What is your method of learning?
So it's been about two weeks since I started learning Spanish. I've put nearly all my focus into memorization. Thankfully, I'm slowly recognizing a couple words here and there on TV and the radio, because pure memorization was burning me out pretty quickly.
I would like to branch out and try different techniques to see which works best for me, so how do you go about learning Spanish? Particularly for those who are more advanced and have figured out their studying style.
I prefer the more modern approach since I get distracted waaay to easily. Memrise, Duolingo, and of course SpanishDict, are my favorite sites for vocabulary. Every day I watch the news in Spanish, as well as listen to Coffee Break Spanish and Notes in Spanish at work. Luckily for me, I work side by side with someone who speaks Spanish fluently, so he's been helping me with grammar and conversation as well. I guess I try to keep a heathy balance of RWLS.
3 Answers
Wow! You sound like you're doing everything right. The best part is that you have someone beside you who speaks Spanish. You just need to stick with what works best for you.
I've been all around the block with several different ways of learning. After nearly two years, I finally started learning with Fluencia, created by people here on SpanishDict. I've found that I've moved forward by leaps & bounds since I started that. It costs a little, but cheaper than some others. You can do a free trial before deciding to buy lessons.
My favorite part of Fluencia are the surprise reviews that are tucked in throughout the lessons. I appreciate being forced to remember things I (usually) forgot. Plus, as you go along, the lessons are geared towards each user. You can rate & give feedback on each lesson so the lessons are constantly improving. Every so often I get an email from a real person (not a computer), giving me encouragement and addressing any specific questions or problems I might be having. I notice that when I "play" here on the SD forum, it's not quite a struggle as it used to be in forming sentences.
I also try to watch Spanish language TV about a half hour a day to increase my "listening ear" and I try to speak Spanish whenever I can. Usually that's by reading other people's posts aloud and reading everything aloud on Fluencia. We also have a lot of Spanish speakers around this city (Las Vegas), as I'm sure you do in Texas. By doing this, the Spanish no longer sounds so foreign to my ears.
I still have a long way to go, but it seems the more I learn, the more I want to improve. Buena suerte!
Michael, I've been using the Pimsleur Approach. It's audio, and it takes you through conversations, starting with a few simple words and sentences, and increasing the complexity and vocabulary as you go along. Each lesson is 30 minutes ling, and you go from the first to the last. No skipping around, because it used an "interval repetition" technique to help you remember what you've already learned. I've gone up through and just finished Level 6 which, so far, is the last level for Spanish (Latin American). I have really liked it, and it was perfect for me to learn. It is a bit pricey, but it was well worth it to me. Check it out. Good luck!!
