Gap year: learning a new language

[orangeman25]

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I want to learn Spanish over my gap year. Has anyone used any self-teaching methods/programs they found useful for Spanish? I want to stay away from Rosetta Stone for price purposes

 

[Pose]

I want to learn Spanish over my gap year. Has anyone used any self-teaching methods/programs they found useful for Spanish? I want to stay away from Rosetta Stone for price purposes

Assimil is a really good program and not very expensive. For a free and thorough course, consider the now free FSI language courses (Google it). For a free app, check out DuoLingo. There is some good stuff over at the how-to-learn-any-language forums, particularly in terms of techniques/methods and program reviews. In terms of general methods, using SRS like Anki works very well for language learning.

 

[PreciousHamburgers]

LiveMocha is great.

 

[baxt1412]

repetition to learn vocabulary and as much conversation as possible. spanglish your ass off. start doing as much spanglish as you can now. the more you think about using spanish the easier it will become. it really all comes down to using it in conversation. but to do that you have to learn the vocab and grammar rules first.

-spanish major graduate

 

[Cyberdyne 101]

Watch the news on Telemundo when your proficiency increases. I would suggest the World Cup, but they speak at 4 million words per second lol.

 

[Heday]

Watch the news on Telemundo when your proficiency increases. I would suggest the World Cup, but they speak at 4 million words per second lol.

that's quite a good GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAALLLLLLLLLL to reach this summer.

edit: okay, i'll show myself out now.

 

[hoihaie]

you can't really learn a language in 1 year unless you completely immerse yourself in that language. So change everything you read/listen to spanish - FB, news, TV, shows, radios...etc

Take it from an immigrant who had to learn english from scratch

 

[gyngyn]

Watch the news on Telemundo when your proficiency increases. I would suggest the World Cup, but they speak at 4 million words per second lol.

Spanish language news is excellent. They enunciate beautifully and you can turn on the closed captioning to see the written words as well. Now that I think about it, the news is more even handed too.

Telenovelas are good for cadence but the drama can be excessive!

 

[Keladry]

BBCMundo has some great videos. I especially like en1minuto - I hate watching long videos, plus they talk quicker to fit all the news in to a minute, so it really helps you learn to understand normal speed.

 

[deanthedream17]

its a great idea. Get Fluenz it is wayyyyy better than Rosetta Stone. RS is more well known because they spend a fortune on advertising.

 

[Being]

1) Obtain basic proficiency with a textbook and workbook
2) Pick up some bilingual books (they have a few sentences written in Spanish, followed by the same sentences in English) - I have Grimm's fairytales in Spanish/English and it's great.
3) Read the books in Spanish, and then check the English to confirm what you read.
4) Put unfamiliar words/phrases in Anki or Supermemo, review daily.
5) After reading through a section of the book, read through it again but this time read the English first, and then try to think how you would say it in Spanish. Compare your translation with the book's.
6) Engage in conversation, or at least expose yourself somehow to the language as it's spoken, and practice speaking it yourself

I think bilingual books are a really great and underutilized resource.

 

[stester77s]

I want to learn Spanish over my gap year. Has anyone used any self-teaching methods/programs they found useful for Spanish? I want to stay away from Rosetta Stone for price purposes

There are plenty of free resources online, but don't focus too much on the many programs or you'll get lost and confused trying to choose. Your best bet is to get a highly reviewed book and make a couple of Spanish-speaking friends with whom you can talk for thirty minutes a day, every single day. You'll be fluent in no time.

 

[Pose]

I forgot to mention GLOSS, which is a Defense Language Institute website that is free, and a great supplement for whichever program you use. It is essentially a collection of transcripts with a native reading them, and exercises built around each lesson. It is organized by region and level.

https://gloss.dliflc.edu/