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Best System for Learning a Foreign Language?
amrust asks: "I've set a New Year's Resolution for myself. Starting next year, I want to teach myself Spanish. However, looking in local bookstores and online, there are so many different programs and systems to choose from, that I can't decide which method is best. I'd like to learn the Spanish language itself, not just a few choice phrases and words, for traveling. I have a lot of patience for serious in-depth study, at home. I would prefer an easy-to-learn (but comprehensive) system that includes audio CDs, as well as textbook material, to follow along with. Which system can you recommend for someone just starting out, assuming they currently speak English, and have never previously taken a foreign language course?"
You can't learn a foreign language from a book, especially your first foreign language!
Look up your local community college and enroll in a spanish class. Failing that look for a tutor or group learning sessions. They should be pretty easy to find as Spanish is widely taught.
Dude, it looks lik youve alraedy Learined a Foreign Language.
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Don't like it? Respond with words, not karma.
I have had some experience with Pimsleur language learning materials (Japanese though). I found the material started out pretty easy and got more difficult in later lessons, but was not unmanagable.
It's also a tad expensive, but if you are serious about learning then combining this with other sources reading websites or other publications in the desired language, etc) would probably be a great start.
(I personally wouldn't pay that much for it, though.)
=Smidge=
Get yourself a totally hot Hispanic girlfriend who doesn't speak a word of English.
Well, that's what *I'd* do.
It's the land of the brave, and the home of the free
Where the less you know, the better off you'll be.
A lover who only speaks the language you want to learn. Don't learn, don't get laid.
Talk about motivation! Nothing else can come close.
Bob-
The Ludwig von Mises Institute. The reasoning individuals economics
Most spanish teaching CDs that I have heard teach Spanish from Spain, español. If you plan on travelling a lot in Latin America, bear in mind that not only will you be a gringo with an accent, you will be a gringo with a very silly accent.
:-)
Around here, a Spanish accent is generally heard from two sources: spaniards and people telling Gallego jokes, which would roughly correspond to Irish jokes in English.
Personally I find that Latin American spanish, castellano, is more neutral, if you pick the right national accent. Peruvians, for example, have a particularly neutral and well-pronounced one, while Chilean Spanish is practically incomprehensible. As a native Spanish speaker born in Perú, it took me several years in Chile before I could understand over 90% of what was said to me. Frankly, I don't expect you to come across a Chilean "Aprenda Español" package anytime soon, and personally, I think that's a very good thing!
p.
My motorbike travels in Chile.
A Ton of phrases can be created with this simple intro. It will also teach you the basic grammer ideas in the travelers dictionary (and you can always look up sentances later in the books as guidelines). After that... you can walk around on the streets, look up one single word in the translation dictionary like... post-office... and you can already as a bunch of questions relating to a post-office (like where it is!)
After that comes the hardest part of learning a language. Vocabulary. This is what kills most people. My honest best suggestion to you is to buy post-it notes, and stick them all over your house with the english / spanish translation. Literally everywhere. Even on the milk jug inside your fridge. While it is embarrasing, being exposed to all those words will help you learn them MUCH faster then just staring at note cards or words on a screen. With a good computer program (hopefully someone will suggest a good one) you can learn many other vocab words WHILE being exposed to all the common things inside the house that have post-its on it (shoes, tv, books, computer, paper, house, door... lots of things to put all over your house that can be useful in daily conversation).
Good luck with your language learning resolution!
I know you're looking for something comprehensive, but you may want to consider learning conversation using the Pimsleur series. It's basically an audio only method of learning language which works great on my hour-long commute each morning and evening.
a rning_system
Wikipedia has more information here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pimsleur_language_le
I find that as you learn more and more, you subconsciously start to learn grammar. For example, I'm currently learning German, and though I can't tell you the rule for where to put time and place in a sentence, I know which one "sounds right."
I rent them using my Recorded Books Unlimited subscription, but you might be able to find them at your local library.
(I personally speak Spanish and English fluently. I used the Pimsleur series to pick up quite a bit of Italian, French and German).
Hope that helps.
-Paul
P.S. The way I personally became fluent in Spanish was to grow up in Southern California to learn the accent, take French in middle school to learn some basic non-English grammar, take a freshman Spanish class in college, meet and marry a wonderful woman from Guatemala, then practice for 11 years.
The above may or may not work in your situation.
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"Not an actor, but he plays one on TV."
The horrible memories of having to learn English over the past 8 years overwhelmed me and I went berserk.
The following sentence: "I would prefer an easy-to-learn (but comprehensive) system" hit me on the personal level, because at the moment it sounded like you were completely undermining the difficulty of learning a language and trivializing all my effort to learn English.
Now that I'm calm, I understand that what I just said is completely ridiculous and irrational, but that's how I felt at the moment. I should've been more careful. I apologize for my harsh reactions that was uncalled for.
I guess what I want to say at this point is that learning a language under pressure can be very harsh: harsh enough to make you feel victimized whenever someone says anything about it.
Good luck with learning Spanish. I hope your experience is not as agonizing as mine.