Domino

I found Michel Thomas tedious, boring and quite honestly pedantic with some of the poor saps he has with him

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DENISE WALTERS

I agree, but I have tried to find spanish classes in the Uk but none near where i live I did go to one and passed level one
How I dont know as at the time I was really hopeless
We had to put a file together of questions and answers. I did not understand a word WORTHLESS QUALIFICATION
I should never have been awarded it.
Skype is an option but I am not comfortable with it for some reason
It would be amazing to have a Spanish speaker in the locality that would help me .
But I wll not give up looking for one and taking every oppportunity to learn

Pocaloca

I think the best thing is to have a mixture: lessons from a native speaker, CDs for practice at home, online resources like Spaleon for the boring stuff like practising verb endings. Also read Spanish newspapers and magazines and listen to the radio so you get used to the sound. The main thing is perseverance and repetition. You can't expect to progress if you only spend a couple of hours a week on it.

Pocaloca

Also, he is WRONG about some things! According to native speakers anyway.

Lynn R

I think the problem for most of us (including me!) is that although we may be living in Spain full time, we are not actually in a total immersion situation. I'm not working so don't have to communicate in Spanish all day every day, don't have children in school so don't have to communicate daily with teachers and parents of other children, I do have Spanish neighbours, but most conversations are pretty brief as I guess my conversations with neighbours in the UK used to be as well. I do have Spanish TV, but personally I don't find that too helpful as I'm sure I get more of an understanding of what is going on from the visual aspects, and if it's a news or discussion programme, from the summary points displayed in text form at the bottom of the screen, not from actually listening to the machine gun volley of sounds being uttered!

All the Brits I know who are fluent Spanish speakers have Spanish partners - but maybe too drastic a step just in order to learn the language, unless you happen to meet and fall for each other anyway!

Lynn R

I think he makes a very good cure for insomnia, but the technique he uses for getting you to string together basic sentences from the very start is actually quite good. I couldn't persevere with it for long, though.

bobd22

yes I agree Dom that,s why I find Paul Noble better

DENISE WALTERS

My french friend Farhida always says the best way to learn a language is on the pillow I dont think my OH would be very happy about that

teuchterpete

Try "Notes in Spanish" with Ben Curtis and Marina Diez. Lots of free downloads and podcasts MP3/4 and you get a native English with a native Spanish, so it is even possible to compare pronuciation. They also send a regular newsletter. Useful for beginners through to expert.
Pete

agoreira

Never was a big fan of Ben's site, tbh, but agree there is plenty of stuff there. The site has been finished for some time but the material is still available. Better off to stick with the Spanish IMHO, try Teresa's site, like Ben's it seems to have finished, but there are loads of audio/transcripts there all free. For more advanced try spanishpodcast. Both free, and much better Spanish!

Domino

Yes Lynn, that is the problem, children have the advantage of living in the "fog" of verbal intercourse all day, every day. They learn as much from "situational" as anything. They see people doing things and saying things. It all becomes linked.
which is why I have said on another thread, situational learning can help the confidence enormously. Being able to go to the shops and buy the meat cuts you want, the fruit and veg, using the correct words, the numbers, the money. Situational isnt something that comes from sitting in a classroom once a week. But watching the television news and adverts and some of the less crazy programmes also helps, along with the newspapers, but they don't give you the "sound" which is the most important part - it can be quite easy to make a mistake if you don't know the correct "sound".

The biggest problem I have found is the number of Spanish I meet who insist on trying their English with me when I want to learn their language. So they have to get used to us having a conversation in 2 languages.

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Lynn R

I don't know if you had a bad experience of "sitting in a classroom", but a good teacher will always go to a lot of trouble to avoid the lessons being boring and just writing stuff on a whiteboard and getting you to repeat it by rote. Mine used to get us to do roleplay exercises for just the kind of situational needs you mention, both with her and with each other, and also get us to play word games (she often used one called Tabu where you have to give verbal clues about the meaning of the word on the card you pick out to the other players, without using the word itself). I wouldn't like people to be put off going for lessons if they thought things hadn't moved on since Victorian days!

You are right about many Spanish people wanting to practice their English when talking to us. We had a Spanish visitor to the house the other night, and by the time he went home after 4 hours, my head hurt after talking to him in Spanish, trying to work out what he was trying to say in English, correcting his mistakes and pronunciation (have you heard a Spaniard with not much English trying to say the word 'delivery'?), trying to explain answers to his questions about English usage, in Spanish, translating his Spanish for my OH when necessary and translating my OH's Spanish when our friend couldn't understand him. I felt like I'd been through the wringer.

DENISE WALTERS

My hubby and I went for a meal to a lovely Spanish resturante in the village last week. where we try to converse in espanol.

This week they have employed a new waiter who spoke to us in english.
I did in my very poor spanish ask him speak espanol as im learning and I must eschuchar.

He was quite taken aback, and did not look too happy but it as he wanted to take every opportunity to speak english.

Sometimes I have seen lovely spanish bars/ touting for business change their image and become clones of english bars.

Its a same they lose all their charm( A personal view of course)
I hope this does not happen too this place. sorry for running a bit off track.

agoreira

As you are learning, I know you'll take this the right way, it's escuchar, sobra una hache!

DENISE WALTERS

gracias