Is this site proven to let me who can't speak spanish fluently speak it?

Question

How much time or practice would I need to master spanish?

Answer 1

Welcome to the forum!

This site is extremely helpful! Doing the 4 levels of Learn Spanish lessons will definitely give you a very good start on learning Spanish.

In addition to the Learn Spanish lessons, there are lots of other resources in the More link at the top of each Spanish Dict page.

Answer 2

Welcome to the forum, MilesofSmiles!

The only guarantee of speaking Spanish fluently is to keep on practicing and speaking it. Even if you don't move to a Spanish-speaking country you can sort of "self-immerse" by trying to think continually in Spanish and listen to as many Spanish-language broadcasts as possible, as well as reading as much in Spanish as possible.

Use Spanishdict and, if you like, supplement with another Spanish language instruction method. The more Spanish you can incorporate into your daily life, the sooner you will see results.

Answer 3

Immersion is key. If you go to another country and only hear and see that language, within a couple months you would normally be able to begin understanding conversations. If you had intelligible use of the language prior then you could start speaking conversationally. Essentially, the more you do, the faster you'll learn.

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Try listening to CDs in the car; try journaling to yourself in Spanish; find friends who are either native speakers or have used the language in a Spanish-speaking country to assist with your use - and don't let them correct you in English! Use index cards and label things around the house so you constantly see the words. Speak out loud so you can practice pronunciation. Depending on your mode of communication (visual, auditory, or tactile) you will learn in one way faster than another, so use all methods of immersion - seeing, hearing, feeling.

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You are literally learning a new thought process, a new way to think. You cannot continuously translate from English to Spanish, so you need to eliminate your dependance on English as quickly as possible. English is already a very difficult language to come from when learning a foreign language; English has been butchered with slang and watered down from it's origins over centuries, so much to the point that we do not use words as they were originally intended!

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Aside from this site, Rosetta Stone and Pimsleur are the two best learning methods (from both outside references and personal use experiences). I found many Pimsleur CDs that I could copy at my public library.

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Hope this gives you some ideas!

Answer 4

Mi respuesta es.....claro...Sí. (Yes, definitly)

What I do is, I go through itunes and buy Canciones de Amor (love songs) they are slow to be easy to understand and they use very basic spanish, I listen to Singers Like ''Belinda'' y ''Belanova'' ''Camila'' etc etc. Tambien, I must have about 300 podcasts about learning spanish, I sit and just listen to them, its really helpful, also ''I think'' in Spanish, it sounds mad, but It helps ALOT!
Another thing to do is actually stay in a Spanish speaking country..

As people and me, have said, its all about immersion immersion IMMERSION!!

Just do everything in Spanish, it really does help.

Please DO NOT translate word for word, because it just doesnt work at all, i made this mistake 5 or 6 years ago when I started to learn, and it makes no sense to a spanish listener, they say things differently to us.

Un ejemplo mas facil: If we wanted to say in spanish ''I am hungry'' a beginner would translate it to ''Soy hambre'' or ''Estoy hambre'' which doesnt make any sense at all, Because in Spain we/they say ''I HAVE hunger'' which translates to '(Yo) Tengo hambre / Tengo mucho hambre''.

Hasta pronto Y un beso para toda tu vida.

• Tengo mucha hambre ;). Hambre is a feminine word, it takes el instead of la to avoid the awkwar repetition of the a sound. But, I totally agree with your point. - maripositaxx Jun 8, 2010
• Awkward* - maripositaxx Jun 8, 2010

Answer 5

I'd say one year by the inmersion methode... moving to a Spanish speaking country and living there with a Latinamerican family for a whole year.

Answer 6

After learning the basics, I think spanishpod is very useful. You gain listening comprehension in short dialogs, and then memorize the dialog to learn how to converse with different topics.

Then practice the dialog with a spanish speaker.

Answer 7

You'll find these topics really useful if you plan to keep learning. The list of audio and video resources is great, too.