talkmagic.co.uk

Hey guys! I'm working in Ibiza this summer and cannot wait to get out there! I figured I should probably learn some Spanish before I go, so got my hands on a Rosetta Stone and am making my way through it. Reading up on learning languages, people seem to say I need to watch Spanish films and listen to Spanish music, all well and good, but I really can't understand how this helps! I am listening to a chap called Pablo Alboran and although the music is very nice, I haven't a clue what he is saying. Anybody know how this is supposed to help me?

I thought it was all about putting the words into context, but if I'm only hearing the words, how can I put them into context when I know nothing about them??

Anyway, I was just wondering if anybody on here could speak a second launguage, either self taught or not, and the process of learning it and any tips really!

Cheers guys.

The idea behind it is the constant exposure to what you are learning. Right now, you can't understand a word he is saying, but as your knowledge of Spanish improves, you'll start picking up the odd word, string them together, etc.

It's the next best thing until you are able to spend time in Spain and be immersed in the language all day, every day

English is my second language and has been a process of constant use, in reading, writing, etc. Even then, my skills improved a great deal after moving to the UK in June 2009, mostly in terms of colloquial use.

Mr. Shanks, please keep us posted on your progress learning Spanish. For years, I have been tempted to learn Italian (because of my Italian roots) but figured it would be an arduous, challenging process.

On the other hand, because there is no pressure or deadline for me to learn, I suppose I could take my time with it and really absorb the process.

Heck, if babies can learn to speak with 3 years or so thru nothing but exposure and immersion, then clearly we can too.

Good luck on your Spanish!


Buena suerte en el aprendizaje del español. Mis mejores deseos de El Niño Barefot!

Madelon Hoedt wrote:The idea behind it is the constant exposure to what you are learning. Right now, you can't understand a word he is saying, but as your knowledge of Spanish improves, you'll start picking up the odd word, string them together, etc.

This is the reasoning behind it, when i first started learning swedish i was told to do the same thing, listen to swedish music and watch swedish films... i even joined skype calls with a group of my swedish friends and would just sit there for hours listening.... it really does help, you just have to persevere with it.
Something that helped me was watching a film in english with the swedish subtitles on... so you can read along so to speak - you can hear the word in english but read it in the language you are learning

Good luck!

You also need to think directly in Spanish rather than in English and then translating into Spanish. Look at an object and immediately bring the Spanish word or phrase to mind rather than the English one. Similarly, if you're going down to Sainsbury's then express the Spanish phrase for that action in your mind. Listening to real Spanish people helps a lot even if they do tend to speak a wee bit quickly.

rosetta stone aparently is good for this type of learning a language that and imersion as previosly discussed.
oh and playing a lanquage programe while you sleep apears to work too.

Ahh I think that's my downfall, I keep thinking of the English word and translating it to Spanish, I should try and start doing the opposite I think.

I will carry on listening to the music and will try some english films with Spanish translation, and the other way round. Cheers for the advice guys!

Y El Nino Barefoot, gracias

Let us know how you get on

I used to love learning languages for the fun of doing so. Because I'm a freak.

Anyway... Of course you need to watch films and stuff like that, but the idea you could learn from doing just that is absolutley absurd.

The formula for language learning is not complicated. I have always avoided courses and programmes of language learning largley due to how unnatural they are and even ones which try not to be- how disproportionatley expensive they are in comparison with books, without any particular advantage. Suspicious. I have always found it a curious phenomena that it is widley considered that teachers/ instructors is a valuable part of the process of education, rather than a hindrance. Anyway...

