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?"

Comments

Classes

[Gulthek]

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.

Re:Classes

[mmaddox]

The BEST way? Easy:

Go somewhere Spanish is spoken. Live without English for some time, and you'll quickly pick up the basics as a matter of survival. This is the essence of the exchange programs--immersion. Immersion is the best way to learn a language, bar none.

Re:Classes

[Otter]

There is also the spanish equivalent to /. over at barrapunto.

Hmmm...

Quien modera? (Puntos:-1, Fuera de Tema) por pobrecito hablador el Jueves, 22 de Diciembre 2005, a las 15:29h (n664129)

Quien se ha quedado moderando? Para el caso mejor que cerreis la página hasta despues de las fiestas. Devolved a Richelieu al psiquiatrico, que despues se transforma en Menguele, etc.

I'm not sure learning Spanish from them is any better an idea than trying to learn English here...

Re:Classes

[Otter]

(Wow, that site is as addictive as this one is...)

I also like the debates between the advocates of "Diseño Inteligente" and "religion del monstruo de espaguetis".

Re:Classes

[drsquare]

The BEST way? Easy:

Yeah, what could be easier than quitting your job, selling your house, abandoning your family and going to live abroad in a Spanish-speaking country?

Learining a Foreign Language?

[FFFish]

Dude, it looks lik youve alraedy Learined a Foreign Language.

My advice

[BaudKarma]

Get yourself a totally hot Hispanic girlfriend who doesn't speak a word of English.

Well, that's what *I'd* do.

Re:Pimsleur

[kherr]

I am currently learning Spanish using Pimsleur and it's very effective. Half an hour of audio work per day, and the retention of what you learn is very high. Successive lessons bring up material from earlier lessons, providing a rather organic conversational approach to the language.

I only had two weeks to learn Spanish, so I went with the audio-only approach. There's a comprehensive entry at Kuro5hin on how to learn a language that covers other learning methods and technologies, providing a good overview of what options there are.

Suggestion: Define your target listeners

[durandal61]

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.

Easy way to learn a language

[shdowhawk]

I'm currently working on Japanese as my 4th langauge. I speak Hungarian and French fluently (obviously I speak english too). This was a trick taught to me by a linguist I'd met. The best way to START learning a language is actually with 2 books. A travelers dictionary, and an actual english-spanish dictionary. In the first few pages of the travelers dictionary you will a BUNCH of very important phrase starters. For example: "Where is _____." "What is ___ in english." "How much is ____".

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!