Ive listened to the first 3 sections and found them to be quite good, I even got some right before the speaker. Although to be honest they were words I already knew.

This thread is turning out to be interesting and a good aid.

Thank you.

Yes I did French O level and I think it helped me with Spanish in that I immediately knew where to focus my efforts: verb conjugations. I remembered from French O level that once I had spent a summer holiday memorising the conjugations for maybe the 20 most popular French verbs I had pretty much cracked it as far as O level was concerned. I kept on learning other aspects of the language of course, but everything seemed to fall into place with the conjugations. I breezed through the exam without doing any revision.

Interestingly I think one of the reasons why many romance language speakers struggle with English is because they (or their education systems) put too much emphasis on studying grammar, rather than actually speaking the language. They approach learning English the same way they approach learning their own highly grammatical, latin-derived language, without realising it isn't really necessary. Most Brits aren't even taught English grammar, but they can speak it fluently. However it makes it harder for them when it comes to learning more grammatical languages.

I thought language transfer was pretty good, I had not heard of it before, I am currently learning so always on the look out for other resources, I am still doing duolingo and taking lessons as well, I don’t think duolingo on its own is enough, real lessons are definitely the way to go in my opinion particularly to learn pronunciation

I have a link to a load of books someone posted on one if the many learning Spanish Facebook pages if anyone needs it.

During our very first lesson our Hungarian language teacher drew a pyramid (to indicate the learning Hungarian process) and an upside down pyramid to describe the process of learning English. The point being that you have to learn to read & write Hungarian before proceeding up the pyramid to understanding / speaking, whereas with English they learn to hear / speak first (the easy bit) before learning to read / write (the hard bit, apparently).

We are still fighting our way up from the bottom layer of the Hungarian pyramid!

Surely every child learns to speak initially by watching, listening and mimicking. Different of course to understanding and learning the grammar etc of a language.

They do - that's why one of our Hungarian friends said the only way to learn Hungarian is to revert to early childhood! Apparently Hungarian children spend 12 years learning Hungarian grammar! The biggest issue I have (apart from the grammar, vocabulary, spelling, pronunciation, etc!) is the need to plan every phrase or sentence, primarily, but not solely, in respect of word order. No straightforward subject, verb, object here!

I myself did very little grammar at school. Which when it comes to learning Spanish from books some videos and lessons is part of the difficulty as there is an assumption that we all understand grammar of English etc. I'm sure it's the same with Spaniards learning English etc. Also I think your Hungarian friends are correct re learning like a child, problem with that is our brains have developed with our age. I don't think there is one method fits all as adults learning a new language. Certainly I think this thread helps as it opens us up to options we may not have tried. I am personally just wanting to be able to converse relatively freely with Spaniards in a day to day manner. Slowly slowly but hopefully I will achieve that. One final thing and difference between us as adults and children is confidence to actually practice properly what we learn, I for instance don't get into conversation with strangers really, I tend to just not do that other than when needs must or when I was working in the course of work. That's just my personality. My wife is the opposite and speaks to all and everyone.

Love your comment about brains developing with age. Mine has definitely regressed!
Now, where's my rattle?

Argh well for me the issue is I start from a low level so can't afford to regress too far lol

Hungarian verb conjugation -

Definite - Indefinite?

Regular, irregular, intransitive?

Verb stem ending in S, or Z or SZ, or IK or IT or other?

Then vowel harmonise, 3 versions across all categories!
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Unfortunately studies have shown that language acquisition is physiologically driven and that children who fail to acquire language by puberty never acquire. The famous study relates to the French girl who was brought up by wolves. Despite intensive attempts she never acquired language. Other studies have reached the same conclusions. This is why linguists differentiate between acquisition and learning although that hasn't stopped there being a number of weird language learning approaches over the years. Dont be fooled however. There is no miracle method out there and many of the claims about people learning languages in very short time periods have been debunked or credited to high-functioning individuals who acquire huge vocabulary groups but lack the flexibility to transform them into realistic communicative skills. Perhaps the most successful program belongs to US military where they were able to produce quite high level Russian speakers within a set number of hours of teaching although it was very high intensity courses and focussed on a specific communicative area.

Yes there is no magic solution or quick fix that's for sure.