Please help out a beginner!
Hello! Everyone! This is Sunny who has just started to learn Spanish today which means I am a totally beginner. I want to do a self-study. I memorized Spanish alphabet only for now not sure if I still remember tomorrow though. :p (Quite tricky but interesting)
I haven’t bought any books or enrolled any on-line courses yet but this website cause I haven’t decided which one is good for me. There are thousand no, millions or more books and courses. My mother tongue is Korean, but I don’t think Korean books or on-line course will help me much.
I think this website is useful in many ways. But from a beginner’s point of view, it is still difficult because I don’t know how and when to use like apostrophe things (I don’t know their names in English) above the letter. And what that means in that sentence, does it play a role of accent or? It doesn’t explain these basic things.
So I would like to ask for your advice. Should I buy a book and learn some basic first? If so, which one you recommend to me? Or your tips? Thanks in advance.
Merry Christmas! 
6 Answers
Welcome here - You English looks good to me - my advice is
Forget the grammar just now.
Build your vocabualry.
Do Paralee's Video lessons above. Click here
Come to SD regularly and try to answer or post a question.
If you want a good book for grammar try this one
Ingles Basico by A. Ghiod.- ISBN 978-956-12-890 -1
It is to teach English to Spanish speakers but works very well the other way round.
Good luck.
My advise is focus more on vocabulary at first with a little grammer. Then as your vocabulary grows start focusing on grammer while continuing to build vocabulary.
You do not need to buy a book, under the learn tab is a grammer section that will help. The translator for vocab, and the answers section to practice.
Enjoy.
I recommend using the En Marcha series to get a good foundation in grammar. If you don't understand something in the book, this forum and the references section are great sources.
Use a textbook (En Marcha isn't the only choice; many people here probably used something else so be sure to pick your textbook after listening to a couple of opinions, not just 1) to get a feel for the language and its grammar. Practice the example sentences. I can't stress this enough: The example sentences in the textbook are worth more than the grammar notes. This is because you learn by example and you can actually remember and use the example sentences.
Once you go through the textbook you're ready to start with native material. Find a Spanish show or youtube channel (I like Phineas and Ferb) and pick up some books and start reading/listening/watching.
If you're ever stuck with understanding a sentence try the dictionary on this site, these forums, and Word Reference forums (it's another site dedicated to learning Spanish).
Most of your learning should happen with native material and with conversation partners (use this site or other sites like Verbling to set up skype conversations; you can also use couchsurfing.com to set up real-life meetings in cafes or the like).
Good luck!
Welcome to our website Sunny! My advice would be to pick up a Spanish for Dummies book. It teaches as if you know absolutely nothing about Spanish (which in this case is true). At the same time, make a list of some of the words that you say a lot during the day. Just some ordinary household words. Find their meaning in Spanish, and then make flashcards. Practice each day. Voila! You're no longer a beginner!
Good Luck! (¡Buena Suerta!)
A book I like is Easy Spanish Step by Step by Barbara Bregstein.
Also there is a free on-line course called Mango for absolute beginners. It offers a number of languages, including separate courses in Spanish as spoken in Spain and as spoken in Latin America. It's just a start--mostly tourist Spanish--but it's not bad. You might need to access it through a library portal.
The video lessons here are good, and the flashcards are great for acquiring vocabulary. There's also good stuff at 123 Teach Me, Visual Link Spanish, Memrise, and a whole host of other free language learning sites. It's amazing how much is out there for free.
You can click the learning link at the top of the page and take free lessons here. That could be a nice start, if you are fluent in English. Since you are an absolute beginner, you could also use the Spanish Dict translator to figure out how to say simple things like "hello" and "thank you" in Spanish. Rosetta Stone is on sale right now. That's a great tool for learning any language.
