MikeQuigley

I agree with those who have said that there is no substitute for hard work and for immersing yourself in Spanish as far as possible. I've used Rosetta and
it got me some of the way, but in the end there is no substitute for talking to a real person in Spanish. Back home, I was lucky to find a conversation class of only 6 people run by a professional teacher of Spanish. Over here, in Seville, I have 3 different partners for intercambio sessions, where you spend a couple of hours with someone who wants to improve their English. You take half the time speaking one language and then switch to the other. It's free, it's fun and you can make friends. If you, savateur, are in the UK, you may still be able to find Spanish people over there who would do intercambio with you. I can really recommend it.

mikelincs

Yes, I got mine for free...

MikeQuigley

Further thoughts: there is a website at:
http://www.newsinslowspanish.com/home.php
...where every week they do a 45 min podcast, containing dialogues on items of world news, Spanish grammar, Spanish phrases, and info on a selected Latin American country. They do it in nice slow clear Spanish. The website also wants to sell you a course, which is up to you, but the podcast is free.

Perhaps like me you find it hard because generally the Spanish speak so fast ! I find it helps if you can listen to a CD, or view a DVD, and slow it down. For CDs, you can do this in Windows Media Player. For DVDs, WMP won't do it, but there is an excellent alternative in opensource software, which you can download free off the web, at:
http://www.videolan.org/vlc/
It is called VLC Media Player, and you can use it to play either CDs or DVDs and control the speed. E.g. I'm watching a Spanish soap (Amar en Tiempos Revueltos) on DVDs, and usually set the speed to 90% of normal, or 80% for a difficult passage.

Incidentally, if you think that Spanish is hard, listen to some of the questions that you get from an intercambio about English grammar and usage, and you realise how hard our own language is !

JLFS

This is what we have to cope with when learning your language

http://www.mamalisa.com/blog/a-poem-...lish-language/

It is very well written and really amusing

JLFS

I have posted the peom as the author is unknown, so no copyright has been broken. I am sure the post will be deleted iF I am wrong.


We’ll begin with a box, and the plural is boxes;
But the plural of ox should be oxen not oxes.
One fowl is a goose, but two are called geese,
Yet the plural of moose should never be meese.

You may find a lone mouse or a nest full of mice,
But the plural of house is houses, not hice.
If the plural of man is always called men,
Why shouldn’t the plural of pan be called pen?

If I spoke of my foot and showed you my feet,
When I give you a boot, would a pair be called beet?
If one is a tooth and a whole set are teeth,
Why shouldn’t the plural of booth be called beeth?

If the singular is this, and the plural is these,
Why shouldn’t the plural of kiss be kese?
Then one may be that, and three would be those,
Yet the plural of hat would never be hose.

We speak of a brother and also of brethren,
But though we say mother, we never say methren.
So plurals in English, I think you’ll agree,
Are indeed very tricky, singularly.

pete_l

Tricky indeed. We all know that adding an "s" to some words make them plural. But sometimes adding another "s" makes them singular again.
One example is

• prince
• princes
• princess

can you think of the others

jimenato

Very useful - thanks for that

Veleta

ogre
ogres
ogress

wilki

If you want to save some money, you can always download all the levels for free, from filesharing sites, such as Pirate bay, then mount them using Alcohol120%, or other mounting software, then you can use them when ever you want. All for free.

jdr

Have you read rule 3 ?

jay01

What a brill poem of language use. I love Spanish but I have trouble with grammer and sentence formation, often in Spanish it appears the opposite way round ie coche grande, where we would say large car.

I also think sometimes we use English as it is easier than being embarrassed for getting it wrong, me I try the Spanish and fill the middle bits in, in English but I am getting there, have only been there 2 weeks and always use Spanish when ordering in shops even if I do get 200 grams of everything, lol, but love trying and always ask for the correct way to say something.

mikelincs

I have which is why my post was written the way it was..

w1ldcat

My sis in law bought it, it's so good she never used it yet . that was more than a year ago.

tonrob

I think that if I had 120% alcohol then I'd pretty much mount anything.

tonrob

If she hasn't used it at all then this can't be any reflection on whether it's good or not.