Easiest / quickest way to learn Spanish?

Basar

So I am moving to Madrid for work. The company I'll be working at has presence all over Europe so their business language is English. No problems with that. But I want to learn Spanish as quickly as possible to make my life a bit more convenient and meet people easier.

I have an old version (v2) of Rosetta Stone Spanish Levels 1-3 borrowed from a friend. I hear the 3rd version is a bit better but v2 should be enough for now.

I have 2 months till I move, any ideas?

Thanks.

Morinoko

Do you have spanish speaking friends geographically near?

If not, i can suggest you try to enter a spanish speaking chat / forum and try to follow.

But honestly, the best way is to speak it, hear it and try to follow conversations, it will be a lot easier when you are in Spain.

Anyhow, if you need help once you start finishing the Rosetta Stone chapters, you can email me or try posting in Spanish right here (don't know if that is agains the rules, perhaps under a spoiler tag?)


Joking: do you know any colombian girls? they might motivate you to learn very, very quick ... :winky:

Morinoko

Another tip, it helped me when i was younger and was learning english:
* Comic books in spanish
* Cartoons in spanish
* Seaseme Street in Spanish (Plaza Sesamo)

Did you see the Hulk movie? Did you see when Ed Norton was learning potuguese from Sesame Street? That's not off base.

Joe Camacho MKII

As a native spanish speaker that spends time as a translator or interpreter for american clients, I have had some experience with americans that have learned spanish only practicing with other spanish speakers.

What I would suggest is that you keep in mind that you won't be able to master spanish verbs in such a small time, we have like 11 different ways of conjugating, which are completely different to the regular/irregular way of conjugating in english. Most of the time, native english speakers I have talked with seem to deal with it and spend most of their time learning vocabulary and verbs without conjugating, which sounds weird, but native spanish speakers are used to it, at least in the US/Mx. border where it's more frequent to have that kind of conversations.

I don't really know the situation in Spain sadly, but what I would recommend you is that you focus on your vocabulary in order for you to understand more spanish words and being able to communicate your ideas, instead of focusing in trying to dominate verbs, you will get by just learning the meaning of verbs.

Moobly

Since you're regionally specific, I might suggest making sure you're learning the dialect spoken in Spain and not latin america. I've never been to Spain, so I can't vouch for this but I've heard it's not THAT big of a deal, but there's are small differences, such as picking up 2nd person plural verb forums. Besides, what will surprise a native more than an American who speaks their spanish and not latin spanish?

JohnnyCache

"latin america" doesn't have one dialect. Island spanish is way different from say, Columbian spanish.

Continental spanish is "textbook" spanish in most cases so dialect should only be a huge problem when practicing out loud. The second person person formal plural verb isn't going to be used much anyway, unless you're a wedding usher or something.

As far as the old verbs vs vocabulary thing, it's not that the verbs are that hard, what gets tricky is things like the past tense. You need to focus on the present tense for the short term. If you focus on one tense, the verb conjugation is just a series of suffixes for each pronoun and it's pretty manageable.

On the whole, my experience with spaniards from different walks of life is that they will pretty much ALL be very, very friendly and helpful about it. You might run into a few older people or teens with a weird parisian-style nationalistic streak, but that's gonna be really rare. Most people will want to practice their english with you.
One piece of advice: Do not try to pick up and speak Catalan to Basques. At least not until you know them very well. They tend to be a little weirder about it. That shouldn't be a huge deal in madrid, either.

Madrid is fucking awesome by the way. Like sticking Miami, new york, and paris in a mixer and lucking out and coming away with the good parts of them. Fuck, I wish I was moving to madrid.

bowtiedseal

Moobly wrote: »

Since you're regionally specific, I might suggest making sure you're learning the dialect spoken in Spain and not latin america. I've never been to Spain, so I can't vouch for this but I've heard it's not THAT big of a deal, but there's are small differences, such as picking up 2nd person plural verb forums. Besides, what will surprise a native more than an American who speaks their spanish and not latin spanish?

It's not too big of a deal, and it's something you'll pick up quickly if that's where you're learning it. I spent a semester in Spain last year and I picked up the vosotros form quickly despite never having learned it in a classroom setting.

