Is anyone learning Spanish as a second language ?

GKL

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I hadn't had Spanish since junior high school back in the 1960's but I'm surprised how much I remember after all that time, I guess because I thought it was an interesting class I must have been focused on the material.

Anyhow, I thought it'd be neat to build on that and try to teach myself at least enough to easily have basic conservations in Spanish rather than merely memorizing some phrases.

I live in a small town and didn't see any Spanish clubs or classes but it's not something I'd want to pay a lot for tutoring anyhow but simply try to teach myself at home using free online resources.

So, anyone trying (or already has) to learn Spanish and what resources helped you the most ?

I've been studying every day for just over 3 weeks now.

My wife brought out a good point in saying learning a second language should be good mental exercise in keeping your brain sharp as you really have to concentrate.
 
I went to the local library and picked up a bunch of audio cassette tapes (this was in the early 90s!) for learning Spanish. I’d put on headphones and listen to it as I drifted off to sleep every night. It started out by saying words in English, then Spanish. Then it moved on to phrases, and finally whole conversations. I did this for about a year. Plus since I had a lot of Spanish speaking coworkers I’d get to hear it and practice daily. It wasn’t long before I was understanding everything they said, and then speaking fairly fluently myself.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
I don't use any offhand, but there's tons of apps now for language use. Many of them even feature text chat rooms or video call setups to speak with people in there language.

Might be a good excuse to take a trip to a good spanish location 😉
 
I don't use any offhand, but there's tons of apps now for language use. Many of them even feature text chat rooms or video call setups to speak with people in there language.

Might be a good excuse to take a trip to a good spanish location 😉

Duolingo is starting to come up on my app recommendations, Emu.. But aside the very pesty popups, GKL, seems like Spanish is a great "side hobby". Now you can understand what "hasta la vista, baby" and stuff like that.

En grade! Nyit, Niyit! Viola! (all this stuff I have no clue about, and yes, I watched WAY too many spy movies. Why are the Russians always the bad guy? Russian people are VERY kind.)

I shall go on and learn Russian now! I will master this power of unlimited profanities- uh, new languages! :lol: (:cuss: :nono:)

Josh

Edit: Can't find any language learning systems, coudl you suggest one?
 
I went to the local library and picked up a bunch of audio cassette tapes (this was in the early 90s!) for learning Spanish. I’d put on headphones and listen to it as I drifted off to sleep every night. It started out by saying words in English, then Spanish. Then it moved on to phrases, and finally whole conversations. I did this for about a year. Plus since I had a lot of Spanish speaking coworkers I’d get to hear it and practice daily. It wasn’t long before I was understanding everything they said, and then speaking fairly fluently myself.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Congrats, that was some great progress to speak fairly fluently in that amount of time, I'm sure you were likely able to communicate somewhat more haltingly a good while before reaching the more fluent level.

After just over 3 weeks I've got some basic phrases down as far as speaking, as far as understanding spoken Spanish that I listen to it's easier right now when I can also see the words in closed caption on the video, but there are many written Spanish sentences I can read and understand what they are saying.

Thanks for the encouragement, amazing that I'm doing something similar but instead of cassette tapes I downloaded some youtube videos that also says phrases in English followed by how to say it in Spanish, I listen to it with earbuds from my laptop as I'm going to sleep at night (usually takes me anywhere from 30 to 60 minutes to doze off)

I also get some studying in during the day using info from various online resources to go along with using the Duolingo app program (I've just been using the free version and it's great)

I do get to try some limited practice with the progress of my Spanish with some Spanish people who attend the same church as my wife and I, it's just a few minutes before/after services but they are glad to help. (maybe roughly about 1/4 to 1/3 of the people are Spanish, some speak both English and Spanish, some only Spanish, but one of them will translate what the preacher says into Spanish which is transmitted into earbud units of the Spanish only members)

Duolingo can be done both on your computer or on your smartphone, here is a link to both followed by one of the youtube videos I use:

https://www.duolingo.com/

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.duolingo&hl=en_US&gl=US

I also use Google Translate: https://translate.google.com/?sl=en&tl=es&op=translate




I don't use any offhand, but there's tons of apps now for language use. Many of them even feature text chat rooms or video call setups to speak with people in there language.

Might be a good excuse to take a trip to a good spanish location 😉

Thanks, the app that was recommended to me several weeks ago is Duolingo and I have been pleased with how it has helped.

