What's the Best Way to Learn Spanish

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  • Dr.Midnight

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    Does anyone have a suggestion on the best way a middle aged dude with the attention span of a goldfish can learn Spanish? I've picked up so many Hispanic customers in the past year, it would certainly be an asset. Thanks!
     

    KittySlayer

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    Valuable asset, especially in the future.

    Wife and I tried and failed. Took a couple of classes at the Senior Center and it just didn't take for us. I'm pretty good at memorization but somehow the logic never clicked for me. Might try again sometime with another instructor but I am thinking the problem was with the student (me).
     

    Kutnupe14

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    Does anyone have a suggestion on the best way a middle aged dude with the attention span of a goldfish can learn Spanish? I've picked up so many Hispanic customers in the past year, it would certainly be an asset. Thanks!

    babbel. They make an excellent app that’s helpful. The first lessons are free. Good for people that don’t really want to commit. If you’re committed take a course at you local college. Or go to you local Mexican restaurant, and pay one of the staff.... don’t laugh, I know someone who has done that exact thing.
     

    Alamo

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    I dunno if you have access to any Mexican TV stations, but if you do you can supplement your bookwork/classroom/app stuff with hearing how it's used. Maybe start with something simple like the weather reports, and when you get bored with that head for the soap operas and game shows. Mexican TV is not so politically correct, they like a lot of tetas in their shows. It will help with your attentions span. (Maybe not so much with your marital life).
     

    Dr.Midnight

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    I was wondering if any of the programs like Rosetta Stone or Babbel worked. I was trying to avoid a structured classroom setting, but if that's the most efficient way, I'll bite the bullet.

    I'm pretty sure I can learn it, and with the high number of Hispanic customers I have, I could practice daily if I wanted to. I've gotten to the point where I know quite a few words in Spanish, but they're just the items my customers are interested in. I'm not even close to being able to construct even the simplest of sentences.
     

    Leadeye

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    I took plenty of Spanish in school, but when I started working in Mexico it was tough to get the language to slow down. People I worked with were generally polite enough to talk to me like they were speaking to a small child although despacio was a word I used often.
     

    Dr.Midnight

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    I took plenty of Spanish in school, but when I started working in Mexico it was tough to get the language to slow down. People I worked with were generally polite enough to talk to me like they were speaking to a small child although despacio was a word I used often.

    I told one of my customers it sounds like you're talking 100 mph when you're speaking Spanish. His response was he thought the same thing about people speaking English when he first started learning it.

    He also asked why we used words like threw and through, sole and soul, need and knead, etc.
     

    chocktaw2

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    Best Plan I've heard of is to get a Mexican maid. Your wife will not mind her around. At least mine didn't.
     

    Cameramonkey

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    Tagging for interest. We were discussing foreign languages in our planning of our 13YO's homeschool High School adventure. I said Spanish for exactly the OPs reason. Or if he decides he wants to get a job doing something that is likely to take him to a specific overseas country, take that language. Like if he wanted to repair Felafel machines, he should probably learn Arabic.

    SWMBO said "I toOk 3 yEarS oF fReNCh aNd I cOulDnt uSe iT TodAy." Oh brother. Probably because back in the early 90s in the midwest you took a foreign language because you had to and they really didnt try to make you conversationally functional, just teach you some. Just like home ec taught you how to sew, but they didnt teach with the intent of actually becoming a seamstress, tailor, etc.
     

    Wstar425

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    While the maid and prison idea sound........interesting, the BEST way is to get yourself dropped off on an all female remote island where the beautiful babes only speak Spanish, and don’t know any English. Try to pick one where they’re also not cannibals. It’s called Total Immersion. My wife was a Spanish teacher for 25 years, and did her Doctorate on that.

    I never learned much Spanish, would have been handy driving to California all those years. Good luck learning it as an older adult, much easier when you are a kid.

