So I did a search of the forums and found a bunch of threads about Spanish asking various questions or whatever, but I didn't see anyone actually lay down a comprehensive datasheet on Spanish.
I am by no means an expert on the Spanish language, nor am I fluent, but I am breaking into an advanced level of Spanish. It has taken me quite a bit of time to get to where I am right now, and while I am no means done on my path to Spanish perfection, I know exactly what I need to do to get there. I have tried many things and I have been lazy at times. I have spent a lot of time in Latin America so that is a distinct advantage but I didn't really start to intensively study Spanish until about a year to a year and a half ago.
I started off just passively learning, not studying anything, hooking up and dating a lot of Latinas and practicing with them. This obviously made a difference but was slow and ineffective. I've used a bunch of resources, and have dabbled in all of the ones I will outline in the following datasheet with mixed results. I will try to help clarify some of the things that I have learned in my journey so that we can make more effectively use of our time. Just like anything else, you get better at studying Spanish (or any language for that matter) the longer and more you do it. However, you can skip a lot of the noise if you know beforehand some tips that others have learned throughout the process.
Some Basic Rules for Learning Spanish:
1) Interest: To learn any language to an advanced level you need to have a purpose for it or be incredibly interested in the language itself. There are many reasons for learning a language, whether being interested in a particular type of literature, type of woman of a region, the culture/history/countries themselves, or your professional goals may be in line with learning the language. Hell, you may just really like the language itself. These are all legitimate reasons, among others unlisted, for learning a language. But there has to be something powerful that drives you to learn Spanish. If there isn't something powerful driving you, you won't ever become good at it. And frankly, with the amount of resources, time, and effort you would spend on learning Spanish, you should use that to something more productive.
As hard as learning a language is (even a relatively 'easy' one like Spanish), it's incredibly easy to lose it. Learning a language is a long-term and even lifetime pursuit and if you don't make it part of your life you will easily lose a language even one that you have learnt to an intermediate level.
2) Immersion: To learn Spanish properly, there needs to be some level of immersion. Immersion allows you the opportunity to escape all your native language comforts and forces you to communicate in Spanish. Now, obviously going to a Spanish speaking country is the most effective way of immersing yourself in Spanish, but it's not the only way. You can also artificially immerse yourself in a language, but doing this requires quite a bit of discipline.
Artificially immersing yourself in Spanish would require changing your websites to Spanish, only watching TV shows or movies in Spanish, reading almost everything in Spanish, thinking in Spanish, and shopping at stores with Spanish speakers. This isn't easy to do.
3) Acquiring a Spanish Speaking Girlfriend: Dating a girl or having a Spanish speaking girlfriend that preferably doesn't speak your native language is one of the most effective ways to boost your speaking and comprehension skills. Most people (myself included) are shy to speak in another language they don't know well to native speakers. Having someone you feel comfortable with to speak to on a regular basis can make a world of difference with improving your Spanish skills. One of my primary goals when I go to a Latin American country is always to find a sweet girl that I can spend a lot of time with to speak only in Spanish with.
There is a flip side to this equation however. It can actually be detrimental to your progress if you don't be careful. If you rely on this avenue too much you will reinforce your limited vocabulary, bad habits, and you won't push yourself to learn new things if you can communicate adequately with her. Also, if she is doing most of the logistical legwork (like say, setting up a sim card on your phone or making a reservation) when you are with her you are missing out on opportunities to push yourself linguistically.
4) Learn Spanish from Multiple Avenues: I strongly believe that learning a language is best done by focusing on all skills of a language, both passively and intensively. You are learning to speak better when you read, to comprehend better when you write, to read better when you speak, ect. There are four main components of all languages: speaking, comprehension, reading, and writing. If you skimp out on reading and writing, which a lot of people do, then you will not progress as quickly as if you do regular reading and writing. Find exercises that focus on multiple components simultaneously (such as readings that have a recorded narrator, exercises that you write and read at the same time, Spanish subtitles on Spanish movies so you read and listen, ect.). Obviously people have different goals with languages, some may just want to learn how to communicate orally, and it's fine to focus more on that; but to ignore any of the components is foolhardy.
