Unos pensamientos en aprender los idiomas

[Tomisimo]

Este es un lugar donde yo puedo hacer x.
Busco un lugar donde yo pueda hacer x.

In the first one, you've already found the place, so you use the indicative. In the second example, you haven't yet found the place, so you use the subjunctive.

[irmamar]

Hello gatitoverde

Maybe it's useful to know that subjunctive is not used in simple sentences, but in compound sentences. Look at the examples Tomísimo gave, the first are two independent sentences, the second is a compound sentence, where the one which uses the subjunctive is a clause which depends on the first one. Look at the things which are required:

(The following sentences can be said alone and they have their own meaning, they are not depending one from the other)

Éste es un lugar (this sentence has its own meaning, it doesn't depend on anything)
(donde) yo puedo hacer x (another independent sentence, with its own meaning)

(The following ones are interdependent, one needs the other to get the meaning)

Busco un lugar... (don't you think that something is missing here?, this is the principal clause)
(donde) yo pueda hacer x (another sentence without meaning by itself, it depends on the first one and here subjunctive is used)

It's a bit difficult for me to explain these things in English, I hope you'll understand.

Sorry, now I've realized that this thread was old. I must beg your pardon.

[CrOtALiTo]

Iramamar, I think that this thread is very as old that I don't think so that gatitoverde can see your examples, but your explain was very useful.

[EmpanadaRica]

¡Hola a todos!

I wholeheartedly agree and can attest to most of what is written here (even if I have only been learning Spanish for some 2 months). In fact I know someone else who has used a similar approach to learning Dutch (with using a similar 'manual' ) and with very impressive results withing 6 months!

Obviously a lot depends on how much time you have, but I must say I agree with all that gatitoverde wrote here.

I have a few suggestions for sites (as internet is indeed a great tool for this!!!) that might help students of Spanish achieve/ realize or facilitate some of the steps written here. I know they have been very helpful to me and perhaps they will be helpful for others also.


1. Audiomaterial/ podcasts:

- http://www.audiria.com
Many free podcasts on 5 different levels (absolute beginner to advanced) in different forms such as conversations, bits of paper/news, radio and tv, including full free transcripts and doanloadable mp3's.

- http://www.spanishnewsbites.com
Many free podcasts on 3 different levels (beginner, intermediate and advanced) including free transcripts, some bits of video as well. These are taken from what has been on the news in Spain (topical).

- http://www.learnoutloud.com/Podcast-...guages/Spanish
Many free podcasts often with free transcripts as well, ranging from beginner' s level to advanced.

Video & TV:

1. http://www.lingus.tv
Free Spanish video's inclusing full transcripts in Spanish and English
on three levels (beginner, intermediate and advianced).

2. http://my.spanishdict.com/learn/browse/1
http://my.spanishdict.com/learn/browse/2
http://my.spanishdict.com/learn/browse/3

Many free educational video' s (beginner/ beginner to intermediate level) with explanations in English. This site also includes flashcards and other exercises.

3. BBC Learning Zone: http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/spanish/
Regular updates with video' s and podcasts for beginners and intermediate to advanced students.

This interactive videocourse called 'Mi vida loca' offers over 20 free lessons for beginners and is quite good Iand fun think.


4. http://www.rollingrs.com/
Offers many free educational video's (others can be purchased, so not all is free).

5. http://www.rtve.es/alacarta/
Free online video' s from TVE (Spanish tv network).

6. http://www.cervantestv.es/
Free video' s and documentaries.

7. http://www.tusseries.com
Many Spanish versions of American tv series can be downloaded here. You need to register though and you need to have emule. (Subtitles can be easily found online on many sites, e.g. here. You just need to put that file in the same directory as the avi/ video file and give it the same name).

8. http://www.celebratelanguages.com/spanish.html
Free video' s (beginner' s level) and a lot of information on learning Spanish and some good resources.

9. http://multilingualbooks.com/online-tv-spanish.html
Spanish tv (most times live, and local), from many different countries.

