cosas útiles (useful things)

Kolodny

Anyone else learning Spanish? I started this year and found these sites helpful (especially the dictionary for when I'm sneakily doing my homework at work). Feel free to add any others along these lines you may know of...

Study Spanish
Dictionary
BBC Languages

Hasta luego...

BEAT

ahhh, perhaps I should have read this before I posted the other thread, losiento. So, is this your first year learning spanish then?

Kolodny

It is. I'm hoping to spend a bit of time in Spain later in year, as I think it's the fastest way to learn. ?Y tú?

BEAT

yes, the best way to learn is to surround yourself with it. I grew up with it, mi padre soy de puerto rico.

Kolodny

A couple more I've used...

Spanish Lesson
Cela Spanish School
Lingolex - accents
and one of my favourites...
Lingolex Spanish

Kolodny

Originally posted by BEAT
mi padre soy de puerto rico.

Do you mean 'mi padre es de Puerto Rico'?

Sorry, just nitpicking...

BEAT

well, actually if you were using proper "spanish" then yes you would be correct. However, in Spain they do use a different form than say the rest of latin america does. Puerto Ricans do not use text book formal "spanish" which is why i had problems when I took spanish in school. You will find many differences when taking the spanish you learn in school to other parts of the world, infact my family would laugh sometimes with the things I would bring home that I learned in class. You can tell who has learned to speak Spanish in school and who was brought up with it
They would like you to believe that thier way is the only way, or the best way, a good example would be the english language. In europe the english language more formal than say in America.

Kolodny

Ok, cool. It's just that I was reading 'soy' in the 'I am' context so it didn't make sense to me. I haven't looked into South American variations that much yet, I'm limited to 'proper' Spanish for the time being. Cheers for clearing that up.