New to spanish

New to spanish
 

Hi , I'm Ryan :)
I've been interested in learning a language for a long time but it seemed almost impossible for me.

I have been in a long term relationship now with a spanish girl
(ella de mallorca, I hope thats right, i started learning 5 days ago :thinking:)
which does help with the learning process.

I have just recently started, I tried rosetta stone peviously and found it wasn't much good.

I am currently doing about an hour of pimsleur a day starting 5 days ago and am finally making some progress, any suggestions ontop of this to help my learning would be greatly appreciated, i think i should be doing more.

I joined the forum in hope i could find solutions to my language problems here instead of pestering my girlfriend or her father for help.

I am also interested in looking for a spanish speaking partner from Spain to skype with.

I'm hoping i'll continue to make steady progress.

Thanks,
Ryan

Welcome to the forums, Ryan!

Having a Spanish girlfriend is certainly a good motivator for starting to learn Spanish.

You were close, and you did well for having started learning Spanish only 5 days ago.

Learning with Pimsleur is as good a method as any to start learning speak and listen to Spanish. An hour a day is a good amount, especially if you're also working a job or studying other subjects too.

Depending on your immediate and your long-term goals, you will probably want to get some other materials that might help you to better understand how Spanish grammar works as well as other audio materials to practice listening. And having a native speaker to converse with will help your listening and speaking skills a lot. You may also eventually want to find suitable material to read as well as find ways to practice writing.

Thanks for the advice

Shame, i was so close. i'll make sure to remember that though.

My long term goals are to be able to speak, read and write fluently.
I wanted to focus on just speaking and listening mainly, while i practise my reading and writing when i can as thats not my main concern at the moment.

I will continue my pimsleur for the next 3 months and hopefully when i've finished i should be a fairly good speaker.
I'm not expecting miracles but i'm hoping to be at a fairly fluent level.

You certainly can expect to be more fluent than you are now after 3 months working with Pimsleur for an hour a day.

Different scholars and language-training enterprises have tried to estimate how much effort and time it takes for an adult to learn a second language.

People differ, of course: some have an easier time than others, and a few find learning a second language to be particularly challenging. Most of the estimates that I have seen suggest that it takes somewhere around 1000 hours of classroom training or the equivalent for the average person to achieve an intermediate level of ability in using Spanish.

Good luck with Pimsleur Ryan! I have 16 of their lessons as well, but I have not really started in earnest yet. I'm very new here but I'll be very interested to see how you like those lessons. Keep at it!

radio

Welcome, Brother.

You definitely made a wise choice by purchasing Pimsleur. It's an awesomely amazing course. I, myself, purchased and completed the entire program a year ago and it most definitely set me on the right track. It such an amazing program that taught me more than I though imaginable.

If you have any questions about the program or Spanish, don't hesitate to ask. :)

Hola Ryan. Learning Spanish with a Spanish speaking girlfriend is
one of the best ways to learn Spanish. Es lo que yo hice/It's what I did to learn Spanish.

"I have just recently started, I tried rosetta stone peviously and found it wasn't much good." jajajajajajajaja=hahahahahaha... Have a friend who has been studying with Rosetta Stone for almost three years. He calls me all the time for translations. He never seems to break out of just beginning to learn Spanish. After years of studying Spanish he can't hold a simple conversation in Spanish and can't order a simple meal in Spanish. I was conversing in Spanish after only a few months of study. Of course I had a Spanish speaking girlfriend that only spoke to me in Spanish and many Spanish speaking friends. Watched TV in Spanish every day too. Listen only to Spanish radio etc. etc.