What Is The Point In Trying

Question

As noted in another thread I am 3 hours into my Pimsleur Spanish course.

I spent some time looking on the internet tonight at Pimsleur v Rosetta Stone v This V That and on each one people post things like - ' these CD's even level 3" will not make you fluent in a language.

Most post seem to be very critical of the courses.

Now, my ambition is to be able to speak a bit of pidgeon Spanish if I go to Panama, or Miami - but the posts on the sites that compare the teaching courses available are really quiet depressing.

Today is my first day at work and having to find my 1/2 an hour - which quite hondestly is pretty difficult to do.

So off outside to listen to lesson 8 and 'waste my time' 8 as the general opinion of CD courses goes.

Anyone get any more positive views '

• never quit - Edward-Denni Aug 18, 2009
• Hey Roger, I hope you don't mind me suggesting a couple of corrections, some I'm sure are just typos but to help our learners of English :) most 'posts', pidgin english, quite, honestly :) - Kiwi_Girl Oct 19, 2010

Answer 1

I agree that 3 hours isn't very long to expect to learn a new language. I"ve been "learning" on and off for 6 years, and I still can't listen to Spanish and understand most of what's being said. I think you'll do well to use flash cards, or to make post its around the house to learn household items, we did that in my first year of Spanish. I also think a real class is a good idea. Several universities have classes online that you can take. I'm currently taking a Spanish class online through Penn State, and it's very educational. There's even a program where we can get together in a chat room type setting and all talk to each other. The good thing about Spanish is that all the letters sound the same in every word, so once you understand how to make the sounds, you can read almost anything. Also, once you understand the basics of conjugating verbs, you can conjugate almost anything, with a few exceptions. Good luck!
Also, you know, for almost any product you will purchase, you're going to find postings on the Internet about how much that product sucks.

Answer 2

You might appreciate this

"Mi gato es bilingüe. Si le digo "Miso ven aquí" me ignora, y si le digo "come here" me ignora igual.

Answer 3

I agree with ricardo. I learnt spanish via linguaphone. I spent half an hour every night for 9 months, many times listening to the same record over and over again. even after that length of time, I still only knew the basics. in my opinion, the only true way to become fluent, is to immerse yourself, ie live or work in the country whose language you want to learn. as this is not possible for 99.9% of people learning another language, you just have to keep trying. reading spanish books, listening to spanish channels on the tele. the books I used to prefer were parallel text ones, spanish on the left page and english on the right. this saved a lot of time hunting through a dictionary. ricardo is also right since after learning spanish I also speak decect french and am at the moment learning portuguese. it just depends on how badly you want it and to bear in mind that it will NEVER be easy. Querer es poder (where there's a will there's a way).

ps: ricardo, why do you want to go to the river with me.

Answer 4

Those who succeed are the ones who stick with it.

"There is no try. Do, or do not."

Answer 5

I think you need to use several resources.
An adult education class would help
You need a good verb book, "501 Spanish Verbs" is a good one.
I make flashcards & study when I do my morning walk. Spanish on one side, English on the other.
Play CD's in your car. You can check out most anything before you buy it at Amazon.com, read the reviews from others.
Watch Spanish TV, I turn on the subtitles. Even though they are in Spanish, I find I can understand better reading than listening. Maybe someday I'll be able to understand what they say. At least you get the manner of speaking.
Check the resources from this site, just click on lessons, there are many.
Don't get discouraged, it's not easy. When I start to get down on myself, I try to think of how much more I know now than when I started.. Some people are just good at learning languages, others, like me, aren't. I'm just determined.

There is a book
Word by Word English/Spanish
Diccionario Ilustrado de Inglés by
Steven J Molinsky, Bill Bliss & Herlinda Charpentier Saitz

I call it a pictionary. It illustrates everyday events, items & gives the meaning in English & Spanish. It wasn't very expensive. I got it at Amazon.com. Check it out ISBN 0-13-125865-6
Use the ISBN, there are several editions.

Answer 6

Thanks. I looked at some of the resources here - they are pretty good !! I will be using.

Answer 7

I was just thinking, 3 hours, I've been at it for almost 3 years. Even though my vocabulary is pretty good, I have a problem with conversation, & that is always having to translate. I really think you are asking too much of yourself. Relax, learn what you can, hopefully you have a better memory than I do. It will come, be patient, it takes TIME & dedication. My class keeps me going, the teacher is fun, the class diversified, & we laugh at our mistakes, which are many. When I make a serious mistake, the way it should be, tends to stick..

