Learning Spanish

JoeKelly

As of late ive been becoming very interested in learnin spanish but dont know how to go about doing so! Unfortunatly there are no spanish resources near me and no one seems to want to teach it out here. I was lookin at the prospect of teaching my self from either a book or cd-rom but im not intirely sure about doing so! anyone have any recommendations on how i could go about learnin spanish? any ideas?

MojoMaker

I'd also be interested in finding out more about learning Spanish, so if anyone out there has decent links, numbers, contacts etc...please post.

Dun

Have you tried a local library? Usually there are cassette/cd-and-book courses for German/French/Italian/Spanish in most of them. Try before you buy, if you get my drift.

JoeKelly

Ah excellent the library! Thanks for the help!

TwoShedsJackson

I found the Michel Thomas Spanish 8 cd course pretty good - it's kind of expensive (about €100), and he doesn't use native speakers which is a bit of a drawback, but for learning the basics of sentence construction etc., it's the best by a mile.

After that you can concentrate on expanding your vocabulary by reading El Pais or watching that Spanish TV channel on Cablelink if you want to be frightened at how fast native speakers talk

Is there anywhere around where you can do Spanish courses with small classes or one-on-one even - I'd like to do something like that.

Lukin Black

Have a look around for evening classes round about now, or over the next month as the school term begins. Many schools have adult education classes (especially Community Schools - is there an obligation on them to offer Evening Classes? Everyone of them around here (well all 3 of them) offer them), and conversational Spanish is a popular choice.

p.pete

I used the German version of Michel Thomas and have to agree with TwoSheds that it is excellent. He does make some glaring ommisions from a grammer point of view (concentrated completly on the formal and you could be forgiven for thinking that there was no informal).

Also the fact that it is non native talkers, you don't really get an idea of the speed of the language, and this would probably be a larger problem with spanish. Overall though I would higly recommend it - after the eight hours you feel quite confident at building quite large sentences. With the addition of extra self thought grammer it's a really good start.

TwoShedsJackson

In fairness you have to know a German for about 50 years before you can address them informally so maybe that's why he didn't bother with the informal

The Spanish one he pretty much ignores the past tense, and has very few nouns mentioned, although he logically concentrates on the actual sentence building and then says you should go learn nouns etc. yourself, which is a more sensible idea.

Lukin Black

Originally posted by TwoShedsJackson
The Spanish one he pretty much ignores the past tense.

Well, I'm guessing it's because there are three tenses in normal use, making it a bit more cumbersome than French, for example. Not great in the Real World™ though. Strange not having native speakers - even those Teach Yourself books have native speakers.

p.pete

the idea with michel thomas is that it is a classroom for beginners. There is himself, 2 students - and a third student yourself.

The idea of having 2 others starting from scratch is good from a confidence point of view - 1 of them is usually fairly slow so you get to say to yourself "I'm doing better than him".

Lukin Black

Sounds interesting. I presume it's a video/book course then?

p.pete

no video, no book, no writing things down, just 8 cds - it works very well for what it is trying to achieve. You won't be fluent by the end but you do learn a hell of a lot, gives great confidence speaking and understanding of sentence structure etc.

TwoShedsJackson

Just back from the holidays in Spain, tried what little I'd learnt from Michel Thomas and it worked alright, of course understanding the reply is the main problem

However the folk I talked to seemed happy I at least tried unlike most of the other (mainly English) tourists that were in the admittedly remote rural area we were staying in.

p.pete

That's cool - but yes, understanding what they say back is always a problem. The course is cool for a good start and for confidence speaking, I think it's the confidence more then anything else because most other teach yourself courses don't really provide that (Can I get a job in sales?)

joner

I'm a second year on the part time course in the IT in Tallaght. The course is cool and the girlfriend reckons my spanish is wayyyyy better(she's a native spearker).

birdbath

folks,
i also recommend going to the bbc website - www.bbc.co.uk - and checking out the education section. Go to languages, the spanish and just start the first lesson. It's free, simple and reasonably un-patronising. Not the greatest learning resource in the world, but useful nonetheless.

You'll need Realplayer to hear the dialogues...

birdbath

this is the direct link:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/spanish/

p.pete

There is also tons of resources at http://spanish.about.com Haven't gone through it but the german version (german.about.com) is quite comprehensive.

carmenka

Hi. I am a qualified native Spanish teacher. I you are interested in learn Spanish, we can arrange a convenient place for both for the lessons. I offer lessons both one-to-one and small groups. If you want one-to-one tuitions, that is ok for me. My prizes are reasonable.
My lessons are very interactive. I follow the best Spanish-teaching books, but I also include games adapted for both adults and my lessons. I include activities related to the history and art of all the countries in which they speak Spanish because I believe that the knowledge of a language is not complete without the knowledge of the different cultures that are involved in it.
PM for details

Ninja_scrotum

Michael Thomas is excellent for learning how words are put together to form sentences, you end up with a pretty good structural knowledge of the language including a fairly good understanding of the tenses.

He can't stop suckin at his feckin false teeth though it's a bit distractin!!!

Anyways,

After the 8cd beginner course he has a 2cd review course which reviews what you've learned while teaching new verbs, nouns and sayings - such as "hay que" - one must etc.

