Soldato
- Joined
- 16 Aug 2009
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Father moved to spain 20+ years barely speaks a word pretty sure theres more to it than that haha
Best way to approach learning Spanish?
- Thread starter easyrider
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The British way, we expect them to speak English. Brits abroad rarely bother learning the language
The French are very similar to us they hate that English is pretty much the worlds language so refuse point blank to speak it.
Same in Canada, French Canadians speak very little English.
Caporegime
I'm beginning to investigate walking the Camino de Santiago pilgrim's way thing from south west France to Santiago de Compostela. That'll be a good way to pick up some Spanish. 
Soldato
I'm still getting practice in. A month or so back I got my Intermediate A2 certificate from Busuu, which kind of marked the point I wanted to get to, so now I'm spending most of my time hammering things home with reviews. I still have a fair bit to do in Babbel to complete A2 though.
I have started watching Cable Girls in Spanish with subs and it's interesting how much more I'm recognising over the last Spanish show I watched, maybe two or three months back.
I'm off to Girona in 10 days, so looking forward to trying my Spanish out over there. I also have Santander and Costa Daurada trips booked for Aug and Nov, so plenty of opportunity to immerse myself!
I have started watching Cable Girls in Spanish with subs and it's interesting how much more I'm recognising over the last Spanish show I watched, maybe two or three months back.
I'm off to Girona in 10 days, so looking forward to trying my Spanish out over there. I also have Santander and Costa Daurada trips booked for Aug and Nov, so plenty of opportunity to immerse myself!
Soldato
Last year I signed up for Bussu and Babbel for less than £40 each for 12 months and as those are coming to an end, I've been looking for offers. It doesn't look like either of these have a good offer this year so I was searching about HUKD and found this one for free Rosetta Stone! Although, judging by more recent comments, accounts are maybe being nuked.
Curious if anyone has tried learning with comprehensible input? I've been using a site/YouTube channel called Dreaming Spanish over the past few months and whilst I don't necessarily agree with everything about their learning method their graded videos seem to be a very good source for listening practice regardless
Soldato
I'm beginning to investigate walking the Camino de Santiago pilgrim's way thing from south west France to Santiago de Compostela. That'll be a good way to pick up some Spanish.
well you've set me off now.............
Its an amazing experience i did it in 2019 ,there's a big forum you can join with tons of info and the owner will send your a credencial (picture) it stops you having to queue up for one, this passport allows you to stay at the alburgues that are free, donation or cheap 5 to 10 euros per night, they are sometimes attached to churches . So you get your passport stamped by the accommodation owner and it allows you to stop in another ect ect
As said its utterly amazing and yeah great to pick up Spanish.
for me it was a great combo, get up at dawn walk say 16 miles (you decide your destination so a hard day can be followed by an easy one) i think it took me and my ex 32 days including a day off for shin splints
one thing that wound us up was people who sent their rucksacks on by taxi ect to the next stop, fit people as well ,a big concept is to carry your own burden and you always set off with too much ,youtube has loads of packing lists ,people even saw the handle off tooth brushes to save weight, I was at 7 to 8kg .
Our method was up at dawn (it can be enforced lights off at 10pm in some alburgues) walk say 15 miles, find Alburgues, shower ,wash walking clothes ,spend the afternoon exploring our destination Pamplona ,Leon ,ect ,chilling at night with the other walkers ,what happens is people just join you walking, chat to you move on its a very social walk.
We stayed on in Spain for a while afterword's, i had lost my job
Credential pic
1 st day in Pyranees
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That's the route I decided to go down. Only had about 6/7 lessons and everything still feels confusing but gradually starting to see some progress. Biggest problem is expanding the vocabulary and getting time to practice.
Both my mates who are out there say once you are actually speaking "live" it becomes a lot easier.
Soldato
Yeah, i'm getting a little better, but i'm not putting in any effort at the moment as i've been stressing sorting other things out, and then filling my spare time with cheap booze!
My wife downloaded an app called Mondly which seems good. It really mixes it up rather than just giving you a few words then forcing you to memorise them with questions immediately after, it throws in unknown words into sentences to replicate real life conversations where you need to just get the gist of the topic etc. It's for 2 users so i'm going to try and use that.
For me though it's still understanding it when spoken. I muddle through reading/writing, and can speak it with moderate success, but just never pick anything up when someone talks to me.
Soldato
Definitely. It's interesting how important it is to have an expectation of what they might say. When I was out there last month, the first time in the supermarket, "Eso es todo" I've said... "ssdonvjnvffkjsv sfnvsknsvn cslknvslkvn sdlknvslksnvg" they replied!
Confused look on my face... "Do you want a bad?". The next time I was in there, expecting the bag question, I actually understood the words said. Probably the same words, but I was ready for them. Similar things at other times, when you expect them, it's easier.Also, it's surprising how few words you need to catch to understand what they're saying. So, I found a hair in my cake. "Esta es no bueno!" I've said pointing to this 10 inch long hair, with a bit of my cake hanging at the end of it. "Eso fui muy bueno, gracias" I said pointing at my now empty plate (waste not, want not), "pero, esta es no bueno...". Horrified look, off he goes and brings the manager back. I think I caught two words from her couple of sentences 'fabrica' and 'cuenta'. She must be telling me it comes from a factory, not made there and it wouldn't be on my bill. I thanked her and all was good.
