Best approach to learning Spanish

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Anonymous

#6542 Wed, 05 Apr 06 02:48 PM

Hi

I would like your opinions on the best approach to learning Spanish.

Initially some years ago I tried by learning from a audio/book course. It made you learn in the same way that the language is taught in school, explaining fully the grammer behind the language as you went along. I found that the progress I was making was making was slow for the ammount of effort I was putting in.

Next I tried an express language course. The aim of this one was that you would learn a limited amount of vocabulary and it would cover verbs in the future and past tenses without explaining the grammar behind it. The intention of this course was that you would learn enough Spanish to get by on a holiday or business trip.

Finally I got a vocabulary builder computer program. It associates each word in Spanish with a cartoon so it acts as a memory trigger. I was able to remember a lot of words really fast, but the course covered little or no grammar at all.

I understand that to learn a language fully you must study the grammar, speak to native speakers, read as much as you can etc. But what are your thoughts on the best way to get over the initial feeling of having a mountain to climb.

Anonymous

Klavier

#6558 Thu, 06 Apr 06 12:37 AM

Hi,
I would try some basic rules in the very beginning, related to simple tenses, adjectives, nouns and some adverbs. Then you could study vocabulary that is familiar to you, like concrete nouns, something that you can see. As your vocabulary increases, you could try to learn more advanced grammar rules, and begin to hear short and simple stories.
These are only my own tips, let's see if another member has more pieces of advice.

Klavier

Joined on 23-09-2005

Chile

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Jhumka

#6569 Thu, 06 Apr 06 05:29 AM

Learn some basic verbs and their forms .Then try to construst small simple sentences sentenses .Like:I go ,you come,she speaks,he came, she will go .Don't try to learn all the forms of verbs (imperative ;subjunctive etc) at a time,learn only simple forms like present ,past ,future.This is how I have learnt.

Jhumka

Joined on 02-02-2006

india

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''Lo que importa no es añadir años a la vida sino vida a los años.''

Swimnadar1245

#7001 Sat, 22 Apr 06 09:39 PM

hi, I don't think that any of those courses work or anything.. I believe that if you have a lot of time.. LIke I am learning the spanish grammer at school but then the words are left up to me which I study them at home. But then how to pronounce them and speak I have some friends at school that hardly speak any english. I think that's the best things to do we teach each other. So it goes both ways. Plus I get some fun out of it too.. Get to know culture ect..

Swimnadar1245

Joined on 09-10-2005

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