Some good ways to learn Spanish

[Villa]

I was a Spanish bilingual teacher for 23 years teaching SSL as well as ESL. Then I taught high school Spanish for 7 years as well as working as a sub after retirement in high school Spanish classes. At night I taught ESL to Spanish speaking adults for 15 years. Right now I'm in my 4th year teching Italian to adults.

At any rate in order to learn Spanish or anyother language the most important thing you need is "ganas." That desire to learn. Take learning Spanish as a fun hobby and you'll do just fine.

Some of the best ways of learning Spanish are:

1. Read Spanish out loud. You have to go back and take a whole new look at oral outloud reading. Think about it. When you're reading Spanish outloud you're speaking Spanish and you never run out of something to say.

2. Get audio books on CD in Spanish and listen to them constantamente.
Listen them in your car, at home, while walking or riding your bike.

3. Watch Spanish TV novelas. Novelas have all the words that go with all the human emotions. I noticed that I learned more Spanish in a few weeks from watching Spanish novelas than from months and years of just trying to learn Spanish. Movies and TV programs in general are good to watch in Spanish.

4. Make flash cards with you Spanish vocabulary. Take your flash cards with you everywhere you go. Make them your constant friends with you everywhere. Take them out frequentemente and study them.

5. Carry a small bilingual Spanish dictionary with you everywhere you go and study it todo el tiempo.

6. Listen to Spanish music on the radio and on CDs. Do an internet search and print out the lyrics to the Spanish songs.

7. Take Spanish classes and or go to school in a Spanish speaking country. I went to school and lived with
a Mexican family in San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato, Mexico.

8. Make friends of Spanish speakers. Try to speak to everyone and anyone you can in Spanish

9. Get a Spanish speaking girlfriend or boyfriend or do like I have and marry a Spanish speaker. :D

[irmamar]

These ways are good for learning English, too. About the last one, I married with a half Italian man, so I'm not going to change him for an English man, of course :love: :D

I see that you're bilingual (ganas, constantemente,... -but frecuentemente is spelled with "c" ;) - ) :D

[Villa]

These ways are good for learning English, too. About the last one, I married with a half Italian man, so I'm not going to change him for an English man, of course :love: :D

I see that you're bilingual (ganas, constantemente,... -but frecuentemente is spelled with "c" ;) - ) :D

Gracias Irmamar. Frequentamente is the Italian spelling.
As in Cuanto and Quanto.:)

A proposito. Check out the Italian vs Spanish thread. Molto interessante. Muy interesante.

[irmamar]

Yes, I've seen that thread. Io parlo un po' d'italiano, ma soltanto un po'. Forse io potre practicare là :thinking: :)

[EmpanadaRica]

Thanx for the tips/ list!! :thumbsup: :D

I'm doing most of the things you mentioned though just a few per day, and different ones each day. I.e. if one day I have practised listening a lot on tv or radio/ cd, I will try to write something, or talk in Spanish with a friend the next day (or on the forums here :p)

I am missing the 'podcasts' in your list though? To me sofar they have been very helpful, listening to them online or downloading them onto my mp3. They make for good practise on a variety of topic imho. :)

Don't have a Spanish boyfriend, but who knows in future.. :D (I am sure that would be the best practise of all .. :D :D Of Spanish of course.. :D)

[irmamar]

Laura, I have some single friends, if you're interested in find one :D

What would be the best method? For instance you can spend one day to practice listening, another one to practice speaking, etc. Or would it be better to do the different things in (on here :thinking:) the same day? The worse is the time, as always :(

[chileno]

Don't have a Spanish boyfriend, but who knows in future.. :D (I am sure that would be the best practise of all .. :D :D Of Spanish of course.. :D)

That method is called learning by "contact" (either half of full) ;) :D :lol:

:showoff:

[Villa]

Thanx for the tips/ list!! :thumbsup: :D

I'm doing most of the things you mentioned though just a few per day, and different ones each day. I.e. if one day I have practised listening a lot on tv or radio/ cd, I will try to write something, or talk in Spanish with a friend the next day (or on the forums here :p)

I am missing the 'podcasts' in your list though? To me sofar they have been very helpful, listening to them online or downloading them onto my mp3. They make for good practise on a variety of topic imho. :)

Don't have a Spanish boyfriend, but who knows in future.. :D (I am sure that would be the best practise of all .. :D :D Of Spanish of course.. :D)

Hola EmpanadaRica. Mucho gusto. Don't forget the outloud oral reading of Spanish.

If you don't have a Spanish speaking boyfriend yo soy disponible.:D

[CrOtALiTo]

Laura, I have some single friends, if you're interested in find one :D

What would be the best method? For instance you can spend one day to practice listening, another one to practice speaking, etc. Or would it be better to do the different things in (on here :thinking:) the same day? The worse is the time, as always :(

Why do you know to try writing in Spanish all the you post daily?

I believe that it's best way.

[irmamar]

I think you meant in English :) Sometimes I do, sometimes I don't :D

[pjt33]

Laura, I have some single friends, if you're interested in find one :D

What would be the best method? For instance you can spend one day to practice listening, another one to practice speaking, etc. Or would it be better to do the different things on:good: the same day? The worse is the time, as always :(
No me ocurre ninguna oración que contenga "in [article + modifier] day". "In [possessive pronoun] day", sí, pero en ese contexto "day" tiene el sentido de "época".

[CrOtALiTo]

I guess it.

Such I posting everyday waiting get better with the time.

ajajaj.

[Hiikaru]

1. Read Spanish out loud. You have to go back and take a whole new look at oral outloud reading. Think about it. When you're reading Spanish outloud you're speaking Spanish and you never run out of something to say.

