a sentence, piecing the other bits together kinda works. When you don't really understand any of it... your progress is likely non-existent?

 

[ic1male]

I think this is where http://www.lingopie.com/ could really work. But I feel like you need to get to a reasonable point before it really starts to help. I expect when you can understand 50% of a sentence, piecing the other bits together kinda works. When you don't really understand any of it... your progress is likely non-existent?

I'll give it a go later this week and see how I find it. I'm not a complete beginner as I've been learning bits and bobs for a few years but not regularly. I find Spanish people speak way too fast though and when they drop the S it gets even faster.

 

[AndyCr15]

I've paid for 12 months of Babbel for only £36 and like it already. I feel it does a better job of actually explaining things. We'll see how it goes!