How many hours a week do you learn Spanish?

[Sir Senor]

And do you think that's enough or do you feel you should be trying harder?

Between 5-10 for me. I think I could probably try harder to be honest. But I think after about an hour I start to lose concentration.

[Premium]

I think it's much better to learn every day for 15-30 minutes than 2-3 hours in a week. It also depends on what you currently learn.

[Sir Senor]

Originally Posted by Premium

I think it's much better to learn every day for 15-30 minutes than 2-3 hours in a week. It also depends on what you currently learn.

What makes you say that?

[chileno]

Excellent question, and I agree with both.

The academic hour is about 45 to 50 minutes, right? And that's because it was found, long time ago, that the mind begins to lose concentration, so the student should take a 10 minutes break to re-start another period. That's the theory, in practice schools don't follow it.

Now, that notion should be a good one to follow if you, as working adult, have that kind of time.

[Sir Senor]

Originally Posted by chileno

Excellent question, and I agree with both.

The academic hour is about 45 to 50 minutes, right? And that's because it was found, long time ago, that the mind begins to lose concentration, so the student should take a 10 minutes break to re-start another period. That's the theory, in practice schools don't follow it.

Now, that notion should be a good one to follow if you, as working adult, have that kind of time.

That's a relief. I worry it's just a problem with my mind in general

Do you think 5-10 hours per week is enough?

[Premium]

Originally Posted by Sir Senor

That's a relief. I worry it's just a problem with my mind in general

Do you think 5-10 hours per week is enough?

How do you split your time? It should just keep you motivated. It'd frustrate you, if you'd learn several hours a day, which will result in a discouragement.

[chileno]

Again, it's a matter of personal taste, endurance and whatever else comes to mind.

You can study 3 or 4 hours a day, as long as you take a 10 minutes break every 45 to 50 minutes of study, if you have money or someone to support you while you are doing this, and you keep the interest in it.

I personally had to "steal" time.

I found myself having two jobs. 8am to 5pm (Monday thru Saturday), get out at 5 and spend almost the whole hour on the freeway to get to the second job at 6pm which would last until midnight.

Now, as you can see I didn't have much time to study anything, so what I did was take advantage of my breaks, 10 minutes in the morning and 10 minutes in the afternoon and then 30 minutes lunch. During those breaks I would follow my method of study. I also "stole" about 15 or 20 minutes (one sitting, literally) for bathroom time a day. During the evening I didn't have much time for anything except when I came back home at night and I ate something while studying a bit more and then it was "sack" time and everything all over again. Sunday I woke up as always and start my 2 to 3 rounds of 45 minutes with their respective 10 minutes breaks.

That did it. Now, I wish I would've had all the conveniences/commodities available today AKA the Internet. it would've been easier........

[Sir Senor]

Originally Posted by Premium

How do you split your time? It should just keep you motivated. It'd frustrate you, if you'd learn several hours a day, which will result in a discouragement.

Well I normally do about 1 hour doing a CD, have a break and then listen to a Spanish music CD. Right now I'm listening to Soda Stereo. So an hour of that would be learning the actual words and language with the proper course CD and the rest of the time would be Spanish music, film and practising writing Spanish. I do this about 5 days a week.

Originally Posted by chileno

Again, it's a matter of personal taste, endurance and whatever else comes to mind.

You can study 3 or 4 hours a day, as long as you take a 10 minutes break every 45 to 50 minutes of study, if you have money or someone to support you while you are doing this, and you keep the interest in it.

I personally had to "steal" time.

I found myself having two jobs. 8am to 5pm (Monday thru Saturday), get out at 5 and spend almost the whole hour on the freeway to get to the second job at 6pm which would last until midnight.

Now, as you can see I didn't have much time to study anything, so what I did was take advantage of my breaks, 10 minutes in the morning and 10 minutes in the afternoon and then 30 minutes lunch. During those breaks I would follow my method of study. I also "stole" about 15 or 20 minutes (one sitting, literally) for bathroom time a day. During the evening I didn't have much time for anything except when I came back home at night and I ate something while studying a bit more and then it was "sack" time and everything all over again. Sunday I woke up as always and start my 2 to 3 rounds of 45 minutes with their respective 10 minutes breaks.

That did it. Now, I wish I would've had all the conveniences/commodities available today AKA the Internet. it would've been easier........

Sounds like you really struggled for time. How long did it take you doing that before you felt you had a decent enough understanding of the leanguage to say you "speak it" and what language were you learning? Your native language says Spanish. And also how were you learning?

Sorry for all the q's

[AngelicaDeAlquezar]

@Sir Senor: You might find this thread useful, together with the answers you've got so far.

[chileno]

Originally Posted by Sir Senor

Sounds like you really struggled for time. How long did it take you doing that before you felt you had a decent enough understanding of the leanguage to say you "speak it" and what language were you learning? Your native language says Spanish. And also how were you learning?

Sorry for all the q's

No problem.

I came to this country from Chile when I was 25 y.o. I had some English because of school. Regular stuff, how are you, my name is, I live on/in/at and a lot of vocabulary. All loose stuff.

I started to translate a novel from English to Spanish, I learned my method as I went along, I realized I had no problem when I read a novel in English almost with no help from a dictionary. I did this because people would tell me that I spoke English and I would say no, that just understood some, but here they were, people that have been in the country years before I did and I considered them that they spoke English () they were telling that I did instead speak better English that they did. So one afternoon, around 14 months after arriving to this country, went to a Thrifty store and bought a novel, and read it in a week or two.

It took me, about 1 or 1 and half year more to speak more fluently. But I stopped all the exercises and practices at around 14 months or maybe 13. Americans would not believe I didn't speak English before coming to the country and I didn't know grammar. I still don't.