This might not necessarily improve your vocabulary, but it's an excellent way to work on pronunciation and reading comprehension.

Also if you're reading, you can keep a dictionary around and check out any words you're unfamiliar with. When you're reading books in your native language, you don't automatically know everything, so you look up words or ask a relative or a teacher about the ones you don't know. Same concept.

Even if you don't know much, you can start out with some picture books and a dictionary to learn simple vocabulary.

I just kept a dictionary around when I spent some time translating Braille, and after a while of doing that I slowly started memorizing some of the letters.

Such I posting everyday waiting get better with the time.

Posting is a verb; it's something you do. So you should say "I'm posting" or "I am posting." to attach yourself to it. "I'm walking", "I'm drinking", "I'm eating", etc.

Also, "waiting to get", not "waiting get", although I don't have any interesting examples or explanations.

[Villa]

[QUOTE=Hiikaru;57065]This might not necessarily improve your vocabulary, but it's an excellent way to work on pronunciation and reading comprehension.

Hiikaru, If you get books that have conversations with the English translation then you'll have the meaning right there for you. Go to
book stores and buy books for learning Spanish that have conversations/dialogs with the English translation. Also go to used bookstores to find them. I can give you the names of several books that have many Spanish conversation/dialogs.

[chileno]

[QUOTE=Hiikaru;57065]This might not necessarily improve your vocabulary, but it's an excellent way to work on pronunciation and reading comprehension.

Hiikaru, If you get books that have conversations with the English translation then you'll have the meaning right there for you. Go to
book stores and buy books for learning Spanish that have conversations/dialogs with the English translation. Also go to used bookstores to find them. I can give you the names of several books that have many Spanish conversation/dialogs.

The key phrase/words is/are "might not necessarily..."

The fact is that nothing is necessarily true... ;)

[CrOtALiTo]

[QUOTE=Hiikaru;57065]This might not necessarily improve your vocabulary, but it's an excellent way to work on pronunciation and reading comprehension.

Hiikaru, If you get books that have conversations with the English translation then you'll have the meaning right there for you. Go to
book stores and buy books for learning Spanish that have conversations/dialogs with the English translation. Also go to used bookstores to find them. I can give you the names of several books that have many Spanish conversation/dialogs.

Something is true above your answer, but there are another methods in the human mind that can be used for the same user, I mean, if you go to the store books only will get books with dialogs and well you will be able to memorize the words and perhaps the main phrases, but never you'll be the practice that you can get speaking with people in the same language, and beforehand I can telling you that methods has worked for me before more that the books, perhaps you have even tried yet this method, but if you can do it, I can suggest that you do it then, already you will get more knowledge in the ambit of the same language.:)

[Hiikaru]

Hiikaru, If you get books that have conversations with the English translation then you'll have the meaning right there for you. Go to
book stores and buy books for learning Spanish that have conversations/dialogs with the English translation. Also go to used bookstores to find them. I can give you the names of several books that have many Spanish conversation/dialogs.

That's true, I completely forgot about books like that. It's easy to skip over the Spanish text, but if you're really using them to learn, you can just look at the translation if you're confused about a word.

We use to have some kind of story like that about a wind-up mouse, but it was really old and eventually fell apart.

I think there are probably several at the library here; they have Chinese/English books.

Something is true above your answer, but there are another methods in the human mind that can be used for the same user, I mean, if you go to the store books only will get books with dialogs and well you will be able to memorize the words and perhaps the main phrases, but never you'll be the practice that you can get speaking with people in the same language, and beforehand I can telling you that methods has worked for me before more that the books, perhaps you have even tried yet this method, but if you can do it, I can suggest that you do it then, already you will get more knowledge in the ambit of the same language.:)Yeah, it works really well to talk to people. If you're just reading, you're not exactly using the language, and translating words on a page from Spanish to English is a lot easier than coming up with your own dialogue, especially because many Spanish words are similar to English words, so they're easy to figure out.

I have a lot of foreign language Pokemon cards, and I can read the French and Italian ones just from context and similarities to English even though I've never studied either language. Like the move, "attaco rapido" (or something like that) on my Italian Eevee. Rapido is like rapid, the other word is like attack, so it must be a rapid attack, or as the game calls it, "Quick Attack".

Also, you end up having to correct yourself and rephrase things often to get your point across. I was talking to someone in Spanish the other day, and they didn't understand what I meant, so I kept saying it in a different way until they realized what I was talking about.

[CrOtALiTo]

That's true, I completely forgot about books like that. It's easy to skip over the Spanish text, but if you're really using them to learn, you can just look at the translation if you're confused about a word.

We use to have some kind of story like that about a wind-up mouse, but it was really old and eventually fell apart.

I think there are probably several at the library here; they have Chinese/English books.

Yeah, it works really well to talk to people. If you're just reading, you're not exactly using the language, and translating words on a page from Spanish to English is a lot easier than coming up with your own dialogue, especially because many Spanish words are similar to English words, so they're easy to figure out.

I have a lot of foreign language Pokemon cards, and I can read the French and Italian ones just from context and similarities to English even though I've never studied either language. Like the move, "attaco rapido" (or something like that) on my Italian Eevee. Rapido is like rapid, the other word is like attack, so it must be a rapid attack, or as the game calls it, "Quick Attack".

Also, you end up having to correct yourself and rephrase things often to get your point across. I was talking to someone in Spanish the other day, and they didn't understand what I meant, so I kept saying it in a different way until they realized what I was talking about.

Yes sometimes it's good to have some cards where you can red and practice at same time the phrase, also it's a good way to speaks with people in Spanish, my personal methods to learn the English, it's writes everyday in English just here in the forums, and with it enough.