5) Some Degree of Formal Study: Some people have varying opinions on formal study. I don't think it is the end-all-be-all of language study, but I do think some degree of formal study is necessary in learning a language. I think a beginner group course + 1-3 months of one-on-one formal instruction is a good base to learn Spanish. Doesn't all have to be at the same time (in fact, spreading out the one-on-one is probably a good idea) nor do you have to spend multiple years in a classroom to become advanced in Spanish. The reason is two-fold: firstly, formal instruction forces you to work for a specific number of hours with no excuses or lack of motivation, and secondly, having a trained professional help you understand the intricacies of Spanish grammar is likely to benefit you greatly. The simple fact is for Anglophones who have no education in Romance languages, grammar in Spanish is quite different and complex compared to English. Burdening yourself with the task of learning all of this is quite a large endeavour.
6) Don't Skimp on Grammar: The difference between a beginner and a more advanced speaker of Spanish is very simple to point out: it's how they use their verbs. For any language the verbs are the skeleton of every sentence and this is especially true for Spanish. When you have a language that has 13-17 tenses of verbs and you don't learn some grammar along the way you will not speak good Spanish, it's as simple as that. Yes, you can learn some grammar passively, we all do and did as children, but for a foreign language you need to sit down sometimes and just hammer out some grammar exercises.
7) Make a Schedule: If you don't make a specific and realistic schedule for your independent studies in Spanish, it's likely you won't study what you need to or get things done. What type works for you is idiosyncratic: make a checklist, monthly goals, weekly or daily schedule; whatever works for you, do it and follow it.
8) Avoid Vocab Flashcards: Do not, I repeat, spend time at the beginning learning a shit tonne of words through memorization. This is honestly the worst way to learn a language and a waste of time. If you progress to an advanced level and want to incorporate a bit of this into your regimen, fine, but don't rely on this method because you will forget most the words faster than you learn them.
Resources:
Rudimentary Resources: These are your basic learning resources that I don't hold in high esteem. Examples of these resources are: Rosetta Stone, Duolingo, Fluencia, and Rocket Languages. I find these resources to have two purposes: as beginner "get your feet wet" type programs and as supplemental to other more productive resources. The reason why I don't like them too much is because they are often boring, are more vocab builders than anything, and if they are relied on they will fail you when you actually step into a Spanish speaking country. So yes I see the value of them for 30 minutes a day when you start out with a language, I don't believe they add any value beyond that.
Listening Lesson Resources: These resources take the form of audio lessons, the most dominant being Pimsleur and Michel Thomas. I hold these resources in a high esteem than the former ones but they do have a limiting factor as well. I like them more, particularly Michel Thomas, because they focus a lot more on verbs than learning vocabulary. I think for a beginner, spending time with these two resources is a lot more effective than Rosetta Stone or Duolingo. Of course, once you read a intermediate level they don't hold that much value besides basic review.
Podcasts: Some people swear by podcasts, I don't use them that much. The gold standard of podcasts in Spanish is Notes in Spanish. They have a broad range of topics, are segregated between levels of Spanish, and are pretty clear and easy to understand. Here is a list of more Spanish podcasts.
Entertainment: Luckily for people interested in Spanish, there is a whole continent+ of the world that produces entertainment for us to enjoy. Movies and TV shows can be good passive language lessons and are amendable to the level you are at. For beginners, you can watch with English subtitles, for more advanced learners you can switch to Spanish subtitles or no subtitles at all. Listening to Latin/Spanish music is also a good resource, particularly if you follow along with the lyrics. The best thing about using entertainment is it doesn't really feel like you are studying and is a lot more fun than many other resources. However, learning from entertainment should never solely replace any more intensive styles of studying.
Some good Spanish movies:
-Y tu Mama Tambien
-El Infierno
-Como Agua Para Chocolate
-Midaq Valley
-No
-Amores Perros
-Diarios de Motocicleta
-Sin Nombre
-Los Olvidados
-Presunto Culpable
-Hijos de la Guerra
Some good Spanish TV shows:
-Gran Hotel
-El Chavo del Ocho
-Velvet
-Violetta
- Destinos
-Various telenovelas
Reading/Literature: I will state this boldly: one of the best ways to learn a language and increase your vocabulary is through intensive reading. Most of the words we learn past a very rudimentary level is through reading. Studies have shown the best way to retain words, become a better writer, and even speak better is through reading. Intensive reading is the task of reading something in a foreign language, making a list of words you can't figure out from context, and then going back and looking up the definition of those words. Even better is to continue to review those lists of words at a later time to really hammer them into your long-term memory. Remember, it's not incredibly important to understand everything perfectly. Just the fact that you are trying and actively making connections and looking up words is the meat and potatoes of this method of language study.
