Expanding Vocabulary

Question

So I am trying this new study method and I really hope it works out. Starting at the end of this week I will begin an in-depth study of Spanish. I already have all the basics down but what I am lacking most of is vocabulary. I have three weeks before I start a new semester in school and I would really like to accomplish the goal of becoming fluent before hand. I was thinking that I could find different stories and paragraphs and translate them or something. Can anyone recommend any useful tips, ideas, websites that could help me in this area?? I am also open to the idea of Skype conferences every now and then to improve my speaking skills.

Answer 1

You plan to become fluent in only a few weeks? Wow! Well, if you want vocabulary, my advice is to make a list of words you catch yourself using a lot ("car, tree, money, etc.) and make some flashcards. Study these flashcards until you can easily translate them both ways. I'm honestly a little bit doubtful that you can become fluent that fast. You could certainly become conversational, but it takes around 300 hours of practice to become fluent at Spanish. Study hard!

Buena suerte

Thanks!!! and yes, it does sound crazy haha but the madness of it all is i will be putting 8 hours a day for at least 6 days a week. Plus I have been exposed to the Spanish culture for two years now and I still am not where I want to be -.- - awannly, Dec 17, 2013

8 hours a day for 6 days a week? If you do that, you could be reasonably fluent in only a couple of weeks! Good Luck! - 00ffada9, Dec 17, 2013

Answer 2

Fluent can have different definitions, but basically you're saying that you want to be able to speak Spanish like a native speaker before the class starts...

One of the most useful things I heard when I started learning Spanish was from a ten year old. He said, "don't worry, it's not that hard because a lot of the words are the same in both languages." He was right. If you look through an English/Spanish dictionary you will find many words that you already know from English. Sometimes they're not identical but surprisingly close.

Another little trick is the 'tion' thing. Almost every word in English that ends in 'tion' has a Spanish counterpart that ends in 'cion' or 'sion'. There are a few exceptions but it's 99% true.

So there's a couple of ways to pump up your Spanish vocabulary fast.