I was wondering if I could ask for some advice from you all. For those of you who speak Spanish (not fluent necessarily, just enough to get by and understand a conversation more or less), how did you do it?

I know some say you just pick it up, but my wife and I are both in our sixties and we're not sure if we might need a bit more help than that. I remember years ago there were language tapes, is that sort of thing much good? Although I'm sure there will be more like ipod thingies now!

Many Thanks

Actually, people don't just "pick it up" unless they are incredible lingusits and already know several languages

Best bet is an intensive course in Spain. That's how I learnt

Tapes will maybe help you order a beer or a meal at a restaurant but not much else

Personally (and I know people have different views on this) I don't believe in the "just pick it up" method. It works for very young children, apparently, but they are surrounded by people speaking nothing but Spanish all day at nursery or school, and playing with friends afterwards. How many expats who are retired can honestly say they are in a Spanish speaking environment all day every day? I know I'm not, although most of my neighbours are Spanish - but the majority of day to day conversations with neighbours are pretty brief and repetitive in nature (just like they probably are back home), "hello, how are you, nice day isn't it, isn't it cold/windy/wet today, etc". It doesn't help much when you're at the learning stage.

I used books, tapes, etc. to learn a little Spanish before moving here but I don't really think they help with much more than learning stock phrases and a bit of vocabulary.

When we moved, we began with a 4 week course of 1 hour long lesson each day, Monday-Friday, in a very small group (just 4 of us) with a native Spanish teacher, at a local language school. My OH gave up at that stage, as he found learning grammar very difficult. I carried on with a 2 hour group lesson each week, sometimes supplemented by a few one to one lessons when my teacher wanted me to move up a stage and I wanted to make sure I'd covered things the new group had already done. There was quite a bit of homework to be done between lessons, too. After 18 months, I started an intercambio with a Spanish student at the school who was learning English, we met for an hour twice a week in the evenings, talking for half the time in English and half in Spanish, correcting each other's mistakes. I found that invaluable in developing conversational skills.

A lot of towns used to run free Spanish classes for foreigners, some may still be available but I think all the cuts have probably reduced provision in many areas.

It involves a lot of hard work, no denying that, but hey, we have the time and it's good to have something to keep your brain active, I think.

Being of a similar age, I have to say it ain't easy! That's not to put you off, it's well worth the effort, but forget those adverts that say "Learn a Language in 3 Months", it ain't going to happen. I've been learning for years, there's never a day I don't read a lot of Spanish, and I get by, but it's been a long time, a lot of money and a lot of work. To start from scratch now will be difficult to get to a good level, but it's doable, plus it depends how proficient you want to become. I'd advise maybe trying some evening classes run by your local council, not too expensive, and see how you get on, many don't survive past the first term. Give that a try rather than spend big money on courses that might end up gathering dust, plus there's also tons of free material online, just google learning Spanish and you'll be inundated. I wish you luck, however of all the people that I have met or read that said they wanted to learn Spanish, very few ever have.

Thanks very much for that advice. I must admit, I'm always a bit sceptical when people have told me you 'pick it up'. I often imagine them saying that with a big phrase book in their pocket! I agree as well that it's good to keep the old brain active (old being the operative word in my case!)

Thanks for that, from reading your response and those of other people, it sounds like classes will be the way to go. I'll try and find out if there are any local classes, good way to socialise I suppose as well, better than learning at home on our own.

Children learn their first language(s) in a different way. They are starting with a "blank slate" and learning words and grammar for things and actions as they discover them. Their brains and their perception of the world adapts to the particular languages they are exposed to very easily. So they do just pick up languages - but it also helps that they are a lot more interactive than adults as well, which also aids language learning.

However once you have already picked up a language your brain is already biased to the nuances of that language, so when it comes to "picking up" a second language you aren't learning it through first hand interaction with the world, but instead with reference to, and in terms of the language you already know. Which is a lot harder. The brain has to do a lot more processing and already has an inbuilt tendency to think in terms of the language you already speak. And the older you get the more biased your brain becomes to which ever language you have been exposed to, so "picking up" a new language becomes so hard as to be nearly impossible. Especially if you speak a language that lots of other people speak - like English.

Very interesting post, thanks Chopera

Simple things such as always writing your shopping lists in Spanish can help. Go to the library and take out the basic learning to read childrens books.

Do you already know which learning style suits you the best? Some people use post-its on items around the house. Repetition is important, the more you hear or say something the more ingrained it becomes in your brain. It is more difficult when you are older but making the effort is well worthwhile.

Good luck.

Rosemary

Up here there are what they call "Escuelas de idiomas" (language schools) in most towns & whose charges for a year's tuition are around €70, yes seventy only! They must be sponsored by the Basque government. I go twice a week for advanced Spanish, 2.5 hours/class. Brilliant.
I don't know if they have them in your area. Worth finding out.

I attended classes for about 2 years. They were total immersion really and way too long for my concentration span at 1 and 3/4 hrs. twice a week. After an hour of solid concentration my brain fails to accept any new and lost what it had already absorbed some times ! Added to that the continual disturbance by other pupils talking and the teacher not being consistent and setting homework but seldom looking at it. I gave up classes.

I had listened to some of the pod casts but found I already knew a lot of the things that I classed as relevant to e. Booking hotels, anything to do with cars and some other subjects.

I also tried a few online sites and found they seem to be more south American Spanish, the one I did like that had work levels to attain on things you could select to suit, groceries, home, leisure, shopping went and changed the format and not enough time was allowed to do the task. I gave that up also. !

I have since moved house and make a concerted effort to only speak the Spanish I have when at all possible haha even in the Portuguese restaurant on Tuesday were we had a great laugh with the barman/owner abut Spanish/Portuguese/ Irish/English and Scottish. Superb food too.

I think for some it talks a lot of effort not to give up and to keep fighting. I felt I was fighting an up hill battle for a long time. Now I accept I am no linguist, I never speak lots of Spanish but continually plugging away at it I will at least be able to be understand, hopefully and maybe even take part in a proper Spanish conversation one day

You won't pick it up unless you are totally immersed in the language with native speakers, and that's never going to happen. Although we had a guy attend a meeting of ours and he had lived for several years amongst Spanish gypsies (his daughter married one!) and he spoke very fluently, albeit with an awfully strong accent, but he couldn't read or write it and grammar was something that had passed him by completely. For keeping the brain active, they reckon "Learning a Second Language Protects Against Alzheimer's", we all need that!
http://www.livescience.com/12917-lea...lzheimers.html

Indeed, as I said I started a long time ago, and two of the ladies and one guy I started classes with way back, I would regard as three of my best friends, I can never visit Spain without spending time with the one that moved to Spain. Although we have no classes at the moment, we are still in contact very regularly.

I think it's a great thing to learn a language and I admire those who do. I remember when my son was at school and learning French and his teacher was English but obviously fluent in French. I remember thinking when she is speaking French, does she think about what she is going to say in English first or does she think in French too, if you know what I mean?? Not sure if that makes sense but it does intrigue me and as I say, I have full admiration for multi lingual people. I met a gentleman last week who speaks 10 languages, unbelievable!

Keep plugging away and I'm sure you will get there in the end!

classes - as many as you can afford the time & money for - & then even more importantly - go out & use it!!

you can study for years, but if you never actually use it outside the classroom you'll never really speak it