Learning Spanish

[shirley]

Can anyone give me some tips on the easiest way to learn Spanish

 

[deeve007]

Spanish speaking, non-English speaking boy/girlfriend?

 

[shirley]

Spanish speaking, non-English speaking boy/girlfriend?

Errrr yey might just hold off on that one for the time being

 

[MizzMarr]

well, it is the easiest and most effective way!

Otherwise, talk to people (don't hold back because you're embarrassed), listen, watch TV, read, listen to the radio, and study. Get a tutor if you can afford one!

 

[TravisJames]

Change the language of your social networking (facebook, g+, etc.) settings to Spanish. In fact, change everything you can to Spanish. It may be frustrating at first, but it will force you to figure it out.

Live with Spanish speakers.

Use conversation exchange. If you are an English speaker, there are tons of people that would love to chat with you.

Read, read, read, read.

 

[Napoleon]

well, it is the easiest and most effective way!

Otherwise, talk to people (don't hold back because you're embarrassed), listen, watch TV, read, listen to the radio, and study. Get a tutor if you can afford one!

Don't forget Lamaze classes... everybody's doin' it.



PS- The "dating a local" was described by an amiga of mine back in the States as "horizontal lessons".

 

[shirley]

Don't forget Lamaze classes... everybody's doin' it.



PS- The "dating a local" was described by an amiga of mine back in the States as "horizontal lessons".

Thanks for all the advice.....

 

[recapitulation]

@TravisJames, awesome advice. In addition I use studyspanish.com and wordreference.com. I talk to strangers as much as I can whether I'm food shopping, in transit, in a cafe, whatever. I also go to bookshops to read children's books (boring, but helpful) and Mafalda is entertaining to read without too much slang. My Spanish really started ramping up when I got a tutor.

Listening to the radio and watching films with subtitles helps, too. Writing down lyrics to songs in Spanish (Try Manu Chao - Me gusta) so you can train your ear is a good idea. The hardest part for me was learning how to listen to Argentine Spanish and figure out where the words and spaces in conversation were. This is going to sound strange, but it's easier for me to listen to foreigners speaking Spanish because they speak slower. Asking people to slow down when they speak is a really good idea. And knowing that you'll have a literally headache from trying so hard, and that it's normal, is ok too. It eventually goes away. Suerte!

 

[PhilipDT]

You'll probably never be too good to need classes. I know a lot of people who just figure they'll just converse their way to fluency once they have a decent command of the language and they never end up as well spoken as people who take classes.

 

[shirley]

Anyone know any good Spanish Teachers in the San Telmo area!