Learning a second language

[Harry Callahan]

Anybody ever been successful with language tapes? I'm trying to learn Spanish while driving and not having much luck. Thick skulled maybe? Any success stories?

 

[Alberta Ed]

The Rosetta Stone language tutorials are excellent but expensive. My experience with foreign languages (such as in Peace Corps) was that you have to be immersed in them to really learn them. Our older son learned to speak fluent Spanish when he was teaching in Mexico -- he married his instructor. Of course, that may involve more of an investment than you want to make, but it was pretty darned effective.

 

[Nordic Viking]

What do you want to do with the Spanish you're trying to learn? Just listening to tapes is useless for anything else than learning simple phrases and getting a feel for the pronunciation and rhythm of the language.

 

[Harry Callahan]

What do you want to do with the Spanish you're trying to learn?

In my line of work there's fixin' to be an influx of Spanish speakers that I'm going to have to deal with on a daily basis. I've actually sort of been putting this off in hopes the legislation would be changed but alas, our politicians are too busy to actually protect American soverignty and soil. Anyhoo, concerning immersion, I'm sort of trying that. I've tuned my TV to Univision and let it play in the background while I'm at home. I've also taken to listening to baseball broadcasts in Spanish.

Despite all of that, I still only know enough Spanish to order a medium rare car axle at a Mexican cafe.

 

[bikerider]

Stick with it. It takes time and a lot of practice. I'm fluent in Spanish (studied for 6 years) and Portuguese (lived in Brazil) and it doesn't happen quickly. My neighbor is actually learning Portuguese through Rosetta Stone along with watching tv and trying to converse with me and my wife and it took him about 2 years to be conversational. Don't expect to have a hispanic accent unless you move to Latin America though.

 

[SilverFoxKnows]

I've taken Spanish in school, 1 year in junior high, 2 years in high school, 2 in college. I didn't learn a damn thing. I worked in a restaurant for 4 years and could almost hold a whole conversation. I've forgotten much of what I learned, though. You really have to use it everyday. Also, when you learn from a person instead of a book you learn to speak it as people really speak. You could wait tables part time.

Frank

 

[HomeBru]

I'll second the Rosetta Stone option. They base the learning on how we learn languages as a child rather than translation/repetition. Used by foreign service, US diplomats, and businesses around the world!

It is pricey and the first volume gets tedious after three days of "el nino en el caro", but think back to teaching kids to speak, it starts out as "mommy", "daddy", "ball" etc. and builds from there.

It works on the computer and not in the car so you have to dedicate time every day to work on it. We are using it as homeschool curriculum for our kids and my wife and I are doing it as well. Sis-in-law is Ecuadorian so it's got meaning to us as well.

J-

 

[Don_Luis]

I feel it's best to start by attending formal classes where you can learn the grammar and structure of the language, get conversation in a group with an instructor present, read stuff appropriate to your level and do homework. Once you have the basics you can benefit much from hearing tapes, reading, watching TV and speaking with a native or fluent speaker.

He he, I also like to listen to baseball broadcasts in Spanish, specially when it's Ernesto Jeréz narrating.

Luis

 

[DRM]

I feel it's best to start by attending formal classes where you can learn the grammar and structure of the language, get conversation in a group with an instructor present, read stuff appropriate to your level and do homework. Once you have the basics you can benefit much from hearing tapes, reading, watching TV and speaking with a native or fluent speaker.

He he, I also like to listen to baseball broadcasts in Spanish, specially when it's Ernesto Jeréz narrating.

Luis

I too am bilingual and proficient in other languages. This is your best advice. Learn the grammer and structure first - then it's just a matter of building your vocabulary and refining your conversational skills with practice.

 

[FireInvestigator]

I also am multilingual and tell you, the best way of learning another language is to learn the basic grammer and structure first, hardcore for a month. Then Immersion. Dont speak your native tongue. Making mistakes is fine. Get over that,ppl will admire and feel proud that you are learning their language and help you. It is baptism by fire time.If you do the about you can be fluent in any language and damn near native in a couple years. I have a native tongue in two languages and working on another.

 

[pancakeman157]

i've got tagalog cds that im working on, but its difficult aside from repeating whats said without the accompanying book. keep at it though. pretty soon something will make sense and you'll start to speed up the process

 

[Harry Callahan]

The grammar is a real pain, I've found. Verbs especially. Habla, hablo, hablas. Good grief. You're never saying the same word. I'm also having trouble with masculine and feminine nouns, but I'm starting to grasp the fact that if the word ends in "o" it's masculine and if it ends in "a" it's feminine. This, of course changes the way you say the possesive pronoun. I'm feverishly working on understanding all of this, and all the while listening to baseball games and Univision. I'm catching a word or phrase here and there and it's happening more and more often. There's a gameshow on Univision that's absolutely hilarious!

As far as being able to speak to a native, no luck so far. I will give it a shot at my first opportunity however. I've got a few of the greetings down cold.

 

[Gerberblades]

I tried learning Spanish, but I gave up so I think I am just going to speak the only language I know... English.

 

[Esav Benyamin]

You cannot learn a language by listening, especially not by listening while doing something else like driving. You need to see and say the words.

I learned Russian in an intensive program. We sat around the table and recited variations on the same phrase at each other: I eat in the cafeteria, you eat in the cafeteria, he eats in the cafeteria, they eat in the cafeteria. After a while, you will never forget "eat" and "cafeteria" wherever they show up.

Do grammar and verb forms later, after you've already seen them in action. They will make more sense once you have a context for them.

You can start with a simple Berlitz-type phrase book, the kind they sell to tourists. Read the introduction, then go to each page in turn and read down the words and phrases, reading them out loud, working on pronunciation as best you can, reading the word in Spanish and thinking/picturing it in your mind. As you get further into this, improvise, swapping out words you know for words in the phrase. If the book says "How do I get to the bank?" then try "How do I get to the post office / the restaurant / the ball game?"

Best to give it as much time as you can, especially at the start. Don't overload each session, maybe an hour at a time, but do two or three hours throughout the day. Do a good solid session in the evening. Make lists of common items and think of them in Spanish instead of in English, like mi casa, la mesa, su cuchillo.

One more thing: get a decent dictionary, pick up a Spanish newspaper, and read your way through the news. Another handy way to encourage yourself is to get a dual-language book of poetry -- Spanish literature is excellent and varied, and goes back to before the modern language, but still recognizable and understandable. What you aren't sure of in Spanish, glance at the English translation, and keep on trucking.

 

[OrangeJoe]

Great recommendations in this thread.

I took a year of French and always took time to go to the library and read a French language magazine, dictionary in hand. Have forgotten a great deal, but I remember being able to answer essay questions with ease.

Also remember, Spanish may not be Chinese , but it ain't one of the easier languages either.

I also would thing you are much better off watching the news (and maybe Don Francisco) than watching sports. I have never heard a sports broadcast (in español nor in English) where the reporter kept an easy pace nor one where he did not burst into league specific lingo. I would hate to see someone trying to make sense of a ball games 'Ehhsuinnng gannehmess' everytime a batter fans a pitch.

Newscaters, specially in Univisión, go for that fake 'neutral' accent that probably would be the easiest to follow.

 

[OrangeJoe]

I forgot, also you finally have a good use for the Spanish language track on those old DVD's you've got at home.

Specially try those movies you know by heart. That way not only do you have a context, but also probably know exactly what it is the characters are trying to convey.

Adios.