Graded readers are great resources for beginners. They start quite simply and some of then have vocabulary lists. The best ones are with recorded narrators so you can listen, read along, so you are hitting your brain from multiple avenues. Children's books are also good for beginners because of their limited vocabulary. Once you have progressed past these levels, you can begin to read news articles, short stories, poems, and young adult novels. If you take airplanes in Latin America, keep the programs that they put in front of your seat because they often have Spanish articles side-by-side to English articles so you can reference whatever you don't understand. After this level you can just ramp up the difficulty levels to things such as renowned literature, non-fiction, and more academic work. There are countless fantastic Spanish/Latin writers that I am not going to list a bunch of books or authors.
Grammar Books: Grammar books are a necessary evil when studying Spanish or any other language. They can be boring but are extremely helpful for advancing your grammatical skills. By far the best grammar books I have come across are the Practice Makes Perfect Series. I downloaded the Verb Tenses + Irregular Verbs + Advanced Spanish Grammar stream and it is fantastic. Good explanations, the exercises are pretty chill, and it's organized pretty well. However, there are countless of these books on the market so take a look around to see what works for you.
Language Exchanges: These are good options for when you are stuck in your home country. Either one-on-one or group exchanges can be helpful for continuing to converse in Spanish when you may not be immersed in another country. Universities typically have some kind of language exchange that is often organized by students. Couchsurfing groups organize a lot of these in major cities and in major cities there are also cultural centers that you can use to organize these types of gatherings. You can also find language exchanges on the internet.
Formal Study: There are a range of types of formal study in Spanish: college level courses, private group courses, private one-on-one courses, and tutors. Formal study does not need to be expensive. You can go to certain countries and study and not pay very much at all. The cheapest countries to pay for private lessons are: Nicaragua, Ecuador, Bolivia, and Guatemala. In these countries you can pay as little as US$5-8 for an hour of one-on-one instruction with good language teachers. Doing 20 hours a week will run you somewhere between $100-180, which isn’t very much in the grand scheme of things. The best countries to learn Spanish in my opinion, because of clarity and easiness of native tongue, are Mexico, Cuba, Colombia, and Ecuador. The worst places in my opinion to learn Spanish are the Caribbean countries, Argentina, Uruguay, and Chile. Caribbean countries often chop up a lot of words (a good example of this is the Spanish spoken in Puerto Rico) while Rioplatanese Spanish isn’t a great place to start or even progress your Spanish skills. Chile is just a mess of a country to learn Spanish in. Chilenos speak very strangely and quickly. As a general rule, cities in mountain regions speak more clearly and slowly than coastal cities. So a city like Quito is a lot better than say Cartagena. There are plenty of private Spanish schools littered throughout Spain and Latin America. You can also find Spanish schools as offshoots of universities, such as CEPE of UNAM in Mexico City.
Spanish Language Websites: There are numerous websites out there that are geared towards Spanish learning. My favourite by far is SpanishDict. They have conjugation tables for every verb in Spanish and a number of other resources. I use Google Translate a lot for simple words or phrases. Other examples of good websites like this are Live Mocha, Study Spanish, Mi Vida Loca, and FSI Spanish.
A Template of General Spanish Progression:
I thought I would also break down a basic flow chart of the different steps in learning Spanish incorporating some of the resources I highlighted above. This is by no means scientific nor concrete for every person. Nor is this a table of "your level of Spanish is this." Rather, it's just a basic guide of what each step entails.
Beginner:
- Start with basic vocabulary: colors, days, months, numbers, pronouns. Learn basic greetings.
- Learn some of the basic conjugations of the most common verbs (such as tener, poder, querer, estar, ser, hacer, ect.).
