You can find here many great and free resources for Spanish learning

[Voytek]

http://www.tellittomewalking.com/60-useful-resources-to-learn-read-write-and-speak-spanish-right-now/

[Aprendo]

^ Gracias, will check it out.

I've been watching youtube every day / Estoy leyendo youtube todo los dias.

[AngelicaDeAlquezar]

Originally Posted by Aprendo

Estoy leyendo viendo/mirando youtube todo los dias.

"Leer" is for only reading activities.

That's a good exercise, by the way. One learns to acquire some "feeling" for the foreign language.

[Voytek]

If you want to massively improve your learning speed, you should carefully read this, guys:

http://tipsforlanguagelearning.tumblr.com/post/40081169302/the-rl-lr-learning-method

I`ve been using this method for 4 days and I`m amazed with my comprehension level improvement.

Now, I`m reading `The Little Prince` in my native language and simultaneosly I`m listening to Spanish audiobook. It`s an amazing adventure to learn language that way.

Just be patient and read it all (about this Polish method).

You can easily find Spanish audiobooks on youtube and download them in mp3 files by using this:

http://www.clipconverter.cc/

It`s only a matter of finding texts translated into your native language or into a language that you can understand without any problems. I`m using Polish texts because there are `some` words in English that I haven`t known yet.

Also you can change tempo of any soundtrack by using this application:

http://www.audacityteam.org/

And to save it in mp3 format, you need to install this application (it`s an addition for Audiacity):

http://lame.buanzo.org/#lamewindl

It`s easy, just spend some time to read this and make these simple steps to improve your Spanish easily.

Good luck, boys!

[Voytek]

What do you think about using the Google Translate for translating pieces of informations from individualy picked articles (in target language, of course) and listening to their reading by using the sound option implemented in this online application? It works like L-R method and you have word to word translation.

Or maybe it`s better to search audio articles with approppriate text record and translate them by using this application...

[Rusty]

Leave translation to humans that are skilled in translation. Leave speaking a language to humans, as well. Machine translation and reading are not accurate.

Find audio books/articles and listen to them, or watch movies, if you have no access to native speakers.

[AngelicaDeAlquezar]

As an automatic translator, Google is far better than Bing, which is lame in all languages; I have used Google translator for Swedish, German or Dutch into English, and it does a pretty decent job. It's normally full of flaws, but the main ideas can be understood quite easily. But, gosh, Spanish-to-English and English-to-Spanish are really terrible. Sometimes half of what has been written is lost and the "translation" is impossible to follow (same for French).

I personally prefer to have foreign languages translated into English, because Google seems to have set its attention there and programmers in other languages are not as good, but I definitely only recommend it for one or two difficult sentences, not whole webpages or as a reading alternative. As Rusty says, machines can't do a human's job and there are plenty of resources in practically every target language available online to learn and practice.

[Voytek]

Of course, I only use it to get a gist of what I`m reading but I found a couple a weeks ago that Spanish is quite familiar to Polish at logical level because word order doesn`t affect sentences meaning. Besides, translation accuracy is very high. Anyway, could you suggest me some sources wher you can find Spanish audio with English text translations? I want to check it out and see, if it`s more useful for me than using `my method`.

[AngelicaDeAlquezar]

Sorry, I don't know if there are any because I have never looked for them. On principle, I never translate for learning, as that makes me clumsier in my target language; I prefer to make the efforts to think in the foreign language and that has been far more fruitful.

What I can recommend though, is this website, where you can read some news in Spanish and at the same time you can hear the same text read by people from Spain.
I have found this method --reading and listening to the same text-- quite helpful to improve my listening comprehension. I hope it works for you too.

[Voytek]

AngelicaDeAlquezar

How can I start thinking in Spanish? I`ve heard that it`s the best way to learn languages but I don`t have a clue how to sart learning that way. I know a lot of Spanish grammar and the basic Spanish vocabulary.

[poli]

If you are confident with you grammar and vocabulary, find someone to speak to, and you will start thinking in that language. This may also happen when reading. Eventually you wont feel the need to translate everything you read to Polish or English, and you will find yourself thinking in Spanish.

[AngelicaDeAlquezar]

Originally Posted by Voytek

How can I start thinking in Spanish? I`ve heard that it`s the best way to learn languages but I don`t have a clue how to sart learning that way. I know a lot of Spanish grammar and the basic Spanish vocabulary.

I agree with Poli.

I will add that learning "disconnected" pieces of language makes it harder to actually understand how a language works. It's far better to learn bits of language in context. That's why conversational methods are so popular, and also the reason why most language courses start by "finding oneself" in the foreign language.
For example, let's suppose this is your very first lesson and you're taught the first sentence to introduce yourself:

- Me llamo Dolores.
It doesn't matter what the exact translation is. You understand this person's name is Dolores.

- ¿Cómo te llamas?
The question is addressed to you. In context, you know that told you her name, so you're supposed to respond with yours. And you already know what sentence will be needed to say it.

Now you know "me llamo" for "me" and "te llamas" for "you". The next exercises will include more people and you didn't need a translation to start comfortably conjugating the verb "llamarse" and its pronouns.

Taking simple situations and associate sentences with them works far better for me than taking a sentence and try to understand it without a meaningful context. After I master the sentence in that situation, I usually try to apply this kind of sentence to other contexts (which usually involve making a lot of mistakes and learning new things). At first, writing sentences is all I can do. Then I can write paragraphs.
I'm not very fond of Skype exchanges and the like so my speaking capabilities are rather limited. Yet, when I can have someone to help me, I set the level that suits me, and they react with corrections and hints for improvement (there's no reason why this wouldn't work in Skype anyway).

I think it's just a matter of finding what works better for you to start producing sentences in the foreign language and do it. Also, we have to internalize that we'll make mistakes, we'll find difficult issues and we won't be perfect as we start. Go ahead using what you know and don't be afraid of corrections, as they're the basis for improvement. Practice makes perfect.

[Voytek]

I see. Thank you very much for your advice, guys.

Tell me, what do you think about usig L-R method?

You can use these books (21 books in Spanish) for L-R method learning:

http://www.farkastranslations.com/bilingual_books.php

And free audiobooks from here:

https://librivox.org/