What do you think is the simplest, yet most effective way to learn Spanish?

The problem is not so much in learning Spanish as it is in using Spanish. You have to be in a situation where you are speaking and hearing it daily. Otherwise you never achieve fluency. I learned French as a child but it’s been decades since I spoke French regularly. It’s still there but I would have to be in a French environment for it to all come back again.

 

Language school for many reasons. You are taught grammar, reading, writing and speaking and have to be proficient in all to pass each year.They also had a programme where you could meet up with a spanish speaking student studying english so could practice with a native speaker and vice versa. Also full acreditation for passing meant I was actually able to become a teacher if I wanted to. In Spain it is the EIO (escuela oficial de idiomas). I would check out Spanish government schemes first.

 

Be born in a Spanish speaking family?

Just a guess.

 

Meant to say Mexican............duh

 

i had language lab in school. I found it rather daunting because the teacher would just cut in and say how wrong I was doing I find language learning an all consuming affair. It totally engulfs my mind. Then again I am totally fluent in Spanish and French and pretty rubbish at German. On the downside I find that to totally learn a language in all its intricacies takes at least five years of hard slog even if you are living in the country whose language you want to learn. Good luck and just remember that the hours of study will pay off and do not be put off when the going gets tough and you have no fucking idea what's happening! Speaking from experience.

 

Your welcome! Slow and steady man! It will come!

 

That's a good summary of the concept. Ya gotta love it and really want it. And be relentless. There's no magic solution. Without books for grammar, conjugation, parts of speech, etc etc, comprehension will be challenging and the outcome limited to repetition. To "know" a language, i.e., be fluent, reading and writing are required elements. It's a base for learning to understand the spoken word and speak to be understood in a second language.

That said, I have yet to meet a person who I would consider having mastered a second language who began to learn it as an adult. Not saying one doesn't exist, but he conocido harta gente. So, as Neil Young once crooned, "Teach your children well".

 

When a friend of mine wanted to improve his German. While he was working, rather than speaking to companies on their help line in the UK, he called the help line in Germany. It worked extremely well, particularly with the grammar. Fortunately he was working on projects that was using a lot of Bosch and Siemens equipment.

 

Your a smart guy............."Great idea"

 

Jajajajaja entiendo eso! A veces es imposible entenderlas, y a veces mejor no intentar mucho. Son capaces de comunicarse bien si de verdad quieren hacerse entendidas. Así que no me pongan a adivinar lo que quieren decir. Y aquí somos bilingües, so, si digo algo y me piden que lo repita, cambio de lenguaje. Es como decir que escuchen mejor pero sin decirlo.

Sometimes I might say to someone (and this happens in both languages) "I don't understand you" to have them repeat the same set of sounds, only louder. It makes them stop and think for a second (usually) when I respond that I'm not having a problem hearing them.

Un saludo

 

I figured out that when calling some monopoly or govt agency where they put you on hold to wait endlessly in a godforsaken queue, I get through faster if I aplasto el número dos.

 

If you did that in the UK, they would probably just hang up. It is hard to find anyone here in government agencies who can even speak English, let alone another western language.
One of my funniest memories of a day in central London was asking for a jug of water at a restaurant. After looking on the menu and scratching her head for a few minutes, the waitress told us that 'jugs' were not on todays menu.

My friend was lucky. He was working on the design of the regenerative electric motors for the new London tube trains. It was because he spoke a little German that he was dealing with Siemens who were manufacturing them. Since the project was complex and involving the new trains running driverless, he wanted to improve his German prior to spending 6 weeks in the factory. He was on the phone for several hours a day, talking to design engineers, some or who spoke very little English, so the whole thing was a win-win situation.

Hopefully HF don't have any tube drivers as members. If so, I will probably be found floating face down in the river.

 

Find a Partner who is Spanish - I'm sure you'll get a few swear words included in there too - lol

 

Hehehe
That would be even more funny were it not so sad.
At least she didn't accuse you of trying to get her to serve you one of her breasts.

The auto tubes will probably still have a "driver" there to pull the manual stop override when the CPU system hiccups, so no cement boots for you just yet.

 

Those words are first priority.

 

The simplest, most effective, way to learn anything is to have memories implanted in your brain. The Pentagon is working on the technology but, for the rest of us, there's always jumping into the deep end of pool and seeing how far you get.