kwalarking said:
Hello Trennod, I am not required to speak Spanish at work so they wont pay. I think I would struggle to learn on my own. How did you stay motivated?
With regards to your work paying, have you tried all angles? Ie do you have Spanish speakers in your office, perhaps you could suggest it will assist you in communicating there?
My girlfriend is Argentine (we speak pretty much entirely in spanish now) and although most of my clients and work is in english I am the only native english speaker in the office so I hear and see a lot. Now I have a few porteño friends and so from speaking with them and colleagues its improved pretty quickly.
I went to group classes (during the day) for the first 5 weeks I was here and then have had a private teacher (on and off) since then.
Anyhoo, I think once you have picked up some of the basic grammar, you will learn the most from hearing, seeing and speaking with other locals. I would try and connect with some locals so you can practice, people rave about the language swaps ie spanglish and beerlingual. Another options for language swaps, perhaps you have locals at your work who you could swap your english for spanish? A colleague of mine actually came to me last week and asked if we could do something like that.
I can honestly say though, I have learnt the most by far from my girlfriend. Going out with a local, or having local friends is the best way to learn.
There are also some good points here about reading up on subject areas and picking up vocab and grammar from there. I would recommend putting up signs around the house if you can of verbs grammar. When I first got here I think I had about 100 up around the house (nouns such as mesa, silla, inodoro, sillòn etc). I put a lot of verbs as well particularly in the kitchen - it all helps!