Best way to approach learning Spanish?

shifty_uk said:
That's the worry with courses, too much emphasis on non-colloquial stuff that you'll never need to know. Did you end up trying a tutor?
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Yeah, we do 2 classes a week with the same tutor. One is more a conversation class in the pub which usually ends up with 15 mins of spanish and over an hour of general chat along with 2-3 pints, then we have a private hour just at home.

It's been really useful having that private hour but it's not enough and i need to be putting a lot more effort in
 
That's good.

If you're just after immersion, you could try EasySpanish or similar. Loads of resources on YT.

I like these silly little short stories:

There's probably similar in Spanish but you've got to watch out for the overly AI generated speech.
 
Cheers, i'll have a look. One of the annoyances with Spanish is the huge disparity between South American and Castillian spanish.

There's an amusing anecdote about someone from Spain going to Columbia and asking Dónde puedo coger un autobus? which effectively translates to "Where can i take/catch a bus". To which the Columbian replies "Whatever floats your boat but i'd try the exhaust"
Because for some reason Coger in South America means to ****
 
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Martynt74 said:
(The phrase was effectively "Pass me the XXX, please" and then i had the option or bread, salt, menu, and another which didn't work)
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I'm guessing it might have said "pásame la XXX, por favor", in which case it can only be salt, no? (Depending on which option they gave for menu, 'menú' or 'carta') I get it quite often in Rosetta Stone, where various options could work, but the grammar is the clue/answer.

I'm on a 241 day streak on Babbel at the moment, but tbh most of that is one or two reviews each day. Every Tuesday, I still spend an hour doing Spanish with my brother's g/f though.
 
AndyCr15 said:
I'm guessing it might have said "pásame la XXX, por favor", in which case it can only be salt, no? (Depending on which option they gave for menu, 'menú' or 'carta') I get it quite often in Rosetta Stone, where various options could work, but the grammar is the clue/answer.

I'm on a 241 day streak on Babbel at the moment, but tbh most of that is one or two reviews each day. Every Tuesday, I still spend an hour doing Spanish with my brother's g/f though.
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Ah you’re right. I think this is where my lessons are less grammar focused and more real world conversational so I’m not as strong there.

Maybe this explains why I was A1- :p
 
Diddums said:
Ask them to slow down. You'll be surprised how accommodating people can be when you tell them you're trying to learn their language.


Except Germans, **** those guys.
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Germans are fine as long as you actually try to speak German. I actually like that they tend to continue in German even if you're struggling a bit, makes it much easier to learn than then people just immediately switch to English.

I can still understand spoken German pretty well, listened to some German radio randomly the other day and can still understand the news bulletins. As others have said, just repetition and exposure will get you there in terms of understanding.

I was in an English speaking office when I lived there though, so never learned to speak fluently, or even conversationally really, although day to day German, shopping, eating out, etc I can manage fine, maybe hold a brief taxi driver conversation :P

I do need to find a good German series to watch to keep it fresh.....don't want to forget it. Maybe I'll just listen to more radio.
 
I just joined the Santander Open Academy - they have a couple of Spanish micro-courses. It'll be the first time I've come across material that aims to teach me something but is wholly in Spanish - no English at all. ChatGPT will be helping. :D

Objetivos de aprendizaje​
​

Vas a aprender a:
  • Dar instrucciones para ir a un lugar.
  • Hay y está.
  • Dirigirse a alguien.
  • Agradecer.
  • Preguntar por un lugar.
  • Describir un objeto, ciudad o barrio.
 
easyrider said:
Has anyone here successfully taught themselves a froreign language? Fluently ?
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no but I did a lot of German on duolingo and got fairly competent, I never fully got the sentence structure though

I've seen taxi drivers listening to michelle thomas audio books and they said they were fluent from those.

but they are likely listening to them on repeat all day long.



just learn like a kid would knowing the name of objects, colours etc and then try to slowly start working them into conversations, you really need to find a practice partner to video call.

theres bound to be foreigners wanting to speak english, or try communicate with chatgpt and tell it what your doing.
 
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I've started Spanish on Duolingo. 15 days in.

It's going ok, much easier so far than when I tried to learn Polish. I don't know how they design the course structures but the Spanish is much more sensible, focussing on things you'd actually use travelling for example. Their Polish course was far less sensible in comparison.
 
If you spell out socks letter by letter and listen to yourself, it sounds like you're speaking Spanish.

ESS OHH SEE KAY ESS!

Thank me later.
 
danlightbulb said:
I've started Spanish on Duolingo. 15 days in.
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Just be aware, if you're learning to go to Spain, Duo Lingo is teaching you South American Spanish, which has differences. It's not huge and you'll be fine, it's like someone learning American and then coming to the UK.
 
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