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Learning Spanish via an app.

Posted: Sun Feb 21, 2021 7:39pm
7 replies364 views7 members subscribed
Evienick1

Posts: 5

Location: Sucina

Joined: 29 Jan 2019

Hello everyone. I have a plan to move to Hacienda Riquelme in 5 years and need to learn Spanish.


I’m a window cleaner here in the UK so have lots of time in the day where I don’t talk to anyone so need an aural/oral app where I can just learn Spanish ‘ad verbatim’ and not get my phone out every 2 seconds.

Has anyone any recommendations please? 

Thank you.

MGB 1971

Posted: Sun Feb 21, 2021 9:35pm

Posts: 17

7 helpful points

Location: La Torre Resort

Joined: 15 Apr 2020

Posted: Sun Feb 21, 2021 9:35pm

Has to be coffee Break Spanish on Spotify . Very good : I’m listening to that and also doing the Duolingo App .

Good luck 👍🏻

itsMe

Posted: Sun Feb 21, 2021 10:49pm

Posts: 73

16 helpful points

Location: Fuente Álamo

Joined: 22 Apr 2020

Posted: Sun Feb 21, 2021 10:49pm

So long as it's ok at your job for you to repeat spanish out loud I would recommend a half an hour pimslur spanish lesson repeated morning and afternoon everyday for about 5 days. Then the next week move onto the next half hour lesson. 

You can increase this to one hour long lesson per day when you start feeling more comfortable with it.. DO NOT  try hard to remember what you have learned as it will come to you with repetition. 

I use the pimslur CDs that I got second hand off eBay and find they are good for getting the spanish words lodged into my brain and spoken correctly. I am not sure what other forms they come in besides the CDs.

After you have done about 8 pimslur CDs I would suggest starting doing 10 min everyday (as well )of Dualingo app which is fun and helps a lot with reading and writing Spanish but doesn't help as much with pronunciation. I suggest you do this when you arrive at work 15 min early every morning - you have to look at your phone for this but it's only ten min and it's fun and addictive. 

After about a year if you have time there are once a month Spanish/English  language swap meetings (in some uk towns ) that you could go to to try out your newly aquired skills. 

Good luck 

eraser

Posted: Sun Feb 21, 2021 11:42pm

eraser

Very helpful member

Posts: 800

678 helpful points

Location: Los Urrutias

Joined: 8 May 2018

Posted: Sun Feb 21, 2021 11:42pm

I started with Duolingo via Chrome: because you can speak and it will be corrected. (Be aware that this is an american app and it refers to Mexican spanish)

OK I am German and started with German/Spanish

Got a teacher 1:1 here in Spain and after ca. 15 hours I was every time in tears. (She is Spanish and the lessons was Spanish/English - and she is not very pationed when it comes to grammer - my weak point at the age of 67)

My husband mentioned busuu.com.. So started from scratch English/Spanish. 

Duolingo is free - busuu charge € 3,00 for a month.....

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Anne2019

Posted: Mon Feb 22, 2021 11:34am

Anne2019

Helpful member

Posts: 400

274 helpful points

Location: Los Alcázares

Joined: 25 Dec 2019

Posted: Mon Feb 22, 2021 11:34am

Evienick1 wrote on Sun Feb 21, 2021 7:39pm:

Hello everyone. I have a plan to move to Hacienda Riquelme in 5 years and need to learn Spanish.


I’m a window cleaner here in the UK so have lots of time in the day where I don’t talk to anyone so need an aural/oral app where I can just learn Spanish ‘ad verbatim’ and not get my phone out every 2 seconds.

...

...

Has anyone any recommendations please? 

Thank you.

Hola Evie & Nick,

This is going to be a little bit long winded, hope you can stay the course (so to speak) but I think you will find it very helpful.

1)   It's very important to give equal time to learning & listening.  

