Anyone have a method (other than submersing yourself in their culture) they’ve used and would recommend? I’ve heard of people watching Spanish soap operas and after a while, they can speak and understand Spanish… any here ever tried it or know someone first hand that has? I already have a Spanish base… well, I guess most of us do living here in Houston. I took 3 years of it in school, but we focused more on grammar than actual conversation (which is kinda pointless, imo). I’m thinking watching a Mexican soap would work for someone with a small Spanish base. I work shift work, so I have a lot of free time at work during the nights and weekends and can easily watch an episode or two a night on hulu.
Watching a spanish show helped me somewhat. It helped me understand spanish a lot more. However, it didn't help me speak spanish that much.
I can see that. I always think if you can understand a language, you can speak it... not always true. Did you keep up with it? How long/often did you watch the shows?
I've got a Korean wife that cant speak a lick of anything but English. So, I'll take your advise and get a Spanish gf on the side... I mean a spanish tutor! :grin:
Take a few refresher/basic classes then speak it as often as possible. If you think aloud, do it in Spanish. Set your mobile to spanish.
I can speak a little. If I need to ask someone a question in spanish, I can. I just can't have a very long conversation with someone in spanish. I watched the whole show. I watched it in school though. The episodes were around 30 minutes long. Id say once a week. See, like I can understand what CCorn had to say but if I wanted to respond, it would take me a while to answer
Look into the Michel Thomas method. Go advanced Spanish if you need. You'll retain more (structure + vocab) more than other methods.
Yo puedes hablar espanol con mi amigos pero es muy como se dice...romper. no bueno grammatico. Yo practica watche tele el Simpsons con espanol caption. Es ayuda me mucho. Te comprende vatos?
This has always helped me with my Spanish <iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/4cKGyOE_jOI" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
I took a formal class in Spanish for three years. Understanding, reading, and writing are easy for me. Speaking... not so much.
¡Cuidado! Ojo los accentos. La semana pasada, encontré una chica de argentina. Su accento muy fuerte- no comprenda excepto cuando ella hablé no rapido.
immersion. it's exactly like that episode of the simpsons where they send bart to a french "boarding school" and he is isolated by the language barrier, and then all of a sudden on the third day, he starts spewing out fluent french. maybe it's not exactly like that, but i studied spanish for seven years and it didn't "click" until my fourth day in barcelona. the accents in spain are way different than mexican or south american, but watching spanish television is a good way to catch slang and it's usually easy to understand because they are so over the top. or, meet a lady of your language. that's one way to learn the tongue.