- Do an immersion of a couple to a few weeks in Spain or a Latin American country and get your feet wet.
- While in a foreign country make friends with locals and stay in touch with them over email or facebook. Continue to speak with them in Spanish.
- Beginner resources: Michel Thomas, Children's Books, Google Translate.
Advanced Beginner:
- Start to learn more verbs in present indicative tense, both regular and irregular.
- Start using verbs and limited vocabulary to form simple sentences.
- Advanced Beginner Resources: Practice Makes Perfect or other grammar books, Michel Thomas, Children's Shows, Destinos, Notes in Spanish.
Intermediate:
- Progress from present tense into past and future tenses, both indicative and perfect/imperfect.
- Master present tense conjugations.
- Learn imperatives.
- Start focusing on picking up more vocab through passive studying, conversation with native speakers, and intensive reading.
- Look to live in a Spanish speaking country for an extended period of time.
- Intermediate Resources: Grammar books, young adult novels or other literature, TV shows and movies, news articles.
Advanced:
- Master all general tenses in present, past, and future.
- Begin to get a handle for the subjunctive tense.
- Actively increase your vocabulary through reading and flash cards.
- Read advanced Spanish literature or non-fiction on a regular basis.
- Watch Spanish entertainment with Spanish subtitles or no subtitles.
----------
Some basic notes:
- Besides formal study, I don't pay a cent towards any of these resources. I can go into more detail about how to get resources for free (legal or illegal means) if anyone wants.
- Be humble. You always have more to learn and it takes years of practice to become a master of a language. You are always going to get yourself in a situation where you don't understand something someone says.
- Since I put this in the travel section, I can expand on which countries are best to learn Spanish in if anyone would like.
- I didn't post this thread to have a debate on what people think is the best way to learn a language. Some of these things are my opinion, it's not gospel, I just wanted to add some value to the board. Feel free to offer opinions though.
- I encourage anyone to share other resources they might have come across that they like.
- I hope this helps some people!
I am by no means an expert on the Spanish language, nor am I fluent, but I am breaking into an advanced level of Spanish. It has taken me quite a bit of time to get to where I am right now, and while I am no means done on my path to Spanish perfection, I know exactly what I need to do to get there. I have tried many things and I have been lazy at times. I have spent a lot of time in Latin America so that is a distinct advantage but I didn't really start to intensively study Spanish until about a year to a year and a half ago.
I started off just passively learning, not studying anything, hooking up and dating a lot of Latinas and practicing with them. This obviously made a difference but was slow and ineffective. I've used a bunch of resources, and have dabbled in all of the ones I will outline in the following datasheet with mixed results. I will try to help clarify some of the things that I have learned in my journey so that we can make more effectively use of our time. Just like anything else, you get better at studying Spanish (or any language for that matter) the longer and more you do it. However, you can skip a lot of the noise if you know beforehand some tips that others have learned throughout the process.
Some Basic Rules for Learning Spanish:
1) Interest: To learn any language to an advanced level you need to have a purpose for it or be incredibly interested in the language itself. There are many reasons for learning a language, whether being interested in a particular type of literature, type of woman of a region, the culture/history/countries themselves, or your professional goals may be in line with learning the language. Hell, you may just really like the language itself. These are all legitimate reasons, among others unlisted, for learning a language. But there has to be something powerful that drives you to learn Spanish. If there isn't something powerful driving you, you won't ever become good at it. And frankly, with the amount of resources, time, and effort you would spend on learning Spanish, you should use that to something more productive.
As hard as learning a language is (even a relatively 'easy' one like Spanish), it's incredibly easy to lose it. Learning a language is a long-term and even lifetime pursuit and if you don't make it part of your life you will easily lose a language even one that you have learnt to an intermediate level.
2) Immersion: To learn Spanish properly, there needs to be some level of immersion. Immersion allows you the opportunity to escape all your native language comforts and forces you to communicate in Spanish. Now, obviously going to a Spanish speaking country is the most effective way of immersing yourself in Spanish, but it's not the only way. You can also artificially immerse yourself in a language, but doing this requires quite a bit of discipline.
Artificially immersing yourself in Spanish would require changing your websites to Spanish, only watching TV shows or movies in Spanish, reading almost everything in Spanish, thinking in Spanish, and shopping at stores with Spanish speakers. This isn't easy to do.
