I sometimes forget to pass on knowledge I pick up on some things so here's something that's been working for me and hopefully anyone who wants to get a good headstart on learning a language.

Duolingo.com

There is of course an app as well. Just search for Duolingo. It has a bunch of languages and does a really good job of making you write, read and speak a new language. There's no replacement for actually talking with someone but it's free and really good as language software goes. Hope this helps someone. I'm just plugging something I like, I don't work for them or get money etc.

My wife and I both have tried Duolingo, a class at our local community college and a few other types of lessions with little success in learning Spanish.

We lived in San Miguel de Allende for about a year and just about everyone spoke enough English to communicate. We did become pretty good at restaurant Spanish however. I guess late 60's is just too old to learn new tricks.

Mike

It's a good site and excellent for the cost (it's free!). They've recently completed yet another upgrade on Spanish, my primary language learning experience, and continue to add new stories for learners to read. They're generally elementary level but are good for the novice learner. I've been using it over 5-1/2 years now, sometimes more, often times less, and have recently changed my primary focus from reading (in which I'm decent) to listening and speaking (at which I...well, am not that good). It's not as good in that area, but has improved over the past few years. I've recommended Duolingo to a number of friends.

Disclaimer: I don't work for Duolingo and have no financial interest but I've participated enough over the years to be named a Global Ambassador, meaning I volunteer and try to answer questions and help new learners from time to time.

I had three years of German in high school and another four semesters in college. I have been thinking about trying to relearn the conversational side. Maybe this is a good starting point.

I have been contemplating trying to re-learn spanish especially for law enforcement but then I get side tracked with shiny things.

I tried for the longest time to learn a few words of Pashto, or Dari with very little success.

I will give the site a try.

Ive learned several computer languages. The most interesting of them is a very old one, SNOBOL4.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/SNOBOL

quote:

Originally posted by Anubismp:
I sometimes forget to pass on knowledge I pick up on some things so here's something that's been working for me and hopefully anyone who wants to get a good headstart on learning a language.

Duolingo.com

I have played with this quite a bit since reading your post and agree that it’s very helpful. I can “get by” pretty well in Spanish and have worked at it over the years, including community college courses. One thing I noticed about the Duolingo course is that the only word it seems to use for “you” is tu. I was even marked wrong for using the words usted and ustedes for “you” and “all of you” because they wanted tu. You should know that it is considered disrespectful to use the familiar tu when talking to someone you do not know well, although Americans are typically given a pass because it’s a common mistake.

4 years of Spanish in High School and 2 semesters of it in college and all I could do is swear in spanish. Could never learn to "think" in spanish.

But, in 2016 and 2017 I spent a week in Mexico (outside the tourist areas) and what I found amazing is that I actually started to "think" in Spanish (very limited). Mainly signs and quick responses to the locals. I believe a month in Mexico I could at least get by in that language.

There is a good website, blog and podcast for those learning Spanish. The site is called 1001 Reasons to Learn Spanish. The YouTube channel is called Español con Juan. The person in the videos is a Spanish professor from London (originally from Granada, Spain). He teaches at an intermediate level, but I think those that have some Spanish could do fine. He is quite entertaining as well. Another YouTube channel is Español con Maria. She is Colombian and teaches from a more primary level. Also, Colombian Spanish is more similar to Central American Spanish if that's what you're looking for. If you're very interested in learning Spanish, consider a vacation to Antigua, Guatemala. There are excellent Spanish schools that are reasonably priced. The area is rich in history with lots of tourists. Many are language learners.

I speak Spanish rather well for communication. My grammar isn’t good, and I jumble up sentences, but I can communicate, and most appreciate that I can speak their language rather decently.
The issue comes in when Korean words pop out when speaking Spanish. I don’t speak much Korean, but enough that when I am mentally translating English to Spanish, sometimes a Korean word comes out.
It’s one heck of a PITA, trying to remember it all.

Spanish would be practical but my interest is there. I am viewing Slovak lessons on YouTube. Small digestible segments featuring a native Slovak speaker and a native English speaker (NZ) living in Slovakia.

I grew up in a household where Welsh, Irish, French, Hebrew and English were the everyday speech en famille. Then moving to the big city, where our neighbours were from Marseilles, I learned a different French. At school I had German, an already being bi-lingual in French, was used to assist the French teacher on the odd occasion. Then when I joined the Army, Turkish and Russian. I also have a basic knowledge of Italian, and enough Spanish to interrogate a POW.

Never felt the need for any others, TBH.

I took French for 4 years in high school (wanted to pick up Quebec girls). After high school, I continued studying it using a few programs to keep me fresh, but my most useful tool was books that were in both English and French. One page would be English, the next page would be the same text, but in French.

Also, French movies with English subtitles was one of my go to learning aids, as well as reading the news everyday in French.

My French speaking skills have really suffered though because I really don’t have anyone to converse with.

Duolingo is pretty good. I have it on my phone, and practice German almost every day. They redid it last year, where you can master all the levels in a section before moving on, or you can still do it the older way, just master a level and move on. i like the newer way, because it seems I remember more. I listen to TuneIn radio at night, a German station SW4, that plays songs in German and English, but also does an hourly news update. I have gotten to where I can understand a lot of what they are talking about. I took 2 quarters of German in college, but dropped it when I found it wasn't a degree requirement. It was a daily course (5 credit hours), and Engineering curriculum was usually 17 or more credit hours a quarter.

I took 2 years of Spanish in high school, but what I remember most was the swearing I learned from some high school friends from El Salvador, Guatemala, and Venezuela.

I’ll add that the Spanish taught by Duolingo is Castillian like that spoke in Spain and largely in Argentina.

Not very good for learning a language, but to work on the "thinking in" reading the localized versions of Wikipedia is fun. There's a link on the left of "see this page in en,es,fr,..etc." learning new words by context instead of vocabulary lessons helps with the thinking.

It's also hilarious when someone asks.. "what is that you're reading?" "I know! I didn't know that whole stretches of the ocean just start glowing because..." "er, no, I mean what language"