Learning Spanish

I think it's particularly helpful that *almost* all masculine words end in -o and feminine words in -a and plurals in -s or -es so that you can get the adjectives right.


The only thing I don't like is the 'b' and 'v'. Although they are supposed to sound the same, they do seem to be said differently by native speakers.
 
ic1male said:
I think it's particularly helpful that *almost* all masculine words end in -o and feminine words in -a and plurals in -s or -es so that you can get the adjectives right.


The only thing I don't like is the 'b' and 'v'. Although they are supposed to sound the same, they do seem to be said differently by native speakers.
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Some Spanish people who speak English say veby good instead of very good due to the above difference.
 
My god, I've just purchased the Michel Thomas foundation, and I have to say, his teaching style is just hilarious. In a good way. But I've been following a pimsleur course and getting some help from some Spanish friends (my mom teaches Spanish and translates also, but I can't learn from her), and they're all so matter of fact, and I have a terrible memory, so this Michel Thomas dude seems to be onto something. If you can get past the creepy constant inclusion of Spanish words (which is the point) it seems good. A veritable trickle of goodness into the mind tank.
 
It always makes me laugh when you can hear his false teeth clacking. :D The guy who's on the Spanish course is hopeless though. He's always getting it wrong. I think they did away with him on the Advanced course.
 
ic1male said:
It always makes me laugh when you can hear his false teeth clacking. :D The guy who's on the Spanish course is hopeless though. He's always getting it wrong. I think they did away with him on the Advanced course.
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Can't say I noticed his false teeth but I agree the male student on the foundation course is incredibly annoying. It's kind of funny at first but it wears thin. At first I thought it was part of the technique, reinforcement through correcting the mistakes of another, but later even Thomas is clearly starting to get riled by his stupidity. If you look at practically any review of this course the guy gets a mention.

@benneh. It can be really funny sometimes. It's really satisfying that he encourages you to try to work stuff out yourself by following the grammatical rules he has taught you. That is what I think sets this apart from the likes of Pimsleur, by the end you have a greater understanding of the language through his teaching of these grammatical rules, rather than through rather mindless repetition.
 
I only know one sentence in Spanish, and I don't think I'll ever really find a suitable time to use it:

Tu madre es una puta en mi piscina en mi pantalones.

I don't really know where I picked that up from.
 
"Do a beginners course, in a college, and make sure you know the basic grammar. Then, if you can afford it, spend some time in Central America, for example, Guatemala, you can take one on one lessons which are extremely effective. You can go to Spain, but you are only ever going to get classroom attention with international students who all speak English, so your Spanish won't improve that much"


^ The bird.
 
I did a spanish O level at school and quite enjoyed it - unlike French, Latin and German.

Spanish is very widely spoken - south America, Central America, USA :) , Spain for instance.

It is actually quite easy compared to other languages to learn too.

One thing I would say - is to learn it from a native speaker. Worth going to spain for a bit of practice.
 
I often wonder how you are thought of depending on whether you speak with the Castillian lisp or the Latin dialects. e.g. if I was in Argentina and said 'rice' as 'arroth' instead of 'arros' would they look at you funny. :D
 
Nitefly said:
"Do a beginners course, in a college, and make sure you know the basic grammar. Then, if you can afford it, spend some time in Central America, for example, Guatemala, you can take one on one lessons which are extremely effective. You can go to Spain, but you are only ever going to get classroom attention with international students who all speak English, so your Spanish won't improve that much"


^ The bird.
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I suspect those who have expressed an interest in learning Spanish weren't planning on incorporating international travel into their timetable. :) As you say however, the best way to improve any foreign language is to spend time abroad. Living in Spain there are plenty of people who speak Spanish, and yes everyone wants to practice/demonstrate with a native speaker. It's good to organise a language exchange, that is meeting someone informally and speaking first in one language, then the other, say thirty minutes each.

Personally I found that learning at home bode me well for my move to Spain. The big problem with listening courses of course is lack of focus on reading and writing.
 
ic1male said:
I often wonder how you are thought of depending on whether you speak with the Castillian lisp or the Latin dialects. e.g. if I was in Argentina and said 'rice' as 'arroth' instead of 'arros' would they look at you funny. :D
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I asked about this for you and the response is no, of course not. :) Mind you, the Canarian people are very laid back. Maybe if you asked those in the North of Spain you might get a different response.
 
ic1male said:
I often wonder how you are thought of depending on whether you speak with the Castillian lisp or the Latin dialects. e.g. if I was in Argentina and said 'rice' as 'arroth' instead of 'arros' would they look at you funny. :D
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Parts of Spain such as Castillia and Madrid have the lisp but latin American countries that speak Spanish tend not to use that method.
 
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