LoobyLoo!

Oh dont worry you will
You should have seen my bosses face when she suddenly realised that i understood that she had just called one of the ther waitresses a fat cow It was pricelsess

IntuitiveNipple

I can highly recommend Synergy Spanish also. Its not boring, it makes me feel like I'm making big strides right from the start with real-world phrases and sentences.

It is superbly designed to get you speaking real Spanish from the start by introducing bricks and mortar words and getting you to combine them repeatedly in different combinations, and to understand how to put words and phrases together yourself.

On Friday I finally bought the course and downloaded the PDF (200+ page 'book') and the MP3 CD-sets and then transferred them to my iPod nano (I had to tidy up the file-names and add MP3 tags to make them easily usable).

The audio is great because Marcus speaks in his native English, and then his native Spanish-speaking girl-friend speaks, so you get not just the words but the native tempo, accent, pronunciation and emphasis.

Marcus provides personal coaching by email as part of the course, so if you have questions or are confused you have back-up.

Despite having a hectic Easter weekend I've made amazing progress. I'm on lesson 7 of 23 (give or take) in the PDF book.

While I'm out walking or doing 'stuff' I have the audio playing in my ears. Sometimes I just listen, other times I repeat the phrases (sometimes silently to avoid embarrassment!).

Each time I use the audio I listen from the beginning, because as Marcus points out, repetition is the key. So far I've listened ahead to lesson 12 and I find myself understanding more and more with every pass.

In the book I've got to lesson 7 by spending about an hour a day with it - its the most mentally challenging and tiring part but seeing the words helps massively to understanding what I hear on the audio (sometimes its hard to tell how the words are spelled from the pronunciation).

Marcus offers some other courses to expand the vocabulary. Its a typical American sales tactic, but in my opinion they're incredibly good value for money, especially with the dollar/pound exchange rate so favourable.

I set myself the objective of being able to confidently converse in Spanish before I make my move. At the rate of progress I'm currently making I'm figuring I'll be ready by June.

Another nice 'fun' site is Spanish word-a-day which will email you a new word every day along with some very useful examples and permutations. There's no spam or annoying marketing and you can also use an RSS feed directly from the web-site instead, and you get to see some great photographs too.

Kyla

Wow, that's very impressive. Hope you manage to achieve your goal, but it sounds as if you're well on the way. I'll check it out.

IntuitiveNipple

I should also point out that since deciding to head for Spain, I've been listening to Canal Sur radio via the Internet most nights in order to get my ears and brain familiar with the language - especially the pace and the way it is used informally.

I'm also subscribed to some Spanish web sites including the video-sharing site dalealplay which makes picking up the language fun

Keri2323

I just turned on that radio station and it frightened me half to death

How in the hell am I ever gonna speak that fast!

pwblackbelt

When I lived in La Linea originally no-one spoke or would speak English. I worked in Gib and even the Gibraltarians (Who are all bi-lingual) would mostly not speak English when you were around them.
It's tough but you learn quickly, also when you do it that way guess which words you learn first?
Yeah thats right.....all the rude ones.

IntuitiveNipple

For just that eventuality I downloaded the PDF from the Alternative Spanish Dictionary

IntuitiveNipple

You'd be surprised how quickly you'll pick it up, Keri.

As I've written elsewhere I have it on quietly overnight (instead of BBC World Service) so that I can subliminally absorb it.

I was amazed after just the first night to find that I went from hearing just a babble with no structure to being able to hear the word-divisions, key phrasing, and so on the next day - this was way before I moved on to actually learning the language.

For me its the next best thing to actually being there, in fact in some ways maybe better because I'm not under pressure to understand it all and respond.

Kyla

Oh my god. You're right! I'm just listening to Canal Sur Radio for the first time and it's amazing how much I can understand. Thanks for the advice!

susique

Synergy Spanish is the best and easiest to follow course I have tried, really getting somewhere now - at last! (And no irritating bloke getting it wrong as in Michel Thomas' course!) His mistakes always stuck in my head instead of the correct words......

derek500

Don't forget if you have Sky you can get TVE International on 802.

Also, in the services menu if you change the language settings to Spanish you can get Euronews with a Spanish soundtrack.

Liado

Being tenacious that is my advice.

Bri and Katee

The VisualLink Complete Spanish is also a very good cd/computer based course, we are following it now. Played on the puter you are given a sentence in English then spanish and its context in use, then a list of pictures with the spanish name, you fit the names into the sentences as they flash up randomly, its a little like the Rosetta Stone set but doesn't seem so complex

Charles_Austin

Watch as many documentaries on TV as you can. Believe me, it is a great way. Beautiful Spanish is spoken in that kind of programmes and it is spoken much slower than by the average Spanish speaker (don´t they talk fast??? my God...).

You will learn a wide range of vocabulary too.

MnM

Hi Liado and welcome to the forum

You must've dug really deep to find this thread, considering that it was first started in April (I think) and Keri has already been to Spain and gone again!

I guess in a way it's good though cause I can't help wondering how Keri is doing! He's always been in the back of my mind somehow.

Is anyone in touch with him?

Martha