Anyone know anything about learning spanish?

kwestfan08

I didnt know where to put this so, mods, please move if you have to.

I have to pick some electives for college and spainish is offered. I've always wanted to take it up but I never had the chance. Now, I haven't got a word of spanish and I'm just wondering is it easy to learn and pick up.

Pighead

No tengo ninguna idea mi amigo apesadumbrado. Lama mi vago en la celebración

sternn

I did spanish for the junior cert and leaving cert, and french up until the junior cert. I found Spanish a lot easier, i must say, than french.
I did a module of Spanish in college last year (the advanced class) and found it benefitial. It's hard to say if it is difficult or not to pick up, because it depends on the person. But I found it very managable, however I did go to spain on 2 exchanges in 2nd year and 4th year for 3 weeks each in secondary...so that probably helped.
Which college are you doing the modules in?

Glowing

Yep, I did Spanish for the leaving as well - great language. Not as complex as French and much easier to pronounce!

I didn't speak it for ten years until I went to South America last christmas, and was thrown in the deep end!

I'd go for it - then you can spend your summers in Argentina

DiscoHugh

I have a degree in Spanish (started in first year as a beginner)

In UCD (not sure about other colleges) beginners are separated in first year for the language classes then thrown in with those who did spanish for leaving cert in 2nd year so it's a pretty steep learning curve.

I was definitely happy with my decision as I'd always wanted to learn spanish and it's not that hard at all if you put the work in. However if you really just want to learn the language and are driven enough to do it on your own (I most definitely wasn't!!) taking classes on your own outside college might be more for you.

This is because Spanish in College is not just grammar,vocab, oral etc. it also involves oodles of spanish literature,history,phonetics etc etc which is very time consuming and the course load is heavy.

my best advice would be to go to Spain/spanish speaking countries as much as possible in terms of holidays etc. for practice, try and organize meeting up with spanish students who want to practice their English etc. because truth be told my Spanish was awful until I did my 3rd year erasmus there. Immersion is the key.

Any questions just pm me.

jasoncharles

The easiest way is to live in a Spanish speaking country. Seriously. That's how I learned. If that isn't possible I would recommend Pimsleur over Rosetta. I have used both to learn Portuguese and find the Pimsleur method to be superior. It concentrates more on actual conversations while Rosetta goes more towards individual sentences or words. However, both methods offer a very comprehensive package to get you started. Along the way you will need some books on grammar as Spanish tenses are much more complicated than in English. Ditto with pronouns. I have listed a site below which offers both courses at a substantially reduced price. That means they are selling you copies they have run off on their computer. Or you can get them for free by looking around the bit torrent sites. Buena suerte.

It really depends how much work you put into it, and also your natural ability, because some people have a harder time than others learning a language. I'm fluent after about three years worth of study here in the US, but i also live with a bunch of international students, so i use it every day. Practice your verb conjugations until it becomes automatic, try to think about things in spanish, listen to spanish music and try and understand what they're saying. Make friends with spanish speaking people, practice your accent, etc. because all of these things will help you pick it up faster.

You will learn it very quickly if you move to a spanish speaking country because it will force you to use the language at all times. The most important thing though is to make friends and don't be scared of making mistakes, the people are always appreciative of your efforts.



Take a look at:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/spanish/
http://spanish.about.com/
http://in.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=4C4C36BA529A86ED&playnext=1&v=YA8DybfLsOQ
http://learnspanishreview.net/LearnSpanishAudio/

getz

kwestfan08 wrote: »

I didnt know where to put this so, mods, please move if you have to.

I have to pick some electives for college and spainish is offered. I've always wanted to take it up but I never had the chance. Now, I haven't got a word of spanish and I'm just wondering is it easy to learn and pick up.

i tried to learn spanish [my wife is a spanish speaker from gibraltar] i went to night school in the UK-but i had to give it up because my wife said -i way saying stupid things and she couldent stop laughing