My tips for learning Spanish 4

[Manuel]

http://www.casadellibro.com/
http://es.wikihow.com/Portada
http://www.peopleenespanol.com/
http://laguiatv.abc.es/
http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Portada
http://www.comprarcasa.com/
http://www.loquo.com/ebay/
http://www.lasestrellas.com/
http://www.miguiatv.com/
http://www.psicologia-online.com/
http://www.justlanded.com/espanol/Espana
http://as.com/
http://cincodias.com/
http://www.meristation.com/
http://www.lalistawip.com/
http://www.cuatro.com/
http://www.plus.es/
http://www.indicedepaginas.com/
http://www.renfe.com/
http://www.asifunciona.com/
http://www.criticasderestaurantes.es/
https://es.yahoo.com/
http://www.paraquesirve.net/enciclop...677101814.97.8
http://www.amazon.com/Books/b/ref=sv...F8&node=301731
http://www.dalealplay.com/
http://www.hola.com/
https://www.airbnb.es/
http://www.yelp.es/amsterdam?utm_cam...e=%28direct%29
http://www.loteriasyapuestas.es/es
http://www.amazon.es/gp/site-directo...367568-6377427
http://leerlibrosonline.es/
http://eljovenlovecraft.blogspot.nl/
http://listocomics.com/
http://vocabulariodeingles.blogspot....denadores.html
http://es.susanmiller.com/
http://www.directorio-blogs.com/index.php?c=13
http://eu.spf.com/
http://www.mcu.es/cultura20/web/gues...a/cultural/mcu
http://www.barcelonareview.com/cas/index.html
http://www.circulobellasartes.com/
http://www.cervantesvirtual.com/bib/seccion/literatura/
http://www.rae.es/
http://www.elcastellano.org/
http://toyoutome.es/
http://elpais.com/
http://cinemania.es/
http://as.com/
http://www.santillana.es/
http://los40.com/
http://www.huffingtonpost.es/
http://motormercado.as.com/motormercado/
http://www.meristation.com/
http://www.skype.com/es/
http://chistescortos.yavendras.com/
http://www.1000chistes.com/
http://www.chistes.com/ChisteDelDia.asp
http://chistescortosbuenos.com/
https://espanol.free-ebooks.net/eboo...ud-Tao-Te-King
http://www.nationalgeographic.com.es/
http://www.recetas.net/
http://www.cosmohispano.com/
http://www.ehowenespanol.com/
http://www.britannica.es/
http://www.red2000.com/spain/1index.html
http://www.visitlondon.com/es
http://www.paris.es/
http://www.amsterdam.es/
http://www.efesalud.com/
http://www.lumosity.com/landing_pages/566
http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portal:Artes_Marciales
http://www.repelis.tv/7611/pelicula/unleashed.html
https://es.khanacademy.org/
http://www.frasedehoy.com/
http://www.todocine.com/
http://www.leitz.com/es-ES/
http://www.emprendovenezuela.net/201...hen-covey.html
http://revistamujeres.cl/hablame-suc...24/213128.html
http://www.lasrevistas.com/
http://www.rtve.es/
http://www.aragontelevision.es/
http://cadenaser.com/
http://vertelenovelas.net/
http://www.teledirecto.es/
http://www.tvgratis.tv/ver-televisio...de-espana.html
http://wwitv.com/television/191.htm
http://www.antena3.com/
http://www.tutelevisiononline.com/tv/canales/Espana
http://cnnespanol.cnn.com/
http://www.lavanguardia.com/index.html
http://musica.terra.com/
http://www.mundolatino.org/musica/
http://www.deseoaprender.com/PagInfBasica.htm
http://fotografiadigitalparanovatos.blogspot.nl/
http://www.internetparanovatos.com/
https://www.youtube.com/user/tutorialeswebnovatos
http://www.foros.net/
http://www.sitiosespana.com/director...ros-espana.htm
http://www.womenalia.com/es/blogs
http://blogs.elle.es/
http://www.telva.com/blogs/
http://www.divinity.es/blogs/
http://www.glamour.es/blogs
http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Spanish/Slang
http://www.languagerealm.com/spanish/spanishslang.php
http://www.succeed-at-spanish.com/spanish-idioms.html


Writing
If you want to improve your writing, I think the most fun way is to simply keep a diary in Spanish. Lots of people keep diaries anyway. If you are learning a new language, why not simply switch to writing your diary in the new language? I think this is definitely one of the things that helped me to improve my English. I have been writing down stuff about myself and my thoughts and my life and goals etc. in English for many years now, and I am totally at ease with it.

At first you won’t be able to write a lot, of course, so it’s probably not very useful in the beginning. But if you have achieved a high enough level so that you can express most of your thoughts fairly well in speech, you can easily start a Spanish diary and write about your life. It’s a great way to practice writing because you achieve two things at once: you learn to improve your writing AND you are working on a diary at the same time. Again, I recommend doing this in electronic form. It’s much easier to correct typos etc. I use a software program called The Journal. It’s really great, very easy to use.

Well, this is it! Those are my tips. I use all of them myself (except maybe writing a diary in Spanish. I have written down a few things, but I don’t feel too comfortable with it yet) and they work for me. I think they will work for you, too, if you apply them.

[Glen]

Many thanks for all four of your posts, Manuel. I read them all and will refer back to them frequently, plus recommend them to friends who are learning. Great job!