Answer 8

As a fluent speaker of 2 languages, Spanish and English, and an average speaker of French and bad speaker of Italian let me clarify some things.

3 hours is not enough study to learn the basics of any language let alone become fluent. I have spent more than that on my Italian and it is dreadful!
Fluency comes with practice preferably with native speakers in that language or at least very fluent speakers of the language. (ordering in a restaurant doesn't count unless you can have a conversation. Trust me I do that in italian all the time!

The most diffcult is your first foreign language. YOu need to establish new pathways in your brain and these do not come easily. The younger you are the easier they are to establish. Once you have learned a second language the third, fourth and so on are a lot easier but they all require practice!

People that learn from CDs often expect that once they have gone through the CDs they'll speak the new language. This is impossible. They may have gained the knowledge but they need practice to parse the language instinctively, ie to split what you hear into the component words.

People that have learned it through a second language speaker, ie not a native speaker, often find they have a problem speaking to a native speaker. Native speakers, in any language, speak faster and run their words together which makes parsing difficult.
They also often swallow sounds as their listeners are used to it.
I mean they will say 'sallrite instead of 'it is all right.'

Similarly in Spanish they may say maomeno instead of 'mas o menos'. This of course just make parsing more difficult as you must do it on the fly as you listen to someone.
So I might say 'Cuandoqueresquevayamosalrio'' and it is your job to split it into the actual words.

So don't get discouraged and make sure you can find ways of practising what you learn with another person.

Take care.
R

Answer 9

Eddy,

I like your ps.

When you asked the question I was reminded of:

Y que me la llevé al rio
creyendo que era mozuela
pero tenía marido

(part of a poem I read many years ago.
I think by Antonio Machado but I could be corrected on this one.)

and then I realized that Eddy could be male or female.
So enjoy anyway!

ps why did you want to know?
Couldn't you wait 'til I got you there to find out?

R

Answer 10

For me the the best way to learn spanish was go to a spanish speaking country. I was at university studying spanish but wasn't getting anywhere fast, in my 3rd year we spent a year in Spain. When I arrived I coul speak broken spanish, after 3 months I was speaking with ease and after 6 months I was speaking fluently, beacuse I was surround by spaniards. I lived with 2 spanish girls that couldn't speak english and got a job in a hotel, where I spoke spanish the majority of the time, but was useful to them with my english. I would definitly advise on just packing some stuff and going. I know there are a lot of companies that do learning holidays like gapyear.com where you spend anything from 1 week to 1 year in the country of your choice (lots of south american countries) and you work with the locals and in return you for your help you get help with learning spanish.

• Great if you are free to do it. :) - galsally Oct 19, 2010

Answer 11

Hey, don't get down on learning Spanish. I've never applied myself to the CD courses to know if they help or not, but there are plenty of other resources to help you gain a level of competency in Spanish.

Answer 12

I"ve been "learning" on and off for 6 years, and I still can't listen to Spanish and understand most of what's being said

That is depressing ! How do you have so much paitence.

I am sending my son to Costa Rica for two weeks in the summer to a teen camp - with 3 hours a day of Spanish. I think that will help him on.

Answer 13

I guess I may be underestimating how much I actually understand. I can read and write and speak fairly well, but the way that native Spanish speaking people speak is just different than the way that we do. We have pauses between each word, but in Spanish it all flows together, it's very difficult to pick up. I just completed an assignment about travel and it was this video of people in an airport talking about how much they travelled and where they went and why they travelled, and we had to take a quiz afterwards. Luckily, there were subtitles of what they were saying written in Spanish, otherwise I don't think I would have understood.
I think that your son going to Costa Rica will really help him, though. When I was in high school, my best friend went to Costa Rica for the summer on an exchange student program, and she learned so much Spanish. Having to speak and listen to it everyday really makes you have to learn. One night while she was there, though, she said she woke up and there was a giant bug on her face, so I'll probably not go there.

Answer 14

I don't know how old your son is, but young people tend to absorb a language much better than most of us adults & the younger the better. He will be able to teach you. Try to say everyday things in Spanish. My cats are becoming bilingual. I make my grocery list out in Spanish, of course sometimes I come home with the wrong thing, lima beans instead of limes. And I think the idea of labeling household items items is great. The only thing, all these suggestions, while being very good, don't help so much with conversation. That's why I think you need a class. I go once a week, which really isn't enough.

Answer 15

My cats are becoming bilingual

:} LOL