10. This site also offers many free Spanish video's , some educational (not all!!).

Music, Radio and Lyics:

1. http://multilingualbooks.com/online-radio-spanish.html
Spanish radio, many stations via livestream

2. http://www.espana.fm/
Spanish radio, many stations via livestream

3. http://www.spanicity.com/musica/index.php
Many Spanish songs with sontext in Spanish and English translations.



Verbs/ grammar/vocabulary:
1. http://www.verbix.com/languages/spanish.shtml
Very good conjugator of verbs, also for many other languages.

2. http://www.helloworld.com.es/English.../spanishvm.htm
Free software to train verbs and conjugations.

3. http://www.ver-taal.com/telediario.htm
Site containing many different kinds of exercises, also some good listening exercises.

4. http://www.wartoft.nu/software/selingua/
Free software to learn about 2000 words in Spanish (you can probably add some yourself as well, haven' t done that myself yet), gives several different exercises, such as velocity, the odd one out, active recognition and filling out, cosswords.


Books (ebooks, audiobooks, literature, reading in general):

1. http://www.eldigoras.com/
A lot of information online about literature in Spanish.

2. http://www.cervantesvirtual.com/
Biblioteca Virtual Miguel Cervantes (containing many free ebooks/ documents).

3. http://www.albalearning.com
Many free audiobooks in Spanish to listen to online, also downloadable.

4. http://www.leerescuchando.net/audiobks.php
Many free audiobooks in Spanish, downloadable after registration (free).

5. Librivox
This site is run by volunteers. About 30 Spanish audiobooks can be downloaded free of charge (most are in English).

6. http://www.greylib.net/?category=spanish
Free ebooks and audiobooks, downloadable after registering.

7. http://www.wordchamp.com/lingua2/Reader.do
Very handy ' reader' (can also be used for Spanish to English!).
You can read texts of e.g. 'El Mundo' , 'El País' or in fact load any url of any Spanish text/ website. Just hover over the word and it will give you possible translations including the pronuncation in Spanish and English.


Pronunciation:
The following sites are also good resources for students of English or other languages:

1. http://www.forvo.com/languages/es/
Large database with many Spanish words pronounced. You can download it into mp3's. You can also request pronunciations (in that case you need to register).

2. http://swac-collections.org/?lang=spa
Similarly, a large database of pronunciations of Spanish words, downloadable.

3. http://www.internetpolyglot.com/lessons-es-en
47 free lessons (topic based) of vocabulary including pronunciations. Also exercises included with every lesson.

Language exchange/community/tandems/penpals:
The first 2 also contain exercises.

1. http://www.babbel.com

2. http://www.livemocha.com

3. http://www.linguanet-europa.org/plus/welcome.htm

3. http://www.interpals.com


Hope you will find these sites as helpful as I found them!

¡ Buena suerte!

[EmpanadaRica]

¡Hola a todos!, hello everyone!

Well this site is also for Spanish people learning English.

So maybe I have some useful links as well for native Spanish speakers learning English.

Audio/Podcasts:

1. http://www.bbc.co.uk/learning/subjects/english.shtml
Many podcasts and radioprograms, regularly updated. Also educational.

2. http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/
Many free podcasts, targetting grammar specifically. Suitable especially for intermediate to advanced students who want to patch up some of the finer points of English grammar.
The podcasts can be downloaded free of charge including the full transcript.

3. http://www.learnoutloud.com/Podcast-...guages/English
Many free podcasts many times including transcripts.


Free ebooks or audiobooks:

1. http://librivox.org/
Many free audiobooks in English can be downloaded here. The site is run by volunteers.

2. http://www.free-ebooks.net/
Another site with many free ebooks that you can download once you have registered. (I have not used this one yet so I don' t know how many they have. )


3. http://www.e-book.com.au/freebooks.htm
Links to digital libraries.

4. http://www.getfreeebooks.com/
Free ebooks on many subjects.

5. http://manybooks.net/
Over 24.000 free ebooks...

6. http://freeclassicaudiobooks.com/
Many free classical audiobooks.Downloadable.

