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Learning the Spanish language
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Billyboy
Posts: 389
Joined: Aug. 18 2003
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Learning the Spanish language
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I have tried unsuccessfully to learn the Spanish language, even having private lessons without success, I just can't get my mouth round it, but Ive always been hopeless with language, it took me till I was twelve before I could speak English properly LOL, parents took me to the doc, no joke, although my brain seems to have changed recently to become more receptive to picking stuff up when In Spain, my question, which way is the best, I saw a program with Paul Daniels in the 80's where he learnt to speak fluent Spanish, from nothing in 3 days, even being tested by people in the audience, he said he used an intense word association technique. Anyone tried it? Cheers Dave P.S please don't reply in Spanish LOL
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Date Jan. 20 2004 13:17:27
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Billyboy
Posts: 389
Joined: Aug. 18 2003
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RE: Learning the Spanish language (in reply to Escribano)
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Ive got tha Thomas CD, but he teaches daft things, like "where is the frog", couldent beleive it, the Lingaphone thing just as stupid, things like, "Now listen to my Question", things you would never need to say in real life, after learning some of the Lingaphone German a few years ago, I went sking, and asked one person, "Wo ist der Idioton hugle"mening the beginners slope, which was greated by howels of laughter, that Thomas geezer, speaks Spanish with a German accent which is bizzare. Cheers Dave
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Date Jan. 20 2004 14:58:15
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Phil
Posts: 382
Joined: Jul. 7 2003
From: Rota, Spain
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RE: Learning the Spanish language (in reply to Billyboy)
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quote:
I saw a program with Paul Daniels in the 80's where he learnt to speak fluent Spanish, from nothing in 3 days, even being tested by people in the audience, he said he used an intense word association technique. Anyone tried it? And I say that it is impossible to learn a language in 3 days or even 3 months. It really aggravates me to see people make such claims. I've been looking for a good advanced level Spanish course on CD to improve my grammar, but haven't found one yet. Unfortunately, the teaching of Spanish as foreign language is not quite as developed as the teaching of English. The Brits really know how to teach English well, because they have had so much experience in teaching it around the world. I found a pretty good cassette program a few years ago that is probably available on CD. It's called "Skill Builder, Spanish Verbs" by Living Language. It focuses on all the verb tenses and has 4, 60 minute cassettes. I recommend that you study the grammar a bit, get down some useful phrases, listen to as much as you can, (there are Spanish radio stations on the internet, for example), and go to Spain for a few weeks and try to communicate only in Spanish while you're there. A foreign language is not easy to learn (at least for me). Some people have a gift for picking up languages easily and the rest of us have to work our asses off to learn even the basics. Come to think of it, it's kind of like learning the guitar. Good luck, Phil
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Date Jan. 21 2004 0:21:40
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Billyboy
Posts: 389
Joined: Aug. 18 2003
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RE: Learning the Spanish language (in reply to Phil)
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Thanks Phil, that Paul Daniels thing, it may be a big lie, don’t no, but maybe it wasn't, he went on a intense word association course where for example “Wald” in German meaning forest; so you imagine yourself Vaulting through a forest, but I would think it just works for words, cant see how it would work for grammar, the hard thing I find is asking a question, and making a statement, you use the same phrase, just emphasise a different part of the sentence, that might be wrong, maybe someone could correct me on that. Also reversing of sentences, Like "I have in Granada lived" Its like Guitar I suppose repartition, or exposure, I have never met anyone who has gone to night school, ever learn it fluent, I think you need to live there for a while. Cheers Dave
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Date Jan. 21 2004 18:33:45
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gerundino63
Posts: 1744
Joined: Jul. 11 2003
From: The Netherlands
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RE: Learning the Spanish language (in reply to Escribano)
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I have red, that you have to know about 5000 words to speak a language pretty good, let's say, as good as my english, LOL! I hardly remember my shopping list every day, so 5000 words, in 3 days.......... So, your wife speaks Duch, here is a message for her! Wil je Simon een dikke knuffel van me geven voor het geweldige werk wat hij voor iedereen op het forum doet? groetjes, Peter. Now you are curious huh?? greetings, Peter
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Date Jan. 21 2004 19:19:14
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Phil
Posts: 382
Joined: Jul. 7 2003
From: Rota, Spain
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RE: Learning the Spanish language (in reply to Billyboy)
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quote:
Building a vocab. is easy it you have a strong sense of Latin languages, an ear, a newspaper and a dictionary. The challenges are grammatic construction i.e. conjugation, gender and tenses. Let's not forget the accent Simon, I agree with that 100%. I've always told my ESL students that vocabulary is the easiest part of learning a language. It's putting those words into understandable sentences and pronouncing them properly that's difficult. I know some Americans that have been living in Rota for years, and can't tell someone what happened yesterday in Spanish, because they can't put a sentence into any of the past tenses. Yet, they have relatively large vocabularies. That's not to say that you have to have perfect grammar and pronunciation to be understood, but you have to at least make an effort. Good pronunciation will make up for a lot a bad grammar, but when your pronunciation AND grammar are bad it makes it very difficult for those who are trying to understand you. BTW, does anyone know of a good forum for people learning Spanish? Please don't tell me to do a google search. I know I can do that. I want to know if anyone here has found any such forums and which ones they like. Phil
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Date Jan. 21 2004 20:22:33
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Escribano
Posts: 6417
Joined: Jul. 6 2003
From: England, living in Italy
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RE: Learning the Spanish language (in reply to Ron.M)
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quote:
Past tenses were always my weakness in Spanish. Tell me about it. Apparently, I am the first to person speak French in the Past Historic . I get by with "Tomorrow, I go to the beach", "Yesterday, I go to the beach", "Today, I go to the beach", "You go to the beach with me, yes?". When you live in another country (even the US), a bit of mimicry, a good accent and a passion for the life is the way to go. The rest may follow.
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Foro Flamenco founder and Admin
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Date Jan. 21 2004 21:15:31
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Phil
Posts: 382
Joined: Jul. 7 2003
From: Rota, Spain
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RE: Learning the Spanish language (in reply to Billyboy)
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quote:
Past tenses were always my weakness in Spanish. I used to try to get round it by using the form "he hablado con... or he vivido en...or he tocado en...." Well, Ron, that's a perfectly acceptable way to talk about the past, it may not always be the absolutely 'correct' way, but at least you're conveying the idea of a past event. The other day I heard an American, who has been living here in town, (he's not connected with the US Naval Base) and associating with Spaniards for at least 6 years, say, "Yo vamanos a mi casa hora." He can't even conjugate a verb in the simple present tense. Now that just shows a complete lack of desire to learn or is an example of extreme laziness. Americans, in general, are notorious for their inability to speak other languages (there are some valid reasons for this). I'm not sure if Brits share that same 'mala fama'. The most important thing is that you have to want to learn. Anyone that really wants to learn another language, and puts forth the effort, can do it. Phil This thread has motivated me to break out the books and review those verb tenses again.
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Date Jan. 22 2004 0:18:06
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