Learning/retaining Spanish

[starvs]

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I'm really interesting in learning Spanish and would like to do an immersion program next summer (ideally spain, mexico if not). Has anyone done one of these, knowing basically nothing going in? How long does it take you to get to conversationally competent assuming it's pretty intensive one? If anyone has done this is Spain recommendations would be great, but thats a long shot.

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If you're from the US you should do a program in central or south america, not spain. Why? Because you're going to hear mexican/cuban/south american spanish in the US, not "spain" spanish.

I've lived in both Spain and Uruguay. I did an immersion program in Uruguay (1 semester and summer in college). I can't tell you how long it takes because it is different for everybody. People with a solid understanding of the roots of english words (Latin) will pick up spanish very quickly. If you do it for the summer (3+ months) you should be able to hold basic conversation by the end.

Again, if you're an american do yourself a favor and don't do a program in spain. I love the country but if you learn spanish there then when you come back you'll have to learn a new dialect to speak with mexicans and cubans. The difference between american english and British is very much like the difference between mexican/cuban spanish and "spain" spanish.

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This is something I certainly was considering, but I also would like to live in Spain for an extended amount of time, possibly getting a job/internship there is following summers. The difference you illustrated doesn't seem too large (American English vs. UK), but that may be because I'm so familiar and comfortable with the language.

[Sooga]

Not only that, but living in Southern California it was by far the most applicable, compared to German and French.

[MicroBob]

He's saying that just to give you an idea. It might be more significant than that. Not sure.

My GF from Peru and I think most other native spanish speakers would recommend you not learn Spain-Spanish if you intend on practicing it over here signficantly.

Even then, there are many different spanish accents/dialects on this side of the Atlantic.
Somebody from Argentina will sound different than somebody from Peru who will sound different than somebody from Cuba.

And there's all kind of different slang in there and some words are said in some regions commonly that will get you quizzical, "WTF are you saying?" looks elsewhere.

I look up some phrase in a translation book and try in on my GF and she tells me, "That's more of a Mexican slang I think. Don't say that around my parents because it means something totally different in my country."
Arrrgh. This regional-slang stuff is hard.

I don't know spanish well enough to be able to tell you how different learning it in Spain is.
But I do know that it's really different and that the recommendation to not learn Spain-Spanish if you intend to eventually communicate with people from Latin America is probably a good one.

The difference may actually be a little bit more than American vs. British english.
Remember that there are various degrees of that American vs. British english thing.

Took a girl with a strong cockneyed British accent to Mardi Gras in New Orleans.
Nobody there could understand what the hell she was saying even if she was just trying to order a "Water with lemon" and mostly she had no clue what those crazy cajuns were trying to say either.

[chawla2890]

si vienes a california, aprenderás mucho español. empezé trabajar en mcdonald's y yo he aprendido mucho porque hay muchos mexicanos allí.

[NeBlis]

MicroBobs TV learning is a great way. But by far the best is to take some classes or CDs or both and then travel. A ticket to Costa Rica or Mexico etc and a weeks worth of cheap hotels is worth more than any class you can take.

I worked in a bakery for a few years where all my crew were Latino. I carried around a notepad and wrote phonetically things i didn't understand. Then i got the one guy who spoke decent english to translate the phrase or word. We would also use the flour to draw pictures for each other.

I am now married to a Mexican and we speak spanish with her family (even though they all speak perfect english). But I have learned the most just walking around in spanish speaking countries.

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I look up some phrase in a translation book and try in on my GF and she tells me, "That's more of a Mexican slang I think. Don't say that around my parents because it means something totally different in my country."
Arrrgh. This regional-slang stuff is hard.


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LMAO

I've been there. when I met my wife she actually knew very little slang (moved to the US when she was 5) And her family is well educated. My ghetto kitchen spanish got allot of laughs and they constantly called me a "ranchero"

When her Aunt and uncle moved to Mexico City from Venezuela they had a new baby. One day the uncle was going to the market and the aunt called down to him from the window.
something like

"busque el mercado, necesitamos cooleros"
in Venezuelan spanish this meant "check the market we need some diapers". But to all the mexican neighbors it meant "we need some homosexuals". I forget the acual prasing but it made it sound like she wanted him to cruise for gays.


check out this book for a good slag reference from different spanish cultures that is easy to read.

amazon link

[TiK]

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MicroBobs TV learning is a great way. But by far the best is to take some classes or CDs or both and then travel. A ticket to Costa Rica or Mexico etc and a weeks worth of cheap hotels is worth more than any class you can take.

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I think watching TV is a good way to understand Spanish, but not a very good way to actually improve at speaking it. The only way to do that is to speak it lots, usually by speaking to other Spanish speakers who can correct you if you're speaking wrong.

[MicroBob]

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to all the mexican neighbors it meant "we need some homosexuals".

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Laughing pretty hard at that.
Add on the occasional mis-pronounciation or emphasis and you can get in even more trouble.

When I was first trying to learn some words I tried to wish her and her parents a "Happy New Year" but I wished them a "Happy New Anus" instead.

[kazana]

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I always hear this about watching Spanish language TV to learn the language, and I guess intuitively this makes sense because it's basically how we learn our native language in the first place. Having people speak at you and around you until you start understanding.

Although I haven't spent a lot of time on this I've tried this before and I never seem to be able to pick up on ANYTHING even with context, mostly because they speak way too fast and I just don't understand how, without speaking it to other people how this would work.

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I'm with JJ. They are way too fast for me. No chance of keeping up.
But I've been learning a few words here and there with a translation book and the occasional CD listen.

Watching the spanish programming with the closed-captioning helps me a lot. When they say the word super-fast and slur them all together like people normally do I can't catch it.

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My mom learned German basically from scratch (after some very basic course tapes), and she learned most of the language through TV. The normal shows/movies weren't very helpful precisely because it's harder to grasp the context and all the slurring going on.
What helped her MOST were the ads. The context is clear (buy this broom/dishwasher/medicine/etc - NOW), and they typically try to speak as squeaky clean as the language allows so that everyone will catch the message. Also, constant repetition is always a plus.

If I'd learn Spanish (and I'm considering it), I'd take some courses, move to a Spanish speaking country and stop zapping when ads are on TV...

[Kurn, son of Mogh]

Watch Spanish TV, Univision or Telemundo, your cable provider must have at least one.

At first, concentrate on commercials. You'll get context and repetition (usually the same ad runs multiple times every hour).

Try to find a local Spanish-only language school that offers classes in conversational Spanish. These schools are much more enjoyable than academic institutions

If you don't have any of the above near you, invest $300 in Rosetta Stone software. Absolutely the fastest way to learn a language other than being exposed to it as a baby.

[Worm75]

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I took Spanish for the past two years in school because I needed to in order to graduate. I hated it and didn't really want to be in the classes, but nevertheless I got good grades and tried decently hard because I didn't want it to mess up my GPA.

Anyway, I now have a two year background in Spanish and I've decided that I want to try and learn more/retain what I have in case it can help me later in life. Also, so that the roughly 15k I paid for all those classes doesn't go to waste.

How can I go about it? I don't really want to take any more Spanish classes, although I might take one or two.

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Immersion is pretty much the best way to learn/understand any language, + makes a great excuse to see the world...