    Wife is now a District Administrator in a 50/50 Latino school and they have a dual language learner K-5 program that she implemented. Half day taught in Spanish, half in English, half English speaking kids, half Spanish speakers. They learn faster from each other than from the teacher, I guess. They have quite a few kids show up every year that don’t know ANY English, it’s a problem.

    Ive asked her a couple of times about me learning, thru tapes or something and she says it’s not possible any more, for me really. I’m 61. We had plans for her to speak to the kids in Spanish when they were little, but gave up on it as I never knew what she was saying.
     

    Vigilant

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    Immersion is the best way. DLI used to use something like Rosetta, not sure what they do now, but you could speak passable ______ after about 4 months if you applied yourself and didn’t party? But it was Monterey soooo...
     

    Dr.Midnight

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    Total immersion isn't really an option, so at this point, the best idea for me seems to be one of the home programs. I haven't heard anyone say those were a waste of money yet, and that's kind of what I was hoping for actually.
     

    Dr.Midnight

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    While the maid and prison idea sound........interesting, the BEST way is to get yourself dropped off on an all female remote island where the beautiful babes only speak Spanish, and don’t know any English. Try to pick one where they’re also not cannibals. It’s called Total Immersion. My wife was a Spanish teacher for 25 years, and did her Doctorate on that.

    I never learned much Spanish, would have been handy driving to California all those years. Good luck learning it as an older adult, much easier when you are a kid.

    Wife is now a District Administrator in a 50/50 Latino school and they have a dual language learner K-5 program that she implemented. Half day taught in Spanish, half in English, half English speaking kids, half Spanish speakers. They learn faster from each other than from the teacher, I guess. They have quite a few kids show up every year that don’t know ANY English, it’s a problem.

    Ive asked her a couple of times about me learning, thru tapes or something and she says it’s not possible any more, for me really. I’m 61. We had plans for her to speak to the kids in Spanish when they were little, but gave up on it as I never knew what she was saying.

    Very interesting. Thanks for the reply.
     

    Route 45

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    Does anyone have a suggestion on the best way a middle aged dude with the attention span of a goldfish can learn Spanish? I've picked up so many Hispanic customers in the past year, it would certainly be an asset. Thanks!

    You may have the attention span of a goldfish, but I bet you can make it through a Mexican television weather forecast.

    TDsupv9.gif


    Talk about assets. :):

    Seriously, though...taking a home course and watching Spanish language television is probably a good way to learn some rudimentary Spanish. I think that learning is easier when you are being entertained, and a lot of the programs on Univision, Galavision, etc. are entertaining in their style and presentation, which is different than typical American TV. You'll be surprised how much you will start to understand on these TV channels as you progress in your regular course.
     

    DoggyDaddy

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    You may have the attention span of a goldfish, but I bet you can make it through a Mexican television weather forecast.

    TDsupv9.gif


    Talk about assets. :):

    Seriously, though...taking a home course and watching Spanish language television is probably a good way to learn some rudimentary Spanish. I think that learning is easier when you are being entertained, and a lot of the programs on Univision, Galavision, etc. are entertaining in their style and presentation, which is different than typical American TV. You'll be surprised how much you will start to understand on these TV channels as you progress in your regular course.

    I'm sorry, you lost me after "you". What were you saying again?
     

    BehindBlueI's

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    Rosetta Stone is helpful, and combined with access to native speakers to practice with can lead to reasonable fluency. They currently have a $189 lifetime every language offer that's pretty tempting.

    On the free side: https://www.duolingo.com/learn is ok. It can be fussy with translations it considers correct sometimes, which is frustrating, but for a free program you can build a decent base line. Once you have a solid base they have dual language podcasts that will help with listening. It's an interesting concept, the Spanish speaker tells a real life story with an English speaker narrating background and context. It's better than just someone speaking then someone else translating, it's someone speaking and then someone adding context so if you didn't understand every word you are still following the story.

    Really, nothing replaces conversing with native speakers, though.
     
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