All the suggestions here are pretty good. I'd also reccommend watching some Spanish movies, so you can maybe get used to the accent. Some directors to check out are Pedro Almodóvar and Alejandro Amenábar. The accent in Madrid is a heck of a lot easier to understand than Andalucian ones though, so that's something!

Also you might not want to try speaking Catalan to Basque people because they speak Euskara but you probably won't end up having to learn Catalan if you're in Madrid.

Have fun, it sounds like an awesome opportunity.

Basar

Morinoko wrote: »

Do you have spanish speaking friends geographically near?
If not, i can suggest you try to enter a spanish speaking chat / forum and try to follow.
But honestly, the best way is to speak it, hear it and try to follow conversations, it will be a lot easier when you are in Spain.
Anyhow, if you need help once you start finishing the Rosetta Stone chapters, you can email me or try posting in Spanish right here (don't know if that is agains the rules, perhaps under a spoiler tag?)
Joking: do you know any colombian girls? they might motivate you to learn very, very quick ... :winky:

Well I am in Turkey right now and aside from a few friends who have spent a year or so in Spain, nope. And even then I wouldn't want to learn from them because what I've experienced with German is it is never good to learn a language from non-natives. I'll try to find a few easy to follow Spanish websites. And no, I don't know any Colombian girls but I have met plenty of Spanish girls when I was in Madrid for the interviews. I have lived in Turkey, the US, Germany and Spanish girls were the hottest/easiest to meet, talk with.

Morinoko wrote: »

Another tip, it helped me when i was younger and was learning english:
* Comic books in spanish
* Cartoons in spanish
* Seaseme Street in Spanish (Plaza Sesamo)

Did you see the Hulk movie? Did you see when Ed Norton was learning potuguese from Sesame Street? That's not off base.

That is actually a great idea and in fact how I learned English: reading Donald Duck comics as a kid :P

Joe Camacho MKII wrote: »

As a native spanish speaker that spends time as a translator or interpreter for american clients, I have had some experience with americans that have learned spanish only practicing with other spanish speakers.

What I would suggest is that you keep in mind that you won't be able to master spanish verbs in such a small time, we have like 11 different ways of conjugating, which are completely different to the regular/irregular way of conjugating in english. Most of the time, native english speakers I have talked with seem to deal with it and spend most of their time learning vocabulary and verbs without conjugating, which sounds weird, but native spanish speakers are used to it, at least in the US/Mx. border where it's more frequent to have that kind of conversations.

I don't really know the situation in Spain sadly, but what I would recommend you is that you focus on your vocabulary in order for you to understand more spanish words and being able to communicate your ideas, instead of focusing in trying to dominate verbs, you will get by just learning the meaning of verbs.

Thanks, that's a good idea. Considering I won't be able to master the language at least for a couple of years, it is the best for me to get familiar with the vocabulary so even in the worst scenario I can communicate with people. They'd know I am a foreigner one way or another so they should be ok with my poor grammar at first. I noticed Spanish has lot of common words with Latin based English words and Arabic... which is good because 20% of Turkish words are also of Arabic origin. I have heard it is the same for Spanish... from Caliphate times I guess?

Moobly wrote: »

Since you're regionally specific, I might suggest making sure you're learning the dialect spoken in Spain and not latin america. I've never been to Spain, so I can't vouch for this but I've heard it's not THAT big of a deal, but there's are small differences, such as picking up 2nd person plural verb forums. Besides, what will surprise a native more than an American who speaks their spanish and not latin spanish?

Yeah, the Rosetta Stone I have borrowed is the version for Spain. I am not an American though :P

JohnnyCache wrote: »

"latin america" doesn't have one dialect. Island spanish is way different from say, Columbian spanish.

Continental spanish is "textbook" spanish in most cases so dialect should only be a huge problem when practicing out loud. The second person person formal plural verb isn't going to be used much anyway, unless you're a wedding usher or something.

As far as the old verbs vs vocabulary thing, it's not that the verbs are that hard, what gets tricky is things like the past tense. You need to focus on the present tense for the short term. If you focus on one tense, the verb conjugation is just a series of suffixes for each pronoun and it's pretty manageable.

