I took 3 years of Spanish in Jr High and High school, so I have a beginner's knowledge of the language, but I would like to become better. Anybody have a recommendation of a Spanish language learning program, either audio or on a PC?
The best way is immersion. Period. I know they have immersion classes in Mexico which are pretty cheap. For a couple hours each day you are in a classroom setting. Then I think you go out and run errands or just do stuff that is fun. In the evenings, you go hang out on the beach/bars or whatever you want with your classmates/friends. In 2 weeks, you'll be nearly fluent. Guarenteed.
I got my woman The Rosetta Stone and so far she can speak enough to get into trouble... but it's only been a few months of using it..
Date good looking latin women! I took spanish for four years in High school and couldn't speak squat. I'm currently virtually fluent and have a damn good accent. My spanish is of course a mix of mexican, spanish and s. american accents! Just be careful that the girls are not from here and don't speak broken tex-mex spanish (mixing spanish and english is very trashy in latin america). Otherwise you're accent and verbage will be equivalent to how really bad english sounds to us.
That's what I've always wondered. Everybody says immersion is the best way to learn a new language, but has anybody actually tried it? I heard Dora was a pretty good way to learn Spanish. I've been thinking about learning Spanish, also. I figured since everybody in Texas will be speaking spanish in 20 years anyways, I might as well get a jump start on everybody...
It definately helps A LOT! But it's not easy, that's for sure. I had some of the toughest days of my life learning spanish. It got quite frustrating living with a guatemalan family that never understood me. The first couple weeks were hell - but yes, it got better and better as the time went along. However, i'll always remember the young kid (8 years old) shouting at me while he was trying to tell me something. He kept on changing what he was saying (re-wording the phrase, hoping i'd know it better if he said it a different way) so i didn't have a chance to use the dictionary. However, at the end of my six-months i considered myself semi-fluent. I could talk about anything in normal day-to-day conversation, but couldn't get into anything technical (such as engine parts on a car). However, i've lost lots of it in the four years since i've been back and find that i can barely hold up a solid converstation now.
From what I have learned the only true way to become fluent is to actually live in a spanish speaking country for a while and surround yourself with spanish speakers. I am in my 4th semester of spanish in college right now, and while i can read it pretty well and piece it together a bit when I hear it spoken, I really can't speak it all that well...the little that I do speak I have to think about a lot.
Esto fue tu problema. El español que hablan en Guatemala es un chiste. Lo mezclan con su idioma indigina. No es bueno para los extranjeros, Te recomiendo ir un año a un país como Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, o partes de México (DF o Monterrey) y no te metas con personas que hablen ingles. También te aconsejo que te consigas una novia en el país donde estés. Que sea nativa. Pero no te enamores porque es la puta madre obtener una visa.
go find a restaurant with lots of mexicans and get a job there! i took 3 years total in jr and high as well as 2 full years in college, but i learned more spanish working in restaurants than i ever did in school. most cooks and bussers were mexicans and especially when they first started working, spoke minimal to zero english. talking to those guys everyday is the 2nd best thing to actually living abroad. it was like a language exchange program - they were trying to learn english and i was trying to learn spanish. i got to learn all the cool slang terms they dont teach you in school like "no mames wey" or "no soy hoto" or "que tal mi chavo?" or you could just go travel in mexico. i go quite a bit and have backpacked all around the country. you can live like a king down there for 2 weeks on about $500. im not fluent, but i can get by without getting laughed at (too much).
I was in Antigua, Guatemala. The speak pretty good spanish there...it's not too messed up with the mayan languages...although it is true that you hear those a lot in the market place. Oh, and i have a girlfriend here...no need for another - but i could see how that would be useful in learning spanish, but...well, i just couldn't justify using a girl for the sole purpose of learning spanish. Use the for sex, sure, but spanish...that's just wrong.
Antigua is a pretty cool place to learn Spanish. I never learned Spanish there, but I visited, and it's cool...so go live in Antigua for 6 months and learn.
