Any tips for learning faster
Ive always wanted to learn spanish. Ive used pimsleur and felt like i learned some but when im at work and people are speaking i feel kinda hopeless. I plan on following through with the lesson here but i have no one to practice with, should i try to say what im doing in spanish when i just chillin at home "talk to myself". any tips or ideas would be appreciated.
4 Answers
Dogwood, Jason and Pablo have great tips. If you live near a big city you can google "intercambiaos" which are groups that meet specifically so that Spanish speaking people can practice speaking English and English speaking people can practice speaking Spanish.
Find opportunities to use and speak Spanish. Read aloud in Spanish, and repeat the flashcards, don't just read them. There are no shortcuts.....your ears have to get used to hearing Spanish, your eyes have to get used to reading Spanish and your fingers have to get used to typing Spanish....in short, your brain has to start to function in Spanish.
It will come....phrase by phrase. Since you are lucky enough to work where folks are learning Spanish, see if you can make a deal with one of your co-workers to help....have them speak more slowly and try to have conversations with him. In turn, you can help him with his English. I have done this for many years at the stable where I keep my horse, and it works great.
Good luck...but there is no substitute for hard work.
I've found that building vocabulary through the Flashcards has helped me pick up a lot more in print.
Building up a theme-specific vocabulary can help too. I picked the NFL and read NFL news in Spanish, for instance. Now I'm writing down all of the new words I discover in this NFL theme and when I read something I can pretty much understand it.
There seems to be an axiom in language learning circles that context helps us pick up vocabulary faster.
Daniel,
I can't express this louder.....read children's books, listen to the radio, movies, and soaps in spanish as well as speak it. Even the smallest phrases will start to flow easier and easier. As you progress you will find that the cadence of the language becomes easier....believe I have a long way to go but it's good to immerse yourself in the language. Come to the skype groups...man I miss them!!.... make sure you try to read the newspaper (online) in spanish. I look at el país.com and there are multiple others. Good luck and of course this site is a great learning tool (and the people aren't bad either).... 
Try the chat sessions on this site. From the "more" button at the top, select "chat". It has helped me.
