Learning Spanish

[jennyjen02]

Hi everyone.

I'm interested in spending some spare time learning spanish - can anyone recommend any books/cds that could be available in the library or something?

J

[MarkRae]

As a linguist, I strongly suggest that you contact your local library and ask for details of adult education classes. Books / CDs are good as far as they go, but there's no substitute for interaction with native or, at least, very good speakers...

[jennyjen02]

I don't really have time for a night school or anything like that as I'm moving between 2 cities at the mo.

Do you know any good CDs to start me off though?

[MarkRae]

I'm afraid not, sorry...

[somersetb]

Try going to Livemocha online and sign up for the free (initially) Spanish course, if you like it you can move on to a paid subscription. You can learn both to write and speak it with this site as you team up with native speakers of the language you are interest in. I've tried several languages before settling on Esperanto and have gone further with it than I did in a classroom setting with French. Good luck.

[sandyRoe]

I wouldn't recommend Rosetta Stone. It's quite expensive and looks fairly basic. It might be worth taking a look at Linguaphone.

[RocW]

You could try the Michel Thomas CD's. I have used them for both Spanish and Italian and they are fairly painless. You need both the beginners and the advanced to make it work though. If you only have the introduction and the foundation courses (one set) you will be OK with basic grammar and pronunciation but have a VERY limited vocabulary. Good luck

[eddy51]

100s of Spanish course CDs etc on eBay. You can pick up a second hand set of CDs for under £5.

[society]

MarkRae is right. And you'd listen to the CDs for a while and then lose interest.

[Dris]

I desperately need to learn Spanish.I find it extremely difficult although I havent had problems with any other languages.I have tried the books,CD's etc and I have to agree with Mark the limited Spanish I have is from chatting to the locals and learning from them.I know its not a possibility but might be worth asking around to see if there is someone who does speak Spanish in your town then you could hook up.

[RocW]

The other option is to try one of the meetup groups if you have one near you. I have an Italian speaking meetup group which I have just joined. It's made up of expat Italians and English people who want to learn/improve their Italian. If you google Spanish meetup and your loacation you are likely to find one near you.

[MarkRae]

Indeed. The problem with CDs is that they provide only snippets of artificial conversation. E.g. you will learn how to say "Como estas" in the right place, and the CD will dutifully reply "Muy bien", nothing more, nothing less, slowly and clearly pronounced.

But when you actually get into your first taverna and ask the first Spaniard how they are, you may very well be hit with a screed about the government, the weather, their arthritis, the current form of Real Madrid etc...

And that's why there really is no substitute for hearing the language spoken by real people having real conversations...

[sandyRoe]

Another way of learning might be language swap. I've seen this advertised on Gumtree. You help someone with their English and they'll help you with the Spanish.
If you did try this it might be safer if the initial meetings were somewhere public like a cafe or library.

[chokkie]

jennyjen, I would also heartily recommend Michel Thomas's CD course in Spanish. We have a few of his French courses, and although they are more expensive than others, they are brilliant. I suppose you can download them on to an MP3 player whilst you're on the move.