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Permalink Reply by Omelet on December 17, 2007 at 12:25pm

you should read in the language - childrens books if you are beginning, everthing else if you are more advanced. Its helps to read out loud to yourself. watching movies in Spanish is also an excellent way .

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Permalink Reply by Gene Gordon on December 20, 2007 at 9:15am

You would think that becuse we live in Mexico it would be easy to find somone to practice with, but that isn't always true. We have Mexican friends, but they don't visit just to give us Spanish lessons. So we supplement our studies by working for free at the University of Guanajuato in the evenings for two hours, three nights a week, Students learning different languages need someone to speak to in the language they're learning.

At the University they have an area called a C.A.D.I. where language students can go and have conversation with people like ourselves in English (myself), in French (My wife). They really appreciate the time we give for free and they visit us at home, or at the restaurant for meals and conversation in Spanish. Also because we teach at the C.A.D.I. we can use all there language resources free whenever we want to. Computers, tapes, DVDs, books and other resources for learning different languages. We know people like ourselves that work in German, French, Chinese amd Japanese and I'm sure there are many others that we haven't met at this time.

Perhaps there is a language school, or University near where you live that you can visit and work with students who are Spanish and learning English. You may accomplish a situation where you get together at the school for their Eglish and they meet you outside the school to help you with your Spanish. It can certainly be a winning situation for all of you. It can also give you an insight into their culture which is very beneficial.

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Permalink Reply by ina on February 1, 2008 at 10:10am

The best way to learn a language is by using it specially in conversations or writing. If you have do not have anyone to talk with I suggest to visit http://spanish.online-spanisch.com
I learned how to communicate effectivly in Spanish - thanks to them

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Permalink Reply by Cynthia Burton on February 14, 2008 at 10:40am

Dear Ina:
Try children's books. The language is easy and useful and you often learn about culture. I try to make a list of new words I learn and I see them coming up over and over. I find them in libraries and children's sections of bookstores where I live in Az. If you try it let me know. C.

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Permalink Reply by Voces on February 24, 2008 at 2:22pm

CJ,
Have you ever tried doing a language exchange (a language intercambio)? They are a lot of fun, especially if you already know a little Spanish and can speak in the past tense. You talk to someone via Skype and spend half the time talking in Spanish and the other half talking in English. Here's a web site where you can learn more about doing language exchanges and you can find a Spanish-speaking partner who wants someone to help them with their English: www.language-exchanges.org

Good luck!
Voces

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Permalink Reply by Chuck on May 21, 2008 at 10:37am

I have the same problem - class for 2 hrs 1 time a week and then whatever I can pick up listening to radion, closed captioning on tv latino channel (this helps). I find that most latinos speak so rapidly I have trouble distinguishing one word from another. Had some work done on our house and during that process we had one latino working with the contractor. I was home and tried - surprisingly I learned a great deal from attempting to talk with him in a Spanglish mode. Try it - they may laugh a little but it's good natured.

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Permalink Reply by Peter on June 4, 2008 at 8:20am

you cannot learn a language without speaking it in conversation.

You need to speak the language in conversation to learn it. This is what the linguists call "negotiated language acquisition." While Loquella is great for "memorization" exercises, it is when you speak that you actually learn the language. Best is to speak face-to-face with an educated, experienced native-speaker tutor. You have to do it face-to-face because more than 50% of the clues to the language are in the face of the speaker. If you doubt this, try making a phone call in Spanish. Until you are an intermediate speaker the call will be impossible because you cannot see the person on the other end of the phone.

I use Loquella for vocabulary. And I use http://www.interlangua.com for a once-a-week live video conference with an educated, experienced tutor on my PC. I use interlangua because it is the only service that is used by universities.

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Permalink Reply by raymundo addun on June 14, 2008 at 2:25am

i live in spain and speak spanish. we can chat sometimes. add me to your list.

raddun@yahoo.com

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