[Manuel]

Thank you very much for the kind words, Glen. I am glad you find them helpful.

[Julvenzor]

Yo no recomiendo, ni nunca lo haré, practicar escritura mediante la lectura periódicos o páginas web relacionadas. Desconozco cómo sea en otros países; pero en España, nuestro idioma muere en boca de los periodistas por las siguientes razones:


En el mundo hispanohablante:

1) Cometen barbarismos continuos = El aprendiz supone que así lo dicen todos.
2) Cometen calcos semánticos = El aprendiz supone erróneamente que un sustantivo o verbos significa lo mismo.
3) Comenten malempleo del gerundio = El aprendiz supone que funciona exactamente igual al inglés.
4) Cometen discordancia de clíticos = Confuden al aprendiz con "le" y "les".
5) Conjugan el verbo "haber" cuando actúa de forma impersonal = Confuden al aprendiz con "hubo"/"hubieron", "hay"/"han".
6) Cometen hipercorrecciones ortográficas.


En España, además, habría que sumar:


1) Leísmo, en sus distintos grados (sólo hombres; hombres y animales) = Confunden a los aprendices y éstos no saben ya si un es verbo transitivo o intransitivo.
2) Laísmo, cada vez más presente como consecuencia directa del leísmo = Terminan de liar a los aprendices.
3) Leísmo femenino por hipercorreción para no incurrir en laísmo = Hacen pensar que los pronombres se usan en español como quien echa sal.
4) Malempleo del imperativo "vosotros" = Confuden a los aprendices.
5) Tuteo excesivo y pérdida del respeto en situaciones claramente formales = Hacen pensar que el "usted" se ha extinguido.


Yo pondría un especial hincapié en la literatura. Aun así, también existe la posibilidad de encontrarse con susodichas agramaticalidades. Si quiere leer una novela requetebuena y con un cuidado casi parental del idioma, espere a que publicare mi novela.

Pese a todo, agradezco como quien más esa pedazo de lista que nos ha brindado. Cualquiera diría que está obsesionado (en sentido positivo) con mi lengua.

Un saludo.

[AngelicaDeAlquezar]

@Julvenzor: I agree that it's good for learners to be aware of the "dangers" of dealing with the mistakes native speakers make, but it's the learner who decides what their expectations on learning and speaking a language must be.

It depends on what you want to learn: how language is used by its speakers so you can communicate effectively with most of them, or its most academic "pureness"; you may learn the best and most educated form of a language and not understand the waiter in the restaurant.

The best form of language to learn is the one that suits the learner's needs and preferences.

[Desmond]

This is a tip I picked up when learning morse code as a Merchant Navy Radio Officer.

Get notice cards from a stationary shop. On one side put the word or sentence and the English on the other side. Now shuffle them like a pack of cards. If you get it wrong keep to one side and re learn them before putting them back into the pack. Repeat until all are correct. The use of a small white board and pen can also be useful as it saves a lot of paper.

Desmond.

[Manuel]

@Angelica: I couldn't agree with this more, Angelica! I am sure that native Spanish speakers make plenty of mistakes in their own language. God knows I make plenty in my own! (Dutch). No native speaker speaks their own language perfectly. That's not really the point. I want to learn a foreign language well enough to be understood. That is all. I don't need to speak without an accent or with perfect grammar, even. As long as it's good enough to be considered a pretty educated level of speech I am very happy!

I certainly don't pretend to have all the answers as how best to learn a foreign language, but the tips I wrote about have certainly helped ME. I think that they can help other people, too. I like Spanish a lot, but I find it quite frustrating at the same time too! It's quite different from Dutch in many respects, which makes it a challenging language for us.

It's funny how people often talk about a language being "difficult" or "easy" but I think you can't call any language difficult or easy in an objective sense. It all depends on the language you are coming from. For example, lots of people from my country (the Netherlands) consider Spanish pretty difficult, but for an Italian Spanish is quite easy! Simply because it's very similar to their own language!

So it all depends on what your native language is whether a language will be difficult or easy for you. Even Chinese, which many consider an extremely hard language, would be a lot easier for a Japanese person, for instance, since the written form of it is almost identical, as far as I know!

In any case, Spanish has a completely different syntax and manner of expression compared to Dutch, which makes it quite challenging, which is why I'm trying to find as many tools as possible to help me understand it better, and that includes newspapers, youtube videos, websites and anything I can find.

[poli]

Your English is good. I'm sure you know that this helps you with Spanish vocabulary.

[Cloudgazer]

@Manuel: ¡Guau! Gracias por la lista de fuentes.

@Julvenzor: Muchas gracias por remarcar los peligros en potencia encontrados por aprendices de español a través de los medios de comunicación. Me recuerda de la reacción de un tutor cuando usaba formas que he oído muchas veces por la radio escuchando las noticias. También, recuerdo lo frustrante que era para no poder confiar en los medios profesionales para aprender bien un español bien aceptado.

@AdA: Como siempre, una voz de la razón perspicaz.

[Doncruz]

I would recommend reading spanish novels specifically writen for the spanish learner, something like Mariana Ferrer "Amor a Primera Vista" and the like. Those are easy reads for starters that are not too easy (like children books) and not too hard (like old spanish in Don Quijote).