We spent nearly 2 years learning french before we moved to France, using The Michel Thomas course.  I could read; write and speak French to a decent basic level.  We thought we would have no problems.  Wrong.  We'd been so busy learning to speak, read and write that when our wonderful neighbours (non english speaking) came to meet us it sounded like .... blhh leu speuooombla ....

I had to write all my words down so they could understand.  They were fabulous and all bought english/french dictionaries and we ended up being 'penpals' for about a year.  But when a neighbour rushed in to tell me her exciting news and I understood (almost) every single word, I was so pleased and proud too!  

2) BE KIND  AND PATIENT with and to yourself.   'cos more than once you will think....I can't do this!   YES YOU CAN.

 Learning a language is hard slog.  It takes perseverance; determination; it can be boring; frustrating and make you want to batter your head against the wall until your brains fall out.  I know we both said 'sod it' more than once.  So, unless you have a natural appititude; are a very fast learner or a genious don't make the mistake of thinking you can just listen to a few MP3s and it will all miraculously sink it.   You will have to listen and repeat - repeatedly and then again :-))  

3)  Use the Michelle Thomas Course.   We tried quite a few different ones.  On line too.  Did some research and discovered thousands of testimonials recommending it from all over the world.

It is the most annoying; irking course you will listen too.  Each lesson is short (he uses 'baby-steps) - and annoyed the hell out of me.  And it is the annoyance that makes it sink in.  Michelle needs new false teeth, lisps and there is an english student and a native speaking student repeating.    Turns out that the brain needs this additional stimulation in order to be working at full power.

So you finish the short lesson.  And you'll find you do actually remember most of it.  A few relistens and you know it and can repeat it in your sleep!   We also wrote down each lesson, so we learned to not just speak but write and understand the new language (thanks heavens we did!)

3) NEVER GIVE UP

We only moved here in September.  It was a sudden decision.  So no time between moving, selling houses, buying a villa etc., to do any learning. But we started self-learning the basic building blocks  i.e.

The alphabet - and how to pronounce each letter.   Incredibly important to enable you to pronounce spanish words.

Numbers :   You will use these every single day - dates; shopping; time etc,.

Days of the week and months .......

We have just received our Michelle Thomas Spanish Course (we got the entire novice to advanced - we're optimists :-))

So with a groan - we took out our first CD and.....yep, just as bloody annoying in Spanish.   But we do feel confident that we won't give up.

Good luck with whatever course you choose, different ones suit different temprements.  Remember - be kind to yourself. You will get there in the end.  As will we and we're old biddies now.

Anne2019

Posted: Mon Feb 22, 2021 11:42am

Anne2019

Helpful member

Posts: 400

274 helpful points

Location: Los Alcázares

Joined: 25 Dec 2019

Posted: Mon Feb 22, 2021 11:42am

Sorry, me again.  Larning basics i.e. alphabet pronunciation; numbers etc,.  We Used 'Butterfly Spanish' on Youtube.  Hope that helps.     And there is very minor, non-problematic issues with using Mexican/USA/ or mainland spanish.

Oz2

Posted: Wed Feb 24, 2021 10:31am

Oz2

Posts: 26

5 helpful points

Joined: 19 Sep 2016

Posted: Wed Feb 24, 2021 10:31am

Duolingo ... stories 

rgz3435

Posted: Wed Feb 24, 2021 2:56pm

rgz3435

Helpful member

Posts: 110

50 helpful points

Location: Roda

Joined: 22 Feb 2021

Posted: Wed Feb 24, 2021 2:56pm

Started with Duolingo, Babbel but found it fairly hard going. I then switched to "Spanish with Paul" which just made absolute sense on how to construct your sentences etc. He does not get too involved in "correctness" but shows you how to speak using "modern" construction. For example a course will normally start you off with I , you, it/him/her, we, you (plural) and they with the correct corresponding verb ending. E.G.  Instead of saying Yo necessito, you can go straight to Necessito and the "I" will be understood.

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