3) Acquiring a Spanish Speaking Girlfriend: Dating a girl or having a Spanish speaking girlfriend that preferably doesn't speak your native language is one of the most effective ways to boost your speaking and comprehension skills. Most people (myself included) are shy to speak in another language they don't know well to native speakers. Having someone you feel comfortable with to speak to on a regular basis can make a world of difference with improving your Spanish skills. One of my primary goals when I go to a Latin American country is always to find a sweet girl that I can spend a lot of time with to speak only in Spanish with.
There is a flip side to this equation however. It can actually be detrimental to your progress if you don't be careful. If you rely on this avenue too much you will reinforce your limited vocabulary, bad habits, and you won't push yourself to learn new things if you can communicate adequately with her. Also, if she is doing most of the logistical legwork (like say, setting up a sim card on your phone or making a reservation) when you are with her you are missing out on opportunities to push yourself linguistically.
4) Learn Spanish from Multiple Avenues: I strongly believe that learning a language is best done by focusing on all skills of a language, both passively and intensively. You are learning to speak better when you read, to comprehend better when you write, to read better when you speak, ect. There are four main components of all languages: speaking, comprehension, reading, and writing. If you skimp out on reading and writing, which a lot of people do, then you will not progress as quickly as if you do regular reading and writing. Find exercises that focus on multiple components simultaneously (such as readings that have a recorded narrator, exercises that you write and read at the same time, Spanish subtitles on Spanish movies so you read and listen, ect.). Obviously people have different goals with languages, some may just want to learn how to communicate orally, and it's fine to focus more on that; but to ignore any of the components is foolhardy.
5) Some Degree of Formal Study: Some people have varying opinions on formal study. I don't think it is the end-all-be-all of language study, but I do think some degree of formal study is necessary in learning a language. I think a beginner group course + 1-3 months of one-on-one formal instruction is a good base to learn Spanish. Doesn't all have to be at the same time (in fact, spreading out the one-on-one is probably a good idea) nor do you have to spend multiple years in a classroom to become advanced in Spanish. The reason is two-fold: firstly, formal instruction forces you to work for a specific number of hours with no excuses or lack of motivation, and secondly, having a trained professional help you understand the intricacies of Spanish grammar is likely to benefit you greatly. The simple fact is for Anglophones who have no education in Romance languages, grammar in Spanish is quite different and complex compared to English. Burdening yourself with the task of learning all of this is quite a large endeavour.
6) Don't Skimp on Grammar: The difference between a beginner and a more advanced speaker of Spanish is very simple to point out: it's how they use their verbs. For any language the verbs are the skeleton of every sentence and this is especially true for Spanish. When you have a language that has 13-17 tenses of verbs and you don't learn some grammar along the way you will not speak good Spanish, it's as simple as that. Yes, you can learn some grammar passively, we all do and did as children, but for a foreign language you need to sit down sometimes and just hammer out some grammar exercises.
7) Make a Schedule: If you don't make a specific and realistic schedule for your independent studies in Spanish, it's likely you won't study what you need to or get things done. What type works for you is idiosyncratic: make a checklist, monthly goals, weekly or daily schedule; whatever works for you, do it and follow it.
8) Avoid Vocab Flashcards: Do not, I repeat, spend time at the beginning learning a shit tonne of words through memorization. This is honestly the worst way to learn a language and a waste of time. If you progress to an advanced level and want to incorporate a bit of this into your regimen, fine, but don't rely on this method because you will forget most the words faster than you learn them.
Resources:
Rudimentary Resources: These are your basic learning resources that I don't hold in high esteem. Examples of these resources are: Rosetta Stone, Duolingo, Fluencia, and Rocket Languages. I find these resources to have two purposes: as beginner "get your feet wet" type programs and as supplemental to other more productive resources. The reason why I don't like them too much is because they are often boring, are more vocab builders than anything, and if they are relied on they will fail you when you actually step into a Spanish speaking country. So yes I see the value of them for 30 minutes a day when you start out with a language, I don't believe they add any value beyond that.