Soldato
I didn't wait for it to be nuked, the fact I couldn't log onto it on other devices was enough, but I liked what I saw enough to buy a lifetime sub on BF deal, which I've been considering on a service as I wouldn't mind dabbling in a couple of other languages at some point (maybe French next?)
I like it's more about listening and speaking (rather than reading and maybe typing). When text is shown at the same time as it's said, I tend to ignore the voice and read the text... so with RS it occasionally says something to you with no text and you have to select the correct answer. Sometimes it goes through three images and then you have to say what the fourth should be, or maybe you have to say the fill in lines of a conversation.
Like Duolingo it uses repetition a lot, but without much explanation, so as it gets harder we'll see how well it works (I've started reasonably easy/early again).
Soldato
Rosetta Stone is going well, and I've just managed to buy a lifetime, all languages Babbel+ for around £160 too. About £300 on language apps, which sounds quite a lot, but when you could easily pay £60-£80 for one year of one language, I'm quite pleased.
It's good to have Babbel back too. I do love the different lessons you can go off and do, rather than a fixed track of whatever 'they' want you to learn next.
Also, as I'm listening to a lot of audiobooks at the moment, I'm most of the way through "Learn Spanish with Paul Noble for Beginners" which has been really good too.
It's good to have Babbel back too. I do love the different lessons you can go off and do, rather than a fixed track of whatever 'they' want you to learn next.
Also, as I'm listening to a lot of audiobooks at the moment, I'm most of the way through "Learn Spanish with Paul Noble for Beginners" which has been really good too.
Iwas learning Italian whilst doing a lot of driving. Coffee break Italian. I'm sure they do French and Spanish. Spotify for the freebies but can also buy a more in depth version
coffeebreaklanguages.com
open.spotify.com
Coffee Break Spanish
Add New Row Edit ElementClone ElementAdvanced Element OptionsMoveRemove Element — SPACER — [vertical_spacing height="300"] Edit ElementClone ElementAdvanced Element OptionsMoveRemove Element ¡Un café, por favor! [headline style="1" font_size="36" font_style="bold" font_color="#ffffff"...
coffeebreaklanguages.com
Coffee Break Spanish
Listen to Coffee Break Spanish on Spotify. Learn Spanish in coffee-break lessons from the Radio Lingua Network. In each lesson we'll focus on the language you need to know and before long you'll be making yourself understood with native Spanish speakers. Season 1 lessons are for absolute...
open.spotify.com
Soldato
Yeah, it's been mentioned a few times in the thread. I've kinda stopped listening to them as the newer episodes don't have a meaningful title. So, earlier on they would be called 'Arriving at a hotel' or 'Ordering in a cafe', so you could pick out the episodes you wanted to listen to. Later, they are just called 'Season 2 Ep 5'
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Soldato
@AndyCr15 I hear a lot of good things of that Spanish with Paul, but when i listened to a bit it seemed annoying that it had a section for Spanish and South American Spanish so felt like it was a bit repetitive, does it not get annoying?
Soldato
Not to me, I think the repetition is good, especially when you get to some of the longer sentences.
I used a combination of Pimsleur, coffee break Italian and Busuu for word recognition. The latter allows others to critique your sentences.
I haven't read the thread fully but the main thing is will power and time spent, if I could justify it, I would get a tutor as nothing beats conversation with a native.
I found I picked words up easier when I wasn’t concentrating hard and trying to repeat and memorise, more subconscious if that makes sense.
I haven't read the thread fully but the main thing is will power and time spent, if I could justify it, I would get a tutor as nothing beats conversation with a native.
I found I picked words up easier when I wasn’t concentrating hard and trying to repeat and memorise, more subconscious if that makes sense.
Soldato
Maybe i need to give it more time. I think my problem is bouncing from one platform to another trying to find the right one, but then finding the right place to start from.
coffee break french is very goodIwas learning Italian whilst doing a lot of driving. Coffee break Italian. I'm sure they do French and Spanish. Spotify for the freebies but can also buy a more in depth version
Coffee Break Spanish
Add New Row Edit ElementClone ElementAdvanced Element OptionsMoveRemove Element — SPACER — [vertical_spacing height="300"] Edit ElementClone ElementAdvanced Element OptionsMoveRemove Element ¡Un café, por favor! [headline style="1" font_size="36" font_style="bold" font_color="#ffffff"...
Coffee Break Spanish
Listen to Coffee Break Spanish on Spotify. Learn Spanish in coffee-break lessons from the Radio Lingua Network. In each lesson we'll focus on the language you need to know and before long you'll be making yourself understood with native Spanish speakers. Season 1 lessons are for absolute...
Soldato
Yeah, I've not worried too much about that as again, I like the repetition, it's what works for me. I've done the basics on about 5 different platforms now and interestingly, you take different tips and points (and words) from each one.