Best way to learn a foreign language?

[Anonymous]

I never embraced learning a foreign language growing up. There are a lot of reasons why it did not happen - such is life.

I would like to learn spanish - at least a little so that I can converse with the some of the parent's at my child's school. We smile and say hello - but I would like to get beyond that in the future.

Any recommended methods? I have about 10 minutes in the car twice a day and thought there might be some audio tools I could invest in.

Thanks

[Anonymous]

Talking and reading.

[Anonymous]

Immersion.

[Anonymous]

Take a formal class. There are lots of evening classes for professionals that meet one evening a week. Check out USDA.

Once you have the grammatical foundation, you have to travel. There's no way to get comfortable without immersing yourself. Central American family vacations are in your future!

[Anonymous]

Transparent language (byki.com) has a lot of free resources to get you started, but sometimes they can be odd-- like not explaining that the plural form of "you" is also the more formal version. Plus I think Spanish has a fair amount of variation from Castilian (Spain) to Latin America etc.

[Anonymous]

Rosetta Stone. That's how I learned English.

Awesome concept and once you're done you're ready for vacations to practice it.

My second option was taking classes at the local community college. Combining both was the best!

[Anonymous]

vacation somewhere and take classes. immersion or spending a lot of time w/ spanish speakers is really the only way you will progress to fluent. you need to be talking in spanish a lot.

[Anonymous]

Total immersion. Trial by fire. Learned Spanish quickly that way when working with an immigrant population.

[Anonymous]

OP, go to the iTunes store and do a search for Spanish. You'll find that there are lots of free podcasts you can listen to with associated websites that offer additional instruction for a fee. One thing you might start with is "Coffee Break Spanish" which is designed to help you learn with a few minutes spent during your "coffee break." The only problem with it is that it is European so the focus is on Spain and less on Latin America.

[Anonymous]

OP, you say you have never learned a language before?

In your case, I'd suggest Fluenz, unless you prefer to take a class at a college.

http://fluenz.com/how-It-Works

Fluenz is a great software program for teaching Spanish and a few other languages. I think it is best for people who have never studied a foreign language before and need ore instruction. Rosetta Stone is good for people who have already learned a foreign language in my book.

[Anonymous]

PP again. The Fluenz 1 package comes with an audio Cd that you can use in the car during your trips to and from work to refresh your memory, and you can do the lessons at home.

http://store.fluenz.com/spanish/

[Anonymous]

I'm a language teacher/research--here's my advice.

First, don't even bother with software or tapes. You learn language by speaking to PEOPLE. Unless you have some sort of communication going on, you won't get any feedback and nothing will stick.

You could take a class (a short 8 week night class at your local community college would get you a long way). I don't know how old your kid is, but no way could I fit that in my schedule.

So here's what I recommend. Sit down and write a list of all the Spanish words you know. (I *know* you know "hola." And I'm sure there has been some Sesame Street/Dora in your recent past, no?) From that list, figure a couple small-talky things you could say to the Spanish speaking parents. (Hola. Es su nino? Cuante anos?). See what they say in return. Learn how to say "Como se dice X en Espanol?" --"How do you say X in Spanish?"). Learn how to ask someone to repeat something and how to say you don't understand. Think about the kinds of pieces of language you want to use in your interactions, then learn those specific pieces.

good luck!

[Anonymous]

I think it depends on how you learn. For me, learning was taking a short course (like Linguaphone, or Michel Thomas for Spanish) to get the grammar basics, then watching lots of TV and listening to the radio with a dictionary and looking up words that I didn't know. Only then was I ready to talk to real people in the language. If you are braver than me then you could take 17.29's advice.

[Anonymous]

thanks for all of these ideas.

appreciate your perspectives and insight.

[Anonymous]

The best way to learn is really to study intensively, either by being immersed in a new country/language/immersion environment and forced to learn it to survive, or by studying intensively and regularly, like if you were taking a college class 5x a week and then also doing language lab each night.

If you only have 20 minutes a day to devote to it, I don't think you'll be able to learn very much at all. I have studied three languages, two of which I learned gradually in classroom settings (one of which I eventually got immersed in by living abroad) and another which I learned WHILE living abroad. It's really the only way to do it if you are aiming to achieve any real fluency.

If you're just in it for a mental exercise and to learn a nominal amount, you can try Rosetta stone, or the Pimsleur CD lessons and eventually watching t.v. in the foreign language but it'll be a slow road unless you have native speakers to interact with and a regular opportunity to learn/practice/study.