How can you learn Spanish quickly and easily?
I am always in a situation where I need Spanish.
15 Answers
By working very hard for a long time.
Spanish is not difficult to learn, and it doesn't take very long. I've been working on it since 1972, and I figure I'll be pretty good at it Real Soon Now.
Seriously, there's no silver bullet. You can pick up enough to muddle through very quickly, depending on what you want to do. From your username talking to ranch hands pops into my head, since I own a ranch. You can learn a few phrases to tell ranch workers what you want them to do in a few weeks. The tricky part is learning to understand what they say back. If you're talking about being able to hold an every day conversation at full speed, plan on at least a year if you really push it. More like two. And that means really, really working at it.
How? The best way would be to move to a Spanish speaking country and live there for a couple of years. Second would be taking a total immersion course, like Berlitz. Trying to teach yourself from software, web sites, etc., is possible, but very, very slow.
Welcome to the forum. This is a great site to learn Spanish. There are really no shortcuts. You have to really want to do it and study every day. We have lessons and many resources here. You can start at lesson one. lesson onelink text
Live in Spain!!
The easy way is to learn one word per day. If you think about, 60 years isn't really that long.
Dating a native speaker! 
I have no idea. I haven't managed it quickly and easily - to intermediate level.
I have decided to stop comparing my Spanish ability to what I can do in English.
No tengo idea. No lo he conseguido de forma rápida y fácil - hasta a nivel intermedio.
He decidido dejar de comparar mi capacidad español a lo que puedo hacer en Inglés.
I once watched a show where the figured out how to input information directly into the brain of a brain damaged man. He had no short term memory and the only way he could get new input was this way. Here is the application for this forum, they said one possible application is to input say a 1000 word vocabulary (still very small) directly into the brain. I saw that show about a decade ago and is still hasn't happened, so until it becomes reality (probably never will) take this advice: "The most valuable things I have accomplished in this life were also the hardest ones to achieve." I forgot who said that, sry.
Since you want easily and quickly, lovely_lovely's answer is the most appropriate. Total immersion - living in the country of the language of interest - is the only way you are going to get easily and quickly. It doesn't happen overnight.
Once you are in your chosen country, the rest depends on you - how well you can listen, how well you can mimic, how much you are willing to take the chance of making mistakes, how much interaction with natives you allow yourself, and how much reading and writing you take on.
ocbizlaw siad
By working very hard for a long time.
I am amazed that this reply gained so many votes as it didn't answer one of the points in the question, ie "quickly".
My friend learned to speak Spanish fluently in 9 months by immersing herself in the language.
Watch TV in Spanish to improve your listening skills. (Subtitles help a lot too!)
Speak Spanish as often as possible to improve your speaking skills.
Find a penpal that is a native speaker. E-mail back and forth or chat to work on your writing skills.
Try to make friends that are native speakers.
Take a Spanish class.
Study, study, study!
You can't, unless your name is Daniel Paul Tammet.
Don't cram - work on it often throughout the day. For example, I tell myself the date and weather every morning, practice food vocabulary while grocery shopping, I'm hooked on a Spanish language soap with English subtitles... those little things add up. It's still a slow process. I have 9 years of French from school and even though I had good marks, I'm nowhere near fluent.
I agree: learning spanish is very easy over a VERY LONG period of time! Learning enough to move around in a spanish speaking environment (street spanish) is quite different than learning proper spanish. Patience-patience-patience!
The fastest way is to forget everything you know about English