On the whole, my experience with spaniards from different walks of life is that they will pretty much ALL be very, very friendly and helpful about it. You might run into a few older people or teens with a weird parisian-style nationalistic streak, but that's gonna be really rare. Most people will want to practice their english with you.
One piece of advice: Do not try to pick up and speak Catalan to Basques. At least not until you know them very well. They tend to be a little weirder about it. That shouldn't be a huge deal in madrid, either.

Madrid is fucking awesome by the way. Like sticking Miami, new york, and paris in a mixer and lucking out and coming away with the good parts of them. Fuck, I wish I was moving to madrid.

Yeah Spanish people I have met in Madrid were extremely friendly. In fact, even though I was there only for two nights and had interviews from 8am till 5pm, I managed to go out at night and watch the Spain vs. Russia game with the Spanish... here's me celebrating it with random Spanish people I met at a tapas bar :P

And yeah, Madrid is pretty much awesome especially after wasting my youth in and around Washington D.C. Oh well.

bowtiedseal wrote: »

All the suggestions here are pretty good. I'd also reccommend watching some Spanish movies, so you can maybe get used to the accent. Some directors to check out are Pedro Almodóvar and Alejandro Amenábar. The accent in Madrid is a heck of a lot easier to understand than Andalucian ones though, so that's something!

Also you might not want to try speaking Catalan to Basque people because they speak Euskara but you probably won't end up having to learn Catalan if you're in Madrid.

Have fun, it sounds like an awesome opportunity.

I actually watched Land and Freedom last night. Pretty solid movie about the Spanish Civil War. My favorite Spanish movie is however: The Sea Inside. Amazing. The only movie that forced a man like me to drop a tear.

Fantasma

Moobly wrote: »

Since you're regionally specific, I might suggest making sure you're learning the dialect spoken in Spain and not latin america. I've never been to Spain, so I can't vouch for this but I've heard it's not THAT big of a deal, but there's are small differences, such as picking up 2nd person plural verb forums. Besides, what will surprise a native more than an American who speaks their spanish and not latin spanish?

If you learn to speak as a Latin American, you won't have any communication problems in Spain. They will understand you and you will understand them fine. The only huge difference will be the accent.

Some recommendations:

1. Get a Spanish to English, English to Spanish Dictionary
2. Carry with you a pocket notebook with a vocabulary of words with their meaning so that you can memorize them in your spare time, when you do know them well, create a new vocabulary and repeat the process to memorize. When you encounter a new word, write it down and look for the meaning in your dictionary.

Moobly, If I may ask: where did you hear that they speak a Dialect of Spanish in Spain?

tsmvengy

Fantasma wrote: »

Moobly wrote: »

Since you're regionally specific, I might suggest making sure you're learning the dialect spoken in Spain and not latin america. I've never been to Spain, so I can't vouch for this but I've heard it's not THAT big of a deal, but there's are small differences, such as picking up 2nd person plural verb forums. Besides, what will surprise a native more than an American who speaks their spanish and not latin spanish?

If you learn to speak as a Latin American, you won't have any communication problems in Spain. They will understand you and you will understand them fine. The only huge difference will be the accent.

Some recommendations:

1. Get a Spanish to English, English to Spanish Dictionary
2. Carry with you a pocket notebook with a vocabulary of words with their meaning so that you can memorize them in your spare time, when you do know them well, create a new vocabulary and repeat the process to memorize. When you encounter a new word, write it down and look for the meaning in your dictionary.

Moobly, If I may ask: where did you hear that they speak a Dialect of Spanish in Spain?

Yeah you'll have no problems communicating at all. The only difference is that Spanish people will use the informal 2nd person plural "vosotros" (you plural) and its conjugations, whereas in Latin America people only use "Ustedes." More info.

Fantasma

Here you are a few examples of the use of the 2nd person:

In Madrid:

Vos = You
Vosotros = You (Plural)

In Latin America:

Tu = You
Usted = You (Formal)
Ustedes = You (Plural)

This is how it would be used in a sentence in Madrid:

Vos teneis una linda casa (You have a beautiful house)
Vosotros tened una linda casa (You have a beautiful house)


In Latin America:

Tu tienes una linda casa (You have a beautiful house)
Ustedes tienen una linda casa (You have a beautiful house)

Draco_Auric

Find out if there are any Spanish clubs in the city you're living now. It'll give you a chance to practice what you've learned and get some feedback as well.