Posted: Mon Feb 22, 2021 11:34am
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.