Cricketman said in an earlier post that his first lesson in Spanish was to pronounce vowel sounds. I am interested to know what was your first lesson and was it helpful.

My first lesson was don't try to reason why any preposition is used, just follow the natives because that's how they say it.

The same with English I suppose

Can't remember, it was so long ago and as it turned out, I knew more than just about everyone else in the class despite never having had a lesson. Just picked up stuff from my mum!
As to more recently, well our spanish class is conducted 100% in Spanish (machine gun andaluz in the case of our lovely teacher Ana!) so the first lesson was 'pin back your lugholes it's going to be a stormy ride!!!'

when I started to learn Spanish the course had already been running 4.5 hours a week for 4 months (I wasn't even living here when the course started) so I had a lot of catching up to do


the most important thing I took away from that lesson was that listening carefully is at least half the battle

now that I'm teaching Spanish, the first lesson does indeed include quite some time just repeating the vowel sounds!!

if you get that right you are well on the way to clear pronunciation

Unlike the verbs, I think the fact that vowels are always pronounced the same way in Spanish is one of the easier things to learn. Imagine what it must be like for a Spaniard trying to learn English! I have had problems in a couple of intercambios trying to explain to my partner why words that contain the same vowels can be pronounced in two or three different ways.

I've been trying to remember what we did in my first lesson, I think it was a mixture of learning a few basic phrases like "me llamo", "soy inglesa" and so on, and beginning to learn the present tense of a couple of verbs. There were only 4 of us in the class, two couples, and one of the men (not my OH!) learned the "me llamo" bit OK but for weeks afterwards, whatever question the teacher asked him got the same answer, "me llamo Anthony"! I think he was banking on the fact that based on the law of averages he was bound to get it right some time, bless him!

My first Spanish lesson was in Loughton, Essex, long ago. The Spanish lady kept banging on about learning the alphabet but nobody listened, we all wanted to know how to order a coffee or a beer.

I then had Spanish lessons in Estepona, Calpe, Denia and Benidorm. I could order a coffee by then and eventually it sank in that the Spanish alphabet was important. So are verbs and tenses, but without the alphabet they're of no use.

I don't want to put anyone off, but it took me years. It finally clicked when I only watched Spanish TV and only listened to Spanish radio, and spoke to Spanish people.

And listened. And married an interpreter, I nearly forgot that one.

The OH and me are in the early stages of trying to teach ourselves Spanish. I am further advanced in the written form. However when we are in Spain I am not often understood. I often have to tell the OH what to say who then repeats it when it is then understood although to me it does not sound much different.
It's because she has much better pronounciation, so to me that must be the part to learn early.
I just cannot get to grips with some Spanish sounds and any tips would be appreciated.

Give us an example of a phrase that hasn't been understood when spoken by you but is when spoken by your OH (interestingly, this may pertain to my thread on different English accents?!!).

It's usually the b/v sound and rrrs.( I just cannot roll them.) I do have a strong London (cockney) accent.

My first lesson was to keep at it, as for one reason or another I stopped going to Lynnxa for lessons some time back. If you don't keep it up, you forget things easily .... especially at my age.

my timetables pretty chocabloc atm...............but I might be able to fit you into one of my groups

I have the same problem, I can't yet think in Spanish so everything has to be translated in my head first and then because my reply is delayed I tend to try and deliver the sentence or whatever quickly. Why am I not understood, because I leave out the odd 'se' 'le' 'lo' etc. And fear, I mumble because I lack the confidence and hope the listener will not notice. Pronunciation is vital to learn.

Now this really is an interesting first Spanish lesson. lol.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5fda4_wo6JI

Brilliant, wish she was my teacher

I think the most difficult sound for the -British is the "cafe con leche" vowel sound.

It is said as ca-fay con lech-ay.

The ay sound at the end of cafe, pate, was one that was difficult for me to say in English. we sort of leave it dangling in the air so to speak with a soft "e" sound.

I can't say that I ever found ordering un "con leche" difficult. There again, some Brits never managed to pronounce "plaza" or "San Miguel" correctly. For me it tends to be the longer words with 3 or more syllables, like Valladolid, or alzahar, that I have to work on.