I would begin by learning the most common words and a bit of grammar and then begin constructing sentences whenever I could. They would obviously be ungrammatical and lack much vocabulary: 'I like you' 'Where am I?' e.t.c. I would have a dictionary of whatever language I was learning in my pocket wherever I was and when I was around (like a child asking their parent or something) and I wondered 'how do you say that in... x', then I would look up the word. It gave me something to do on the train. It is a very good habit and I would find myself wanting to find out how to say certain words quite automatically- additionally, I didn't have to go through all the pointless irrelevant 'vocabularies' of most books and courses about the weather, animals or clothes- but cut straight to trying to say stuff that would occur in a real life context. Then I memorised large parts of the dictionary using mnemonics, and use the words I had learned in talking largley to myself. Talking all the time in the learned language was important because it was constantly inadvertant revision of the words and grammar I had learned without the tedium of drills. I never do drills of any kind. Then to compliment this process a healthy dose of structured learning of grammar and vocabulary. Then to push myself I would try and read a book in that language (or I have done so for french and german) and with a dictionary by my side to be used as sparingly as possible I would read through it. For european language, books in that language are relativley easy to obtain. Then, of course, if you can go to the country (for me in most cases this was the source of me wanting to learn a given language) then you learn at a vastly quicker rate. I would say my approach is quite natural and I reckon it would be easy to learn the basics of any language quite quickly in this manor.

It annoys me when I reflect on it how much my supposed education has destroyed my enthusiasm for language learning by making it the most patronising, boring process imaginable and has actually made me worse at French because I hated my teacher and refused to read/write/talk anything French, therefore. On that topic, when I sat the exam, I understood every word the people were saying but the format of the exam actually made me lose one or two marks Foreign Language is something which I think is taught exceptionally badly in a very bad education system, along with music and mathematics especially.

Anyhow, I hope this has been of some help.


p.s
Make an effort with the accent. Accents are generally easy, but most people don't bother simply out of not wanting to sound embaressing. Ironically, there is nothing more embaressing than making no effort with the accent. Certainly in my experience if you do this and try and converse with native speakers, they will switch to English because it will be assumed you are incompetent. As long as you don't do a silly offensive accent, you'll be fine.

I learnt enough French to perform bilingually on the ferries through the eight hours of the Michel Thomas course. Dead easy. I can now do my basic business in French on holiday. I am not fluent - far from it - but it is great to be able to get by. Not bad after eight hours.

He does a Spanish version, and an eight hour advanced course as well. It might be worth checking out.

From what I've heard is that it's often harder to learn a new language or a new anything the older you get.

Randy wrote:From what I've heard is that it's often harder to learn a new language or a new anything the older you get.

Not true at all.
My next door neighbour, a postman, took up Spanish as a hobby in his mid sixties to give him an interest for his retirement (he also retrained as a chiropodist). He became a fluent speaker and got top marks in his leaving cert (Irish equivalent of A Levels) at close to seventy.
I spent five years studying French in school and came out without a word. Eight hours in my forties with Michel Thomas and I had learnt more.
The older we get the better we become at learning. Unless dementia is a factor, age is no barrier.

Randy wrote:From what I've heard is that it's often harder to learn a new language or a new anything the older you get.

To my knowledge that came from a study in which people who had migrated to a country which spoke a foreign language were tested on their fluency and accent. It appeared that those who had moved to whatever country it was became more 'fluent' and had better accents in the language of that country.

But it is nonsense that adults can't learn a language. The factor is how lazy, philistine and comfortable with long lived habits adults become as they age and any myth or excuse will be adopted to not have to make the comitment to say, learn an instrument or speak a new language.

That is exactley why GCSEs are so dreadful. They do not inspire, by any stretch of the imagination and the sole condition for excellence is inspiration, motivation or interest. This is the only important thing to have when learning anything.

Doesn't Rosetta Stone teach you South American type Spanish, ie c being pronounced as c/s rather than th as it's pronounced in Spain?

When I was learning Spanish it was Madrid Spanish, a bit like BBC London English in terms of lack of regional accent, but we were taught by a Welsh chap who was teaching himself Italian at the same time and there were a few inconsistencies as a result!

Then we had a Spanish exchange teacher to teach us for 3 months, he came from the Canary Isles and his accent was completely different - we were taught 'Llamar la peurta' with the Ll as in English, he pronounced it 'Jamar la puerta' with a hard 'J' and it confused the hell out of us - the GCE Examiners weren't too happy about it either!