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#11
07-10-2007, 08:04 PM
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Re: Learning/retaining Spanish
Those who mentioned living in Latin America (or Spain) are correct. Nothing will make you learn and understand a foreign language more quickly than being surrounded by it at all times and being forced to use it.
I lived in Ecuador last summer, and while I had 3 years of formal college education in Spanish and considered myself pretty skilled before the trip, I was far far better after I came back. I was kind of worried about losing my skills in the past year as I no longer needed Spanish classes for school. I watched movies (Pan's Labyrinth, Almodovar films, etc) in Spanish without subtitles and that helped. I've found that my time in Ecuador really caused the language to be ingrained. I hadn't spoken much in months up until a few days ago when I was sitting with two Cubans at a poker table in Vegas. We talked in between almost every hand. The words just kind of flowed out without much thinking and next to zero translation in my head. It was a good feeling. 
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#12
07-10-2007, 08:08 PM
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Re: Learning/retaining Spanish
[ QUOTE ]
Mexico doesn't allow women on t.v. who don't have big t*ts. Just grab a sweatsock and pick whichever show is winning the boob wars that night. [/ QUOTE ] ya, but then you start popping boners whenever you pass a home depot due to pavlovian response.
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#13
07-10-2007, 08:12 PM
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Re: Learning/retaining Spanish
[ QUOTE ]
I was sitting with two Cubans at a poker table in Vegas. We talked in between almost every hand. [/ QUOTE ] Nobody brought up the idea of 'english only at the table'?
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#14
07-10-2007, 08:14 PM
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Re: Learning/retaining Spanish
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ] I was sitting with two Cubans at a poker table in Vegas. We talked in between almost every hand. [/ QUOTE ] Nobody brought up the idea of 'english only at the table'? [/ QUOTE ] Nah, the rest were talking in Vietnamese.
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#15
07-10-2007, 08:14 PM
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Re: Learning/retaining Spanish
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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#16
07-10-2007, 08:23 PM
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Re: Learning/retaining Spanish
[ QUOTE ]
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. [/ QUOTE ] As an adult, you really need some basic grounding in the language first. Immersive classes plus homework outside class are IMHO the best way to get this. Then you can progress/keep up, by watching the telenovas, etc.
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#17
07-10-2007, 08:54 PM
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Re: Learning/retaining Spanish
my wife takes lessons with a small class (4 ppl or so plus an instructor), she has learned a ton in this enviroment and it's much cheaper than taking classes at a college or something.
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#19
07-10-2007, 09:34 PM
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Re: Learning/retaining Spanish
[ QUOTE ]
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. [/ QUOTE ] 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. But when I can read it while they are saying it then I can figure out much better what's going on. I also think you could do okay watching English programming with spanish captioning or sub-titles and pick up a little bit as you go if you are concentrating. Even better if DVD's of movies are TV shows that you are really familiar with have an option to view it with Spanish dubbing and captioning. Whether it's a movie like Star Wars or Dude, Where's my Car? if you've seen it enough times and pretty much know most of the lines then you should be able to learn something if you focus on it pretty closely in spanish because you always have some idea of what it is they're supposed to be saying. Something like this is what I'm thinking of trying in the future. It just takes effort and I haven't put too much into it although I know more than I did 2 years ago. I'll get there eventually.
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#20
07-10-2007, 10:21 PM
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Re: Learning/retaining Spanish
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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