Help for beginning student
I am in an elementary spanish class and honestly feel lost right now. The professor speaks Spanish half of the time and I have no idea what he is saying. We are using the book Exploraciones 2nd Ed and it seems really good as well as the accompanying online learning center. Just wondering if anyone has any tips of other supplemental resources that could be helpful or any other suggestions. It is very intensive since we are in a five week summer one session. I will take the follow up elementary spanish iII n summer II (also five weeks) - July. Thanks in advance
4 Answers
I am not sure where you are based or how basic your Spanish is. This site has lots of resources and previous answers on the same topic. You need to work on pronunciation - Spanish is logical about the way the sounds are produced and they concentrate on vowel sounds rather than consonants. For example their s is a very pure sound. Listen to even fluent speakers say the word season and they will pronounce both s's the same.
Jane Cronin a teacher who lives in Spain has produced some good videos about this. It is also vital to work out the rules as to where to stress. Spanish keeps to rules and when the rules are not followed they add a tilde.
Here is an infographic about it
The site is very good but it is all in Spanish.
Here is a site with straight forward explanations and quizzes studyspanish
If you have a topic in class then after class find the subject and make sure you understand it. It is easy to not remember or make the effort to learn new structures. Years later you will think 'I wish I had paid attention to direct and indirect pronouns'
Many English learners realise when they start learning a language that they never learned the grammar rules in their own language. Eg what is the conditional tense, what is the imperative.
This site has lots of real material and tests.It should help you improve your listening skills
I have often listened to the podcasts called Notes in Spanish. They start at complete beginner and go up to Gold 2 which is advanced. The site also has various reports
Here is another site with useful information. He also has a facebook page
I have enjoyed Mi Vida Loca an interactive video produced by the BBC Mi Vida Loca
Our teacher recommended us to buy Spanish-English Bilingual Visual Dictionary (DK Bilingual Dictionaries) I have a UK edition but there is an American edition too. It has a huge vocabulary, ideal for travel or improving your vocabulary. There isn;t an e editon yet.
Here is a site of a retired American Spanish professor which is very good and great for working out a logical way to learn
Finally a good resource is Veintemundos an electronic magazine which you can receive for free
I have previously included loads of links to useful things.
Ask the teacher if you don't understand something. It is probable there are other people who are in the same situation, but do not ask. Find things you enjoy. For example music is a great way to listen and learn. Manu Chao has lots of catchy tunes or try Shakira or Julieta Venegas.
Most sites grade what is available A1, A2, B1 etc. There is no point trying something too difficult. As often as possible speak out loud. If you are reading an article read it aloud. your mouth and brain are getting used to new sounds
Find an article in a blog or newspaper that interests you - read it in Spanish or English then find another article on the same subject. Note down new vocabulary then try and find a video on the same subject.
You should keep a book where you can write down vocabulary - although I often add vocabulary to a word document I find writing it down rather than typing it helps my memory. You need to read it every day then after about a week every other day. Try using the words in a sentence either in writing or speaking to your teacher. Some of the words you know you won't use for ages - if they stick fine but don't put any effort into it. Change instructions on your tech to Spanish
This site has a thread with word of the day. Why not have a go? Someone will correct your sentence
I am sure you will get lots of tips. You will tune in to the way your teacher speaks Spanish and it will get easier. There is software which can slowdown videos which will make listening easier.
Good luck
Mardle gave some great suggestions.
As a beginner, it is easy to become overwhelmed by the vast amount of information, websites and books that are available. If you have a short time frame to learn, again, as a beginner, I suggest you "pick a horse" and ride it and not distract yourself by using too many sources of information.**
The free SpanishDict video course available under the main menu here (Learning Spanish) will give you more than enough training for a first course in Spanish. In fact, if you can compare your teacher's plan for lessons, you can probably just use the first third or half of the lessons and move on to the others when you take the next course.
You will have no problem understanding Paralee as she is a gringa, but she really knows her Spanish as well. 
For maximum learning, don't just watch the videos...do all of the lessons, flashcards, etc.
And I am not recommending the free SpanishDict video course because I have any vested interest in this. I'm just a member here, not part of admin. I have used dozens of different websites in my five years of learning Spanish and I think the SD course is the best I've found for a beginner.
** Sometimes websites might even disagree about some aspect of Spanish grammar. If you get sucked into trying to figure out which is right...could both be right in different circumstances? or different Spanish-speaking regions?, etc. you will end up spending a lot of time investigating things that are "not at your pay grade yet" and will do you very little good in terms of learning what you really need to learn as a beginner.
bemoore:
In my previous answer I recommended that you follow the Spanish Dict Video course in order to improve your learning of Spanish I. You replied:
.I already have quite a bit of work and an online learning center with the textbook Exploracionies 2nd Ed we're using but if you think it would help with Elem Span I in June and Elem Span II in July then I'll try it.
OK, I remember you also said that your teacher is hard to understand because he talks in Spanish a lot.
Here's my tip.
Before you attend class, read the material that will be taught during the class in the book. Do any exercises given in the book, or at least a sampling of them. Likewise, if the on-line learning center has additional material read, listen, watch, do exercises, etc.
If your book has the answers in the back, check them and type the correct answers next to your answers in a spreadsheet, compare and try to understand every mistake.
You can also cut and paste your answers into a question here on SpanishDict and someone will correct your errors and even explain to you why you might have made the mistake and how to think about the problem correctly. They might also give you a link to a one page lesson that we have here which deals with a particular grammar topic.
When you attend class, you will probably be able to understand the teacher much better. It truly is amazing how much easier it is to understand someone (in English or Spanish) if you already have a good idea what they might be trying to say. The class will act as a review for you, not something new and difficult to understand. You will also be prepared to ask specific questions about things you didn't quite understand during your prior studying.
Just stay ahead of the teacher and you will do much better.
Over the entire duration of the class, try to get WAY ahead by using these techniques. Often, something in an early lesson will become much clearer while you are working on a later lesson. This may sound like a lot of extra work, but it isn't. The investment that you make by doing things prior to class will reduce the work that you need to do on the same material after the class. Instead, you can just move on to the next lesson and go to a movie the night before the final exam.
How long would it take to go through the video course and how many lessons is the program? I did the first one that took just a few minutes. I assume you are talking about the fluenias course.I already have quite a bit of work and an online learning center with the textbook Exploracionies 2nd Ed we're using but if you think it would help with Elem Span I in June and Elem Span II in July then I'll try it.