7. http://www.audiobooksforfree.com/screen_main.asp
Many free audiobooks. Downloadable.

8. http://www.greylib.net/?category=english
Many free audiobooks and ebooks, literature in English.


Tools/software:

1. http://www.wartoft.nu/software/selingua/
Selingua is also suitable for people learning English (large vocabulary database).

2. http://www.wordchamp.com/lingua2/Reader.do
Very handy ' reader'
You can read texts of e.g. 'The Times', or in fact load any url of any Spanish text/ website. Just hover over the word and it will give you possible translations including the pronuncation in Spanish and English.

3. http://www.verbix.com/languages/english.shtml
Online tool for conjugations of verbs.


Online Radio and TV:

1. http://multilingualbooks.com/online-tv-english-us.html
Many TV stations (US).

2. http://multilingualbooks.com/online-...ish-other.html
Many English TV stations (non-US)

3. http://beelinetv.com/free_english_tv/

4. http://www.blinkx.com
Large collection of links to sites (such as Megavideo) containing lots of English/ American series. You can download them & add your own subtitles which you can find online e.g. here .
Free English TV channels.

5. http://www.england.fm
Many English radiostations

6. http://www.america.fm
Many American radiostations.



Pronunciation:

1. http://www.forvo.com/languages/en/
Large database with many English words pronounced. You can download it into mp3's. You can also request pronunciations (in that case you need to register).

2. http://swac-collections.org/?lang=eng
Large database of pronunciation of English words.

3. http://www.internetpolyglot.com/lessons-en-es
45 free lessons in vocabulary, including pronunciation and exercises.


Language exchange/community/tandems/penpals:
The first 2 also contain exercises.

1. http://www.babbel.com

2. http://www.livemocha.com

3. http://www.linguanet-europa.org/plus/welcome.htm

3. http://www.interpals.com


¡Buena suerte! Good luck!

[irmamar]

¡Qué barbaridad de enlaces! ¡Cuánto trabajo has tenido! Thanks

[EmpanadaRica]

Originally Posted by irmamar

¡Qué barbaridad de enlaces! ¡Cuánto trabajo has tenido! Thanks

¡Pues, de nada!

Sí, tienes razón..But I hope it will be worth it for everyone here, in terms of benefitting from these sites the same way I have.

Ps: Me encanta muchisimo esta expresión : 'qué barbaridad!'

[irmamar]

¡Qué barbaridad, qué exageración, qué pasada, qué burrada, cuánto curro (= trabajo),...! Aquí tenemos muchas expresiones

[CarmenCarmona]

Originally Posted by gatitoverde

I'm honored. I've come to appreciate this site as much as a place to help out others who share my passion for learning language as for the invaluble information I can glean from its members. Thank you. And all corrections are welcome.

Me honras. Vengo a estimar este sitio tanto como un lugar para ayudar a otros que comparten un pasión común al aprender los idiomas como para la información que puedo recoger de los integrantes. Gracias. Y todas correciones son bienvenidas.

Yo diría: he llegado a apreciar este sitio [...] una pasión (es femenino) común POR aprender [...] como POR la valiosísima información que puedo OBTENER ('recoger' suena raro) [...] LAS correCCiones

'Puedo' está bien, es presente simple indicativo en ese caso.

Vale, me acabo de dar cuenta de que tu post era viejo! perdona!

Ah! y también te quería decir que hay algo llamado 'concordancers' en inglés que pones una palabra y te salen todos los contextos en los que se puede utilizar, no sé si existirá alguno en español. Creo que el area de investigación se llama 'Lingüística del corpus computacional'
También puedes decir 'que se puede obtener de sus miembros'

[Eerie]

I agree with you OP, especially on your last advice.
Whenever I've tried memorizing ANYTHING, and put an effort on memorizing it, it usually works on reverse. But when I understand something and move on it's most likely I'm gonna remember it.

Also, can you recommend a few bands to listen?
I'm interested in Rock/Metal/Jazz/Funk/Fusion but also in Latin/Salsa/Flamenco etc.
edit:Seems like OP hasn't been online in 2 years :-(