Possible to learn Spanish without lessons online?

gormdubhgorm

I was thinking to myself it would be a nice challenge for me to learn a language that I never learnt at school.

So I was thinking of Spanish.

I want to avoid the Spanish lessons route and try to teach myself. Kind of like how you would normally learn a language (with no grammar baggage) just learning how to speak it even a little.

I figured the best way would be to watch Spanish films/soaps/sitcoms with subtitles. So I would like people to tell me some?

Then I figured google translate/ you tube would help me with the repetition of words etc.

Is there any other methods I could try?

accensi0n

Listen to music

Novels + dictionary

Phrase/Idiom books (Since it would just be learning chunks and not the technicalities of how the sentences are made up)


It would probably be worth doing normal lessons as well though:
https://www.youtube.com/user/LightSpeedSpanish/videos
https://www.youtube.com/user/languagenow/videos

Heathen

If you are looking to learn without getting too much into the grammar and drill end of things you can try the Michel Thomas route... here is the full 8 hour course... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z24IrjEPEwM

You could also try the synergy spanish course, this build your vocabulary bit by bit learning new words along the way.

Enjoy it, its a great language to learn. Also try out duolingo!! Its fun and you learn a good bit :-)

H

Nemanrio

Would watching films in Spanish (with English subtitles) help too?

accensi0n

Nemanrio wrote: »

Would watching films in Spanish (with English subtitles) help too?

Claro.

Nemanrio

accensi0n wrote: »

Claro.

Vale.

Do you know where I can watch/download films, documentaries etc.?

accensi0n

Nemanrio wrote: »

Vale.

Do you know where I can watch/download films, documentaries etc.?

youtube.com

Nemanrio

accensi0n wrote: »

youtube.com

A little more specific perhaps?

niallcon4re

You won't learn the language by just doing the "fun stuff" like watching films, it won't magically come to you. Spanish children go to school and their teachers teach them the rules. There are rules and you won't figure them out just by listening to t.v. You need somebody to explain them to you.

There is a famous film called "hable con ella" but if it was called "hablé con ella" it would mean something completely different , and they sound different and you won't be understood. The accent over the "e" changes everything, both meaning and pronounciation.

Michel Thomas (as somebody pointed out earlier) is great, while he doesn't use grammar terms, the whole course is dedicated to grammar, not vocab.

If you don't want to do the hard/boring stuff, you can learn words and make yourself understood but Spanish people won't enjoy hearing their language being butchered and at times there'll be misunderstandings.

I am pie

Sadly grammar needs to be learnt, imho, the same way we learnt multiplication tables as kids. Read and repeat, write it out a few times. Once you familiarise with a few simple forms of past, future & present and memorise rules for masc & fem and pluralisation of nouns you can start to build your vocabulary. This would allow you make factual statements and ask simple questions.

Without studying with a teacher that is about as far as you will get. Maybe you could add a few more tenses, but to move beyond that and into the realms of expressing opinions and expressing uncertainty you will run into the hardest aspect (or the least intuitive aspect) of spanish for english speakers. The subjunctive mood. In my experience, you'll need a teacher to help you with the concept and the various rules.

Thats the difference between only being able to ask and respond to simple questions in various tenses and expressing opinions. Not to say you can't express opinions without the subjunctive mood, but it's going to become a necessity.

TLDR - You can memorise grammar, "experience" it by watching movies but sooner or later you'll run into grammar constructs not intuitive to the english speaker (although existing in english) which will require that you attend some sort of class.

Depends on what you want of course, "holiday spanish" wouldn't require too much of the subj. mood.

SeantheMan

Go onto DuoLingo.
It's not 'lessons' exactly....but it's extremely effective and fun

Just Janice

The library always has a good languages section and videos to borrow to get you started.