As far as taking a trip to a Spanish location, with our very limited traveling we do I can be content with maybe finding a fairly close Spanish/Mexican restaurant and hope I can try successfully ordering in Spanish :lol:

Duolingo is starting to come up on my app recommendations, Emu..........

Edit: Can't find any language learning systems, coudl you suggest one?

Duolingo is a good one to try and it has a free version !

https://www.duolingo.com/

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.duolingo&hl=en_US&gl=US
 
Congrats, that was some great progress to speak fairly fluently in that amount of time, I'm sure you were likely able to communicate somewhat more haltingly a good while before reaching the more fluent level.

After just over 3 weeks I've got some basic phrases down as far as speaking, as far as understanding spoken Spanish that I listen to it's easier right now when I can also see the words in closed caption on the video, but there are many written Spanish sentences I can read and understand what they are saying.

Thanks for the encouragement, amazing that I'm doing something similar but instead of cassette tapes I downloaded some youtube videos that also says phrases in English followed by how to say it in Spanish, I listen to it with earbuds from my laptop as I'm going to sleep at night (usually takes me anywhere from 30 to 60 minutes to doze off)

I also get some studying in during the day using info from various online resources to go along with using the Duolingo app program (I've just been using the free version and it's great)

I do get to try some limited practice with the progress of my Spanish with some Spanish people who attend the same church as my wife and I, it's just a few minutes before/after services but they are glad to help. (maybe roughly about 1/4 to 1/3 of the people are Spanish, some speak both English and Spanish, some only Spanish, but one of them will translate what the preacher says into Spanish which is transmitted into earbud units of the Spanish only members)

Thanks, and yeah my progress definitely came in phases. For the first year or even two years I was speaking broken Spanish. Not perfect by any means but it was good enough that my co-workers could understand me.

Reading it as you're learning is a great idea. One good thing about learning to read Spanish is that the alphabet is much easier to understand than it would be for someone trying to learn English IMHO. For example, our letters can have many different pronunciations depending on how they're used. In Spanish, its pretty dang simple. "A" is always pronounced like the "a" in "father", never like the "a" in "cat". "E" is always pronounced like the "e" in "egg", ñ = pronounced "ni", "LL" = pronounced like the English Y, "J" pronounced like English "H", Spanish H is silent, etc.

Good luck with it.
 
Thanks, and yeah my progress definitely came in phases. For the first year or even two years I was speaking broken Spanish. Not perfect by any means but it was good enough that my co-workers could understand me.

Reading it as you're learning is a great idea. One good thing about learning to read Spanish is that the alphabet is much easier to understand than it would be for someone trying to learn English IMHO. For example, our letters can have many different pronunciations depending on how they're used. In Spanish, its pretty dang simple. "A" is always pronounced like the "a" in "father", never like the "a" in "cat". "E" is always pronounced like the "e" in "egg", ñ = pronounced "ni", "LL" = pronounced like the English Y, "J" pronounced like English "H", Spanish H is silent, etc.

Good luck with it.

Thanks, and yep, I had heard that the Spanish alphabet is easier than the English one. Also, I did find some videos that help with learning how to roll your Rs and that is a challenge that takes time and practice, but since it's not all words where the Rs are spoken that way it is not an immediate concern.

Gracias por tu ayuda (Thanks for your help) (I know you would understand that phrase, but I translated it for the benefit of others)
 
That's great you want to learn, Spanish opens up many doors!
I studied in high school and a bit in college and then living in CO I found I could practice every day if I wanted to. Later on working for a concrete company in CT I pretty much became the foreman inside of a week working there because I could speak spanish and english...
 
That's great you want to learn, Spanish opens up many doors!
I studied in high school and a bit in college and then living in CO I found I could practice every day if I wanted to. Later on working for a concrete company in CT I pretty much became the foreman inside of a week working there because I could speak spanish and english...

Neat ! :thumbsup:

I'm retired so don't need it for helping with employment but I can see where as in your case speaking Spanish as a second language can open doors !

I not only enjoy the challenge of learning Spanish, it is work and takes study but it is still fun, but it is good exercise to keep your brain sharp and I will especially enjoy when I can talk with Spanish friends at church in their language, the bilingual ones can speak English better than I can speak Spanish (so far) but they are an encouragement to me with my learning.

Right now I can speak memorized phrases to them, (though I also can somewhat form some short sentences on my own) but I'll be glad when I can reach the point of just forming long grammatically correct sentences/paragraphs off the top of my head and speaking with them in an ongoing conservation :D
 
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