I can tell others on here how I have fail to speak Spanish!

1. I do not do my home work
2. I seem to lack memory
3. I do not practise with other speakers.

I will not let the above hinder me and I live in hope

I wrote this limerick a few years back. This might help.

All learn-to-speak records should vanish
Or just scratchy ones they should banish
Coz the last one I bought
Taught me fluent, I thought
Till they told me I stutter in Spanish

'The problem with all these courses etc are that they are academia based' Are you serious? Yes, totally. Most courses have as an end goal the taking (and passing ) of some sort of qualification either by examination or by test. Agreed learning a language is an academic task but if your intention is to be able to communicate in the language and not strive to 'pass' something, then speaking and practicising it is the best way.

Yes, but you cannot practice without some basic vocab and some understanding of the grammar

Spanish grammar in particular is a very academic task, but once learnt, hard to forget

I started with a book and a CD but got nowhere. I needed an incentive so in the end signed up for an OU course which involved weekly on-line classrooms with a group of people, and also monthly test which had to be completed and sent in for marking. I made good progress so went on to do 2 more courses.

I'd recommend anything that forces you into doing the studying. If not a course like the OU I would suggest you find a Spanish teacher on iTalki.com and get some lessons on the calendar.

Oh, and Rosetta Stone.... bin it.

There are some great FREE Online Resources that we are using.

Duo Lingo - https://www.duolingo.com

Mi Vida Loca - A Spanish interactive video drama. Get hooked. Learn the language!
BBC - Languages - Spanish - Mi Vida Loca

Complete Spanish begins by homing in on, deciphering and exploring the Latin element of English, and converting it into Spanish!
languagetransfer ... nish/c1313

I am not a person who could learn anything unless I enjoy doing so. I can hold a decent conversation in Spanish with any Spaniard on any subject now and I spent little and endured less on set language courses. This is what I did:-
1. Bought a basic Spanish Course book (Teach Yourself Basic Spanish) complete with CD.
2. Started at Chapter 1, listened to the CD for pronunciation. I spent no more than 30 minutes per day learning from the book/CD. I took notes as I progressed.
3. When Chapter 1 was learnt, I went on to Chapter 2 still using CD and still doing no more than 30 minutes per day.
4. When Chapter 2 was completed, I revisited Chapter 1 and started all over again.
5. I made my own Flash Cards and learned 3 new Spanish words per day, every day. Years on I still do this, but not as often. I kept the flash cards in a box from which I could pick randomly for word exercise.
6. Every night I listened to Radio Nacional de Espana where Silvia de la Noche had a programme around midnight. She spoke slowly and introduced each song and played requests. She was easy listening and as time went on I understood more.(I even had a request played for myself and sent her some Irish music which she played on the programme).
7. I bought another Spanish Learning book but with vocabulary only. It was one of those books that had a subject per page with loads of cartoon pictures about say a hospital where you learned nearly every word about a hospital. I can't remember the series of books which do this (Usborne perhaps?).
8. After completing each Chapter of Teach Yourself Spanish, I again went back to Chapter 1 and restarted the whole course.
9. From Chapter 2, I started Speaking Spanish with anybody who would listen i.e. at markets, restaurants, pubs, supermarkets, church, street. Mind you, this was frightening at first, but paid dividends later.
10. I'll probably get shot for this but here goes . . . concentrate on learning the language and speaking it as often as possible and forget about Spanish culture etc. Learn how Spanish is spoken. In eastern Andalucía where I lived occasionally, nobody says "Buenas Dias," they say "Buena."
11. Don't forget the objective:- Enjoy the Learning Spanish process. If you don't enjoy, don't do.

I am 10 months in ... and have completed 3 or 4 self-teach short courses including the excellent Paul Noble Spanish. Each night I read two pages of Spanish in 15 minutes/day and am midway through my 3rd lap

Being just over halfway through Rosetta Stone I can honestly say that it is very tedious and frustrating. The voice recognition is iffy at best and you really need to run a translation program in your browser at the same time to know what is really going on. Some of it is sticking though and I will persevere.

One App I can highly recommend is 6,000 Spanish Words .... a fantastic fun device for improving your vocab.