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I'm thinking about learning Spanish. Anyone tried Rosetta Stone method?

Bob LukenBob Luken Everyone, Registered Users Posts: 3,664
.....I'm thinking about learning Spanish. Also Italian. But I feel like I would get more mileage from Spanish. I'd love to learn both but I wouldn't want to get them mixed up. (LOL) Any words of advice on the best ways to learn new languages?

Comments

  • thedjfish@comcast.netthedjfish@comcast.net Everyone, Registered Users Posts: 1,533
  • webmostwebmost Everyone, Registered Users Posts: 3,131
    Best way? Go spend a year in Mexico. Shop in the mercado. Go to the movies. Make friends on the street. Insist people speak to you in spanish. Don't worry if you are baffled at first. Not going there for a year? Watch Telemundo. Especially dubbed American movies and shows. Get the same books in both languages and read them simultaneously. Spanish is a snap. There are just a handful of words compared to English, and both conjugation and spelling are very predictable. Spanish is spoken in more countries than any other language... including here.
  • Thanatos0320Thanatos0320 Everyone, Registered Users Posts: 444
    I teach friends greek(Im a native speaker) and Spanish. I recommend they use livemocha because it's free. You have assignments to do, you can chat with native speakers, and the native speakers give you feedback on your work.The only downside to it is that it doesn't teach you the alphabet. If you ever need help with your spanish then message me. Once you have a small understanding of the language you should watch tv shows in spanish with english subs or english shows with spanish subs. Listen to the music, and make friends who can speak the language natively. A few other tips that may help are: in the beginning when you are trying to say something in another language, you first think of the sentence in english. When you do that make sure you try to construct your english sentence without any slang. Try to think of everything in a very literal way.

    For example "something smells funny" means "something smells weird" but if you were to say that same sentence in another language they would think "how does something smell funny? That makes no sense".

    the last thing I can think of is this- no matter how hard something is for you to say, just say it. The person youre spaking to is probably a native speaker and will probably be able to figure out what youre trying to say. Im on my phone so I'm sorry if there are mistakes.
  • JGKAMINJGKAMIN Everyone, Registered Users Posts: 92
    Good points, one thing I remember from my Spanish classes was that in order to learn a different language I first had to understand proper English. We speak it every day, but like you said there are slang words and sentence structure issues with trying to convert that and process our thoughts to another language to be spoken.
  • Thanatos0320Thanatos0320 Everyone, Registered Users Posts: 444
    Exactly, you have to understand proper english. One good thing about learning a language is that it improves your english. Youll also quickly learn that grammatically speaking english is one of the easiest languages to learn, but phonetically speaking it's one of the most difficult languages.
  • jgibvjgibv Everyone, Registered Users Posts: 5,996
    Check out this free site before you go dropping the $$$ on Rosetta Stone....
    https://www.duolingo.com/

    Check your local library/community center too....they may offer classes for free or low cost....would be much better than Rosetta Stone IMO.
  • wwhwangwwhwang Everyone, Registered Users Posts: 2,863
    Best way of learning any foreign language is vocabulary and immersion. Scour the internet for Spanish TV programs after learning some of the vocabulary and the grammar rules. Because there's very few people that speak Mandarin in Kitchener or back home in Mississippi, my Chinese deteriorated to the point where I could only speak casually.

    After a month or so of watching tv when I visit my relatives in Taiwan, I got back to the point where I could talk about politics and ideology in Mandarin. Rosetta Stone is a good way to get started, but I wouldn't rely on it to teach anything other than the basics.
  • danielzreyesdanielzreyes Everyone, Registered Users Posts: 6,739
    Te gustaria mantequilla en tu pan tostado?
  • jgibvjgibv Everyone, Registered Users Posts: 5,996
    danielzreyes:
    Te gustaria mantequilla en tu pan tostado?
    Si; y mermelada de fresa tambien, por favor.
  • danielzreyesdanielzreyes Everyone, Registered Users Posts: 6,739
    jgibv:
    danielzreyes:
    Te gustaria mantequilla en tu pan tostado?
    Si; y mermelada de fresa tambien, por favor.
    Excelente. Que queres de beber?
  • danielzreyesdanielzreyes Everyone, Registered Users Posts: 6,739
    danielzreyes:
    jgibv:
    danielzreyes:
    Te gustaria mantequilla en tu pan tostado?
    Si; y mermelada de fresa tambien, por favor.
    Excelente. Que queres de beber?
    doble post
  • jgibvjgibv Everyone, Registered Users Posts: 5,996
    danielzreyes:
    jgibv:
    danielzreyes:
    Te gustaria mantequilla en tu pan tostado?
    Si; y mermelada de fresa tambien, por favor.
    Excelente. Que queres de bever?
    ¿Que es bever; usted quiere decir beber?

    Yo quiero un bloody mary. ¿Puedes hacer eso?
  • danielzreyesdanielzreyes Everyone, Registered Users Posts: 6,739
    I edited John! Callate Put0!
  • jgibvjgibv Everyone, Registered Users Posts: 5,996
    danielzreyes:
    I edited John! Callate Put0!
    ¡Haha es ok; no te alteres un montón!

