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Definitely supplement whatever you're doing to learn the language with watching TV shows and movies in Spanish. I thought this wouldn't help but I recently started watching telenovelas and I've learned a whole bunch of new vocab (granted, it is more along the lines of "let me go!", "b*tch!", "I am your real mother," and "I killed him," but it can still come in use!!).
Back in the 80s I had a job that had me traveling around the state. My busiest stops were in Miami. I bought some cassette tapes of Spanish lessons. I would listen to them as I drove and run them on a Walkman player when I flew. I did not become fluent, but it was quite useful on trips into Mexico, the Caribbean and Spain.
When my son was in college, he took one semester in Costa Rica. He lived with a family that spoke absolutely no English. He did become very fluent.
One of the experiences that we remember is watching "Hogan's Heroes" dubbed into Spanish.
To learn south American Spanish, go to Mexico or further south.
To learn Spanglish - California or Texas.
They are pretty different I am told. Then as suggested - complete immersion. Live with people who only speak Spanish. Attend classes where no other language may be spoken in class.
Quick learning programs like Rosetta Stone are useful to achieve basic conversational level speech asking for directions, having a broken conversation, etc. If you want to truly understand the language, you need to learn the parts of speech and how structure of the language works. It is more fun to learn lots of words and try to sting them together into a more or less meaningful sentence, you may end up asking "What is the watch?" instead of "what time is it?" but you will convey the message. If your goal is to read, write or converse like an educated native then you have to go the slow way.
Tune in to programs on Spanish TV channels. The commercials are often easy to understand, and have sub-titles. Some foreign movies have English sub-titles for the dialogue.
Do the same thing with local big-city Spanish radio stations. Commercials and community announcements are easy to understand. Listen to slow-paced love ballads in Spanish, and try to understand them. You can also find them on YouTube. You can often google and download the song Lyrics on-line.
Read the bi-lingual labels on boxes, or instruction sheets, of appliances or household products, at home or in the store. Compare the Spanish with the English version side-by-side.
Read the overhead bi-lingual signs on aisles at LOWE's home products stores.
Many pamphlets and flyers, such as for health services, health insurance, driving lessons, Blue Cross receipts, etc. are printed in 2 languages side-by-side, you can compare.
Took Spanish three years in middle school, through AP in high school (and I was the type who got all As, good AP scores, etc).
Then bc of all the college credit, kept taking it in college...went and spent a summer in Mexico after my 2nd year in college in a village where people spoke ZERO English.
THAT is where my fluency finally gelled.
You can know all the rules and the 17 tenses and blah blah blah, but being stranded for months with no other way to communicate seals it all together.
I've lived here 2 years now and probably learned 50 more words, LOL. I think some people are way more adept than others at languages....sort of like music or art skills. I'm not one, and few retirees here have learned Spanish. Plus, the coastal dialect is way different, so if you do learn classroom Spanish, the locals won't understand you anyway. I have to admit, it feels like a losing battle.
I have Spanish subtitles on Netflix and to me, that helps.
I recommend Ecuador. The safety issues are minimal in Ecuador with a little precaution, and Ecuador doesn't have many English speakers. There are lots of interesting cities and villages to see. Ecuador is small. You can visit a good chunk of it if you're there for a year. The Galapagos is Ecuadorian territory. Ecuador also has rainforest, volcanoes, beaches, and more.
In Mexico, especially near the border, as well as Puerto Rico and other countries with a heavy US influence, you run the risk that as soon as you struggle with Spanish somebody will help you in perfect English. That's very courteous, but it doesn't help you learn Spanish! Ecuador has English speakers too, but away from the tourist areas, you're speaking Spanish 100% of the time.
Practice listening. Start now. Of the four skills, reading, writing, speaking, and listening, listening is the hardest. Reading and writing you can slow down to any speed. You can spend an hour on three sentences if you want. When you speak, you stay within your limited vocabulary. When you listen, the vocabulary is somebody else's, it happens in real time, and you're not ready for it. Practice listening on YouTube or the like. Listen to the same thing over and over. Listen to real conversation, not Spanish learning material. I taped a couple hours of call-in talk radio in Spanish years ago. Each time I listened, a few more words came out of the mix. After a year, I understood everything. It was babble at first. I think if you listen to different things all the time, you bounce around too much to make progress. Best.
Last edited by unwillingphoenician; 09-22-2018 at 05:24 PM..
The best way to learn Spanish, English, or any other language is not throwing yourself at a city where you can only survive by communicating in that language. That's the stressful and forced way to do it, not the best or nicest one. Furthermore, the usual academic approach of learning how to write the new language before you learn how to speak it helps a ton, but it is not the best or fastest way to learn either.
The best way to learn a second language is having (or living with) a person who is fully bilingual in both languages (for writing AND speaking) and having that person help you to learn more and more about the other language every day. This person will be able to correct anything and explain because they also know English like a native, so they can understand the differences in both languages and they can tell the difference between an approximate translation that would work AND the right translation that is best because it is the correct one.
So, if you want to learn Spanish fast and well, find a Spanish-speaking American bilingual who likes teaching and who doesn't mind being your Spanish tutor on a daily basis. I know it sounds complicated, but this is truly the best way to learn a new language. Date and marry the guy and stick to your Spanish DAILY and you will be fluent in one year, lol , maybe less... Seriously, this is a stress-free method that doesn't require traveling, living somewhere else, or spending a lot of money. You do have to be in a relationship with such a person though; that's pretty obvious. Otherwise, he won't be with you daily.
So basically, the best way to learn Spanish is dating and/or living with someone like me in the same house. LOL
Yo soy un bilingue en ingles y espa~nol, y claro que hablo y escribo los dos idiomas perfectamente.
I translate even better than the professional translators because my fluency in both languages is at a native level. And I write well in both too.
I live in Florida, just so you know.
And yes, I honestly think that living with someone who is 100% fluent in both languages and getting that person in your team to help you learn well is, unequivocally, the fastest way to learn a new language. It is not the only way, of course, but I am certain that it is the fastest and least difficult, because anytime you get stuck in anything you have someone who already knows it like the palm of his hand (like I do) so your learning goes much faster.
It's also very important to note that not any bilingual speaker works for this. Only those that speak AND write very well in BOTH languages work for this. I have known people that talk English and Spanish, but they don't know how to write well in any of the two, so they can't be "that ideal in-house tutor" for these cases.
Cheers
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Best Way to Learn Spanish
, maybe less... Seriously, this is a stress-free method that doesn't require traveling, living somewhere else, or spending a lot of money. You do have to be in a relationship with such a person though; that's pretty obvious. Otherwise, he won't be with you daily.