After that is the 4cd Advanced course, I haven't gotten to that yet! I'm sure it will be very good though.

The only drawback is what has been mentioned already - no native speakers. And he teaches you formal spanish, the type of spanish you'd speak to the president or your mates granny. And if you are studying spanish using just an audio course you will need a book to read every now and then to give you a feel for how the words are spelled etc. I have "hugo's spanish in 3months" book and cd course which I got off ebay for dirt cheap.

By the way, do not buy any of these courses from Easons - total ripoff. Search on google. It's the holy grail if you know how to use it. I saved about 1000euro by getting lots of different courses (including pimsluer I,II&III) from dodgy websites.

The best course I have come across so far is "Learning spanish like crazy". Sounds kinda lame and cheap but it's not. It's got native speakers, and it focuses mostly on the informal spanish everybody speaks more often than not, including slang words etc.

I'm 21years old. I plan on going to South America next year and an I'll more than likely befriend similarly aged spanish speakers. Imagine i spot a savage cabbage colombian chica in a pub/club and decide to chat her up. My "formal spanish training" would make a fool out of me... "How does one do? Would one like a drink of beverage?" Crap like that!!!

So learning spanish like crazy is a good choice for those of us who want to learn proper everyday spanish. Mind you it's south American spanish, not Spain spanish, but there aren't too many differences anyways so "one will be grand".

Eso es todo, nos veremos!

mise_me_fein

Here's what I've done and what I'm going to do:

Downloaded uTorrent
Searched for Pimsleur Spanish
Downloaded the 80 or so lessons - Pimsleur 1, 2, 3 and some of the stuff too - for free

I've just finished Pimsleur 1 which I'd been listening to for 30 mins a day in my car on the way home from work.

I work with a few Spanish people and they say my pronunciation is excellent and I do understand a little bit.

I'm off to Spain for a year in 2 months and I reckon I'll be ok after that.

Ninja_scrotum

Pimsleur is a bit dated, and too polite. Unless you will be at business meetings or talking to grannys for your year in Spain, I wouldn't recommend it.

Of course you need some polite vocab, but only some.

Search for a torrent of "Learning Spanish like crazy", it's exactly like Pimsleur except it focuses on more up to date vocab & grammar used in modern spanish. It really works on your pronunciation. It's the type of spanish that is used everyday between friends etc, which im guessing is the type of spanish that you will be encountering - making new spanish friends.

Search amazon for "Learning spanish like crazy", it has some pretty good reviews.

Young spaniards will laugh at you if you speak pimsleur style. Unless of course you're speaking to a granny. Or the prime minister etc.

Just my 2cents, you don't have to listen.

K09

<snip>

tolosenc

http://www.spanish-kit.net/
http://users.ipfw.edu/JEHLE/VERBLIST.HTM
http://www.usna.edu/LangStudy/spanish_subjunctive.html
http://vegasociety.com/spanish/irregular_verbs.html

Those first, then reading stuff in Spanish is how I taught myself...

Ninja_scrotum

I downloaded Spanish like crazy from emule....

shamrock2004

mise_me_fein wrote: »

Here's what I've done and what I'm going to
I'm off to Spain for a year in 2 months and I reckon I'll be ok after that.

Cool!
What part of Spain & what do you plan to do to sustain yourself?
Im travelling at the moment, round the world trip but home to do the same in a little over a years time.Wanna knock this Spanish language on the head and go there for a year or more to learn it.
Its looks like teaching english is the only way to go until you aquire a prolific leve of Spanish.!

mise_me_fein

Goin to Madrid. 6 weeks from now. Can't wait

shamrock2004

mise_me_fein wrote: »

Goin to Madrid. 6 weeks from now. Can't wait

Nice!What will you be doing for work?
Im planning Valencia sometime in early 2009 as Im travelling at the moment.
Cheers.

mise_me_fein

I'm gonna be teaching English but I'm also joining a Spanish rock band to sing which should be interesting.

I intend on travelling all around Spain and maybe Portugal too next year.

I'm off to Oz myself in 2009.

Best of luck to ya in your travels

wazabi666

dia duit!!:D:D:D:D i'm catalan, but i speak spanish too xD if you want to have a good spanish, you must to hear a lot spanish, because in spanish, like in catalan or french, all the things are male or famale. for example, LA mesa (the table) EL coche (the car) LA=famale EL=male, and is the more usual mistake for irish, scottish and english peoples.

well, pues animo y adelante!:):):):):):)

shamrock2004

mise_me_fein wrote: »

I'm gonna be teaching English but I'm also joining a Spanish rock band to sing which should be interesting.

I intend on travelling all around Spain and maybe Portugal too next year.

I'm off to Oz myself in 2009.

Best of luck to ya in your travels

Good man! Im currently in Malaysia but I have Bali next and then I reach Australia on December 16th and will rip it up on Bondai!!
Ill put in a good word for ya!!
Let me know how you get on with the teaching.Like yourself that seems to be the only job I will be able to find in Valencia.I plan to save money before I go though, on the premise that I get a job when I get back to dear old eire in June.Im going to try and get a TEFL qualification down under.Did you get the TEFL??Is it worth having for teaching in Spain?
Thanks man!
Shamrock