    ¿Tienes dedos gordos?
    Yo hago; tengo muchos typos todo el día diario. Es frustrante.

    ¿Y quién llama pu7o? YO que pensaba que eran amigos....NO MAS! ;-)
  • jgibvjgibv Everyone, Registered Users Posts: 5,996
    Bob Luken:
    .....I'm thinking about learning Spanish. Also Italian. But I feel like I would get more mileage from Spanish. I'd love to learn both but I wouldn't want to get them mixed up. (LOL) Any words of advice on the best ways to learn new languages?
    Bob, mira este hilo CLICK AQUI ...
    Yo empezaba con usted en mente, en cuanto a no adelante roba este hilo.
  • Lee.mcglynnLee.mcglynn Everyone, Registered Users Posts: 5,228
    I've worked in a ton of kitchens as a cook/chef...I know enough Greek and Spanish too get by and figure I'll be good
  • danielzreyesdanielzreyes Everyone, Registered Users Posts: 6,739
    jgibv:
    danielzreyes:
    I edited John! Callate Put0!
    ¡Haha es ok; no te alteres un montón!

    ¿Tienes dedos gordos?
    Yo hago; tengo muchos typos todo el día diario. Es frustrante.

    ¿Y quién llama pu7o? YO que pensaba que eran amigos....NO MAS! ;-)
    Si BORK. Escucha BORK ... Porque no te esperas junto al buzon correo por unos cuantos dias.
  • webmostwebmost Everyone, Registered Users Posts: 3,131
    How's that old joke go?

    If you can speak three or more languages you're multilingual
    If you can speak two languages you're bilingual
    If you can only speak one language you must be American

  • blutattooblutattoo Everyone, Registered Users Posts: 1,100
    I managed to get the first 6 chapters of rosetta stone Italian down pretty quickly before my trip to Italy last year. I wasn't fluent by any stretch, but I understood a lot more than I thought I would given the little effort I put into it. If $250 bucks is no big deal then I say what the heck, it won't hurt. If you are so inclined I'm sure you could find a bit torrent for free. I won't do it, but I know guys at work that have gotten it free.
  • Thanatos0320Thanatos0320 Everyone, Registered Users Posts: 444
    I forgot to mention that livemocha works with rosetta stone and every 1-2 weeks then send out a deal anywhere from 10%-50% off on rosetta stone.
  • jgibvjgibv Everyone, Registered Users Posts: 5,996
    danielzreyes:
    jgibv:
    danielzreyes:
    I edited John! Callate Put0!
    ¡Haha es ok; no te alteres un montón!

    ¿Tienes dedos gordos?
    Yo hago; tengo muchos typos todo el día diario. Es frustrante.

    ¿Y quién llama pu7o? YO que pensaba que eran amigos....NO MAS! ;-)
    Si BORK. Escucha BORK ... Porque no te esperas junto al buzon correo por unos cuantos dias.
    No lo hagas! Alto! Mierda!
    Ya no tengo un buzón...Todd y sus compinches destruido hace unas semanas.

    Vamos a ser amigos, ok? Besos y abrazos!
  • danielzreyesdanielzreyes Everyone, Registered Users Posts: 6,739
    jgibv:
    danielzreyes:
    jgibv:
    danielzreyes:
    I edited John! Callate Put0!
    ¡Haha es ok; no te alteres un montón!

    ¿Tienes dedos gordos?
    Yo hago; tengo muchos typos todo el día diario. Es frustrante.

    ¿Y quién llama pu7o? YO que pensaba que eran amigos....NO MAS! ;-)
    Si BORK. Escucha BORK ... Porque no te esperas junto al buzon correo por unos cuantos dias.
    No lo hagas! Alto! Mierda!
    Ya no tengo un buzón...Todd y sus compinches destruido hace unas semanas.

    Vamos a ser amigos, ok? Besos y abrazos!
    Tienes suerte que mi inventorio de puros esta bajo, y obviamente no es lo que estoy enviando.
  • jgibvjgibv Everyone, Registered Users Posts: 5,996
    danielzreyes:
    jgibv:
    danielzreyes:
    jgibv:
    danielzreyes:
    I edited John! Callate Put0!
    ¡Haha es ok; no te alteres un montón!

    ¿Tienes dedos gordos?
    Yo hago; tengo muchos typos todo el día diario. Es frustrante.

    ¿Y quién llama pu7o? YO que pensaba que eran amigos....NO MAS! ;-)
    Si BORK. Escucha BORK ... Porque no te esperas junto al buzon correo por unos cuantos dias.
    No lo hagas! Alto! Mierda!
    Ya no tengo un buzón...Todd y sus compinches destruido hace unas semanas.

    Vamos a ser amigos, ok? Besos y abrazos!
    Tienes suerte que mi inventorio de puros esta bajo, y obviamente no es lo que estoy enviando.
    Hmm bien, muy bien entonces.
    No quiero sacar conclusiones precipitadas, pero sabes que ya me envió dos stogiestands, un OG y un LE lancero....bien?
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