Recs: Learning a New Language (Spanish)

Easy and free: the DuoLingo app. To me, DuoLingo is good for people who have done the basics in a language previously (like you). It’s very visual, reinforcing the written language in ways that old school audio only instruction missed.

I was told watching the news and commercials in a foreign language is good for reinforcing. I think the logic is they tend to use less slang

You better hope for a long quarantine. I've been working on this for 3 years now and I still have a long way to go. Start with Duolingo. It's free, you can take it with you anywhere, and it will be a good way to get started on vocab. I tried rosetta stone and didn't like it. It's over-priced and I didn't like the learning style of showing you pictures without using any English translations. It made it harder for me to figure out what it was trying to teach sometimes, and it never explains the reasoning behind grammar.

The absolute BEST thing I've done is listen to Language Transfer: Complete Spanish. You can find it for free on soundcloud. It's great if you spend a lot of time in your vehicle. I'll listen to two lessons on the way to work. When I get to work I listen to them again while writing down notes on everything I'm learning in a notepad. Then I repeat the same two on the way home. After about 10 lessons I'll listen to them all again once more. Every 3 or 4 weeks I'll go back and read through all my notes in my notepad. By then I usually have it down pretty well. The instructor is a linguist who teaches you by explaining the relationship between words in English/Spanish/Greek/Latin. I liked this because once you learn the relationships between translations you can start to guess how an English word will be translated into Spanish and you will often be right. Then start practicing and don't be scared to guess what a word in Spanish might be. Even if you are wrong you will often be close enough that the native speaker will know what you mean and correct you and that's how you continue to learn.

Also as others have mentioned, watch tv in Spanish. Use subtitles if you have to. Try reading short stories as well. There's plenty of Spanish learner books on Amazon that vary in difficulty.

I had Spanish in high school and college. Grew up in Central Florida with some Cuban friends. Visited my daughter while she was working in Spain for two weeks.

My $.02:

There are SO many different Spanish dialects. What you might know for beer in Mexico (Una Cerveza) is not what you'd ask for in Spain (Una Cana - small beer). Not that they might not know what you're asking for, but that's not how they'd say it. And in Spain you have 17 autonomous communities. My daughter lived in Zargoza and could not really understand people from the South. And forget if you're going to the Basque region.

Point is "Spanish" is very regional with some similarities and some not so much. Will depend on where you're going.

I really enjoyed the YouTube Channel "With Rosa". You can learn a lot of conversational Spanish from these videos.

A good example.

When I am in a country, I use Evernote to document key words, phrases and idioms. Microsoft OneNote is what we use at work and is similar. Next time you're out, you'll remember how to ask that word or question. I also write it down phonetically so I remember how to say it correctly.

Good luck hombre!

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I’ve been talking to a lady in France for over a year on Italki and it has worked wonders

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Pics? (Sorry, it's an O-T thing).

Seriously, would like to learn more about it. How did you find the tutor? How much? How frequent do you converse?

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She's a grandma

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A GILF. Nice.

Thanks. That's a fascinating site. The hourly rates are amazing.

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I was told watching the news and commercials in a foreign language is good for reinforcing. I think the logic is they tend to use less slang

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I have a degree in Foreign Languages...originally Spanish speaker, then added French and German. F/G are now gone but the advise is solid....
BUT do not expect to learn a language watching the news 30 minutes and then doing the other 23.5 in English.


the News and the Weather are good sources, more so than today's commercials.... but be aware of the left lean on all Hispanic news stations.

OLD black and white movies are also good, but each country speaks a little differently. FYI
Try youtube for Documentarios o "peliculas clasicas en espanol" stay to old ones or black/white....better Spanish


NOTE: while the "names" foe specific things may change from one country to another, the Spanish does not...
the ONE FACTOR I HAVE NOTICED is education...the lower the educational level, the more bastardized the Spanish is...PROBABLY AS IN MOST COUNTRIES.