What is the best Latin-Spanish home learning program?

3 Comments

1. Glober says:

   October 3, 2009 at 2:14 pm

   Linguists, and people with vast experience in learning languages will almost always agree on the fact that most language learning methods out there are 50-70 percent fluff! It’s pretty easy to get away with telling you that you’ll be able to speak a language when for example, someone says "hello", they’re speaking English, and it doesn’t mean they can actually communicate. Being semi-fluent means you have a functional comprehension of at least 65% in the conventional range of that language, while fluent would be anything greater than 80%. If you don’t have the time to learn a language properly, and you’re after something quick and easy, then you’re probably headed towards disappointment. The best method to getting as far as you can get in the shortest period of time is called the “3 step”. The first step is to complete a FULL Pimsleur (MUST BE PIMSLEUR) course. Listen to each lesson at least 2 times, taking notes the first time with new vocabulary and studying before listening the second time. The 2nd step is to form a list of the 3,000 most commonly used words/vocabulary in English, to also include the eight parts of speech (verbs, nouns, pronouns, adverbs, adjectives, prepositions, conjunctions, and interjections), which you can search the web for. Once you’ve formed the list, you need to find accurate generic-translations, which you can apply to most common case scenarios of that language(definatley the most challenging part of all this).Once that’s done, make flash cards or whichever method works best for you in memorizing vocabulary, but try to include each word in a sentence, in addition to just the new word and it’s meaning. After you’ve memorized all that, the 3rd step is to locate 4 movies that are preferably some kind of Disney movie, or anything of a slower pace. Childrens movies seem to work best for this. Watch the movie in the language you’re trying to learn with good, quality English subtitles. Watch ONLY these same 4 movies continuously as much as possible, to the point where you know what’s going to be said next. Try to plan completing each step in this order, exactly as described within a time-frame of about 8-10 months. When you’re done, you should be somewhere in the range of “semi-fluency”, at the point where learning after the “3 step” is quick and easy, and being close to fluent after 2 years of using it everyday, and learning at least an additional 100 new vocabulary words a month during that time. You’ll thank me when you’re done!
2. jb says:

   October 3, 2009 at 2:14 pm

   Rosetta is certainly not the method I would recommend to a beginner that hopes to SPEAK the language. Rosetta Stone, like other flashcard based methods (digital or not), helps expand your vocabulary base but they will not teach you the core of the language or conversational skills. Knowing many words doesn’t mean you can speak the language. Rocket Languages really has no underlining pedagogical method behind it (they try a little bit of everything and achieve very little) and beware of all the fake user review sites they have all over the web. Sites like rocketspanish-review.com, http://www.spanishtricks.com, http://www.learnspanishreviews.net, http://www.learningspanishprograms.com, etc. All are part of an affiliate ring. Take what you read about them with an extra grain of salt. I usually recommend Pimsleur to beginner students. If you want a method that focuses on conversational skills (and reading skills), Pimsleur is the reference imo. It’s a real confidence builder, which is essential for new students. You will learn to train your ear to understand natives (an essential part of early learning often overlooked by other methods), develop very good pronunciation and acquire the core structures and grammar of your new language (exactly what RS fails to do.) It’s an all audio method, you can do it while commuting, on the go, on your iPod, etc. I even saw some of their courses in the iTunes store now. Once you are finished with Pimsleur, daily conversation in the language is really ideal. Good luck.

   Also note that Glober recommends you take note while doing Pimsleur! DO NOT DO THIS! This really goes against the scientific method developed by Dr. Pimsleur. That is expressly explained in the user’s guide and on the audio. You want to actively participate orally. Pimsleur is a not a passive memorization method.
3. Juan says:

   October 3, 2009 at 2:14 pm

   Try this website:

   http://www.mansionspanish.com
   .