Possibilty of speaking fluently after Span¡shD!ct.

Question

Is it possible for anyone who previously had little or no Spanish language background to fluently speak, fluently might be too much, or "nice-to-hear" Spanish after taking up all the lessons? Using of course everything Span¡shD!ct teaches us, especially the vocabulary. I really like how vocabulary is enhanced during lessons. Cheers to the creators.:D

• Perhaps a pseudo-environment can help. Spanish Movies, Music, internet?lol Any ideas? - jonlucero Apr 25, 2010
• Thanks for all your reply, it's greatly appreciated..:) - jonlucero Apr 27, 2010

Answer 1

You will not speak fluently after this site. I can not explain it, it takes more time than you can imagine. I spend 4 hours a day........(more than that really) for 1.5 years and I am not as advanced as Marianne or Mountaingirl, although I may be close to conversationally fluent. Time is long, and lives are short......but there is nothing in life more important than learning. I will believe that until the day I die. Gracias.

Answer 2

I think this is a great site for learning grammar and vocabulary. Being able to speak a language fluently requires a lot of talking and listening. There's no substitute for holding real conversations with other Spanish speaking people.

Answer 3

It's a 100% chance for anyone who is genuinely interested in learning spanish. Paralee is a great teacher and the community helps you clear any doubts you might have. It's an awesome site. Edit: I do agree with the others though, if you don't speak and hear spanish a lot you won't become fluent. However, there are many opportunities to talk and listern on this site (I believe there's a skype session) and if you follow through with speaking and studies nothing should stop you from becoming fluent!

Answer 4

I don't see how a person could become truly fluent without live interaction with multiple native speakers on a regular basis.

Not that I know what I'm talking about when it comes to languages, (ho-ho, another great pun), but in any any field (sports, cooking, the arts) you have to work with the experts to become adept.

Even so, the more we practice here, the better.

Answer 5

The absolute best way to become fluent in any language is to be immersed in that language for an extended period of time (months, not days or weeks). If you can start out your life with it, so much the better, but I think it's too late for most of us.

If you can't have an immersion experience, get as close to that as you can. SpanishDict provides a good foundation, and I think we're seeing more and more audio interaction (via Skype usually). It's worth the time.

Answer 6

I agree with all of the above comments - children become fluent in language by being completely "surrounded" by it, for years, and then being constantly corrected...

For many of us here access to native Spanish speakers is limited - however - I believe you can improvise and make great headway until the "real" thing comes your way. You can--

• Join a great site like this and take advantage of all its resources;
• Listen to Latino music.
• (try to) Read Spanish newspapers/literature
• Watch DVDs in Spanish dialogue (if available) and if there's Spanish subtitles - put them on as well...

Good luck in your journey!

Answer 7

Jon, I think you really have to create an immersion type atmosphere for yourself. I think that finding spanish music that you love and translating it word by word is an excellent way to learn. I also recommend watching Spanish movies and turning on the captioning. Also, reading and translating as much material as possible is a great way to learn whether it be newspapers, books, etc. I think the most important thing is definitely talking to as many people in spanish as possible. Go out of your way to make spanish speaking friends and find people willing to speak spanish with you. I have met people who have taken spanish for years but there conversational skills leave something to be desired. It's really up to you about how fluent you will become-there are no set rules or time frames it just depends on how hard you are willing to work. Try to focus on what you do know and don't get discouraged by the things you dont know. Recuerda-poco a poco se anda lejos.

Answer 8

I agree with Kevin: you'll have to do a lot of talking and listening (TV, podcasts, radio) to become anywhere near fluent.

Answer 9

Perhaps a pseudo-environment can help. Spanish Movies, Music, internet?lol Any ideas?

Answer 10

What I do know is, that I started learning Spanish from a tiny book given away by one the newspapers - 'Instant Spanish' - a 6-week course of 35 minutes per day. I then bought an Intermediate level book 'Sueños', which I started to work on but it was very hard going as I had to refer to the dictionary almost constantly..

Then I found SpanishDict and started off with Paralee's excellent lessons - entered the forum and started learning from everyone here.

On returning to my Intermediate book every now and again, I am very pleased with the improvements from using SpanishDict.

I live in England, so to get some immersion I try to watch some TV link textevery day, and also listen to and translate songs, time permitting.

Today on rtve they are showing a very nice film El Niño Pez, link text

It's 96 minutes long, if you have the time I would recommend it. Most days I watch Amar en Tiempos Revueltos - I think it all helps.

Buena suerte

Answer 11

This site provides all of the building blocks required to learn Spanish. If you put the time and effort in, you will receive an excellent education in Spanish here. This site has done so much to help me advance towards my goal.

But as has already been mentioned, immersion and interaction with Spanish speaking people is key to becoming fluent. For lack of a better example, this is like going to college. We can spend enormous amounts of time here, studying, practice and studying some more. However, we are not going to become experts until we use what we have learned out in the world.

Someone can go to college for four years to become a teacher or they can go for even longer to become a doctor or lawyer. They can graduate at the top of their class and receive a diploma. They have everything they need to work in their respective fields. However, they will never become an expert teacher, doctor or lawyer until they have been out there, practicing what they have learned in real situations.

Answer 12

HI Jon, welcome to the forum

Have you seen all our learning resources yet? They include audios created by natives for this site, translation practises and a long etc.

We have a group voice chat on Saturdays, always with natives present, and our native speaker Carlos, offers a "one-to-one" talk (interchange Spanish-english) on skype.

• I'm looking forward to these sessions. What time is this in EDT (so that I can adjust it to GMT+8)? Oh, btw, it's great to hear from one of the admins..:D - jonlucero Apr 27, 2010

Answer 13

Hi John, thank you for the question. I joined Spanishdict on February 8th before that time I did not know one word of Spanish , this week I had my first spluttering conversation in Spanish ,unashamedly I must say I did well and the native speaker said that I was great. It has taken me a while to come down out of the clouds but what I am trying to say is that Paralee and all who have helped to push me and others along so expertly must be doing something right . I do not want to hear talk of how many years it is going to take to be fluent because I do not have too much time therefore vamos amigos ! I cannot wait for the next lesson . OH and thanks Paralee .