Listening Lesson Resources: These resources take the form of audio lessons, the most dominant being Pimsleur and Michel Thomas. I hold these resources in a high esteem than the former ones but they do have a limiting factor as well. I like them more, particularly Michel Thomas, because they focus a lot more on verbs than learning vocabulary. I think for a beginner, spending time with these two resources is a lot more effective than Rosetta Stone or Duolingo. Of course, once you read a intermediate level they don't hold that much value besides basic review.
Podcasts: Some people swear by podcasts, I don't use them that much. The gold standard of podcasts in Spanish is Notes in Spanish. They have a broad range of topics, are segregated between levels of Spanish, and are pretty clear and easy to understand. Here is a list of more Spanish podcasts.
Entertainment: Luckily for people interested in Spanish, there is a whole continent+ of the world that produces entertainment for us to enjoy. Movies and TV shows can be good passive language lessons and are amendable to the level you are at. For beginners, you can watch with English subtitles, for more advanced learners you can switch to Spanish subtitles or no subtitles at all. Listening to Latin/Spanish music is also a good resource, particularly if you follow along with the lyrics. The best thing about using entertainment is it doesn't really feel like you are studying and is a lot more fun than many other resources. However, learning from entertainment should never solely replace any more intensive styles of studying.
Some good Spanish movies:
-Y tu Mama Tambien
-El Infierno
-Como Agua Para Chocolate
-Midaq Valley
-No
-Amores Perros
-Diarios de Motocicleta
-Sin Nombre
-Los Olvidados
-Presunto Culpable
-Hijos de la Guerra
Some good Spanish TV shows:
-Gran Hotel
-El Chavo del Ocho
-Velvet
-Violetta
- Destinos
-Various telenovelas
Reading/Literature: I will state this boldly: one of the best ways to learn a language and increase your vocabulary is through intensive reading. Most of the words we learn past a very rudimentary level is through reading. Studies have shown the best way to retain words, become a better writer, and even speak better is through reading. Intensive reading is the task of reading something in a foreign language, making a list of words you can't figure out from context, and then going back and looking up the definition of those words. Even better is to continue to review those lists of words at a later time to really hammer them into your long-term memory. Remember, it's not incredibly important to understand everything perfectly. Just the fact that you are trying and actively making connections and looking up words is the meat and potatoes of this method of language study.
Graded readers are great resources for beginners. They start quite simply and some of then have vocabulary lists. The best ones are with recorded narrators so you can listen, read along, so you are hitting your brain from multiple avenues. Children's books are also good for beginners because of their limited vocabulary. Once you have progressed past these levels, you can begin to read news articles, short stories, poems, and young adult novels. If you take airplanes in Latin America, keep the programs that they put in front of your seat because they often have Spanish articles side-by-side to English articles so you can reference whatever you don't understand. After this level you can just ramp up the difficulty levels to things such as renowned literature, non-fiction, and more academic work. There are countless fantastic Spanish/Latin writers that I am not going to list a bunch of books or authors.
Grammar Books: Grammar books are a necessary evil when studying Spanish or any other language. They can be boring but are extremely helpful for advancing your grammatical skills. By far the best grammar books I have come across are the Practice Makes Perfect Series. I downloaded the Verb Tenses + Irregular Verbs + Advanced Spanish Grammar stream and it is fantastic. Good explanations, the exercises are pretty chill, and it's organized pretty well. However, there are countless of these books on the market so take a look around to see what works for you.
Language Exchanges: These are good options for when you are stuck in your home country. Either one-on-one or group exchanges can be helpful for continuing to converse in Spanish when you may not be immersed in another country. Universities typically have some kind of language exchange that is often organized by students. Couchsurfing groups organize a lot of these in major cities and in major cities there are also cultural centers that you can use to organize these types of gatherings. You can also find language exchanges on the internet.
Formal Study: There are a range of types of formal study in Spanish: college level courses, private group courses, private one-on-one courses, and tutors. Formal study does not need to be expensive. You can go to certain countries and study and not pay very much at all. The cheapest countries to pay for private lessons are: Nicaragua, Ecuador, Bolivia, and Guatemala. In these countries you can pay as little as US$5-8 for an hour of one-on-one instruction with good language teachers. Doing 20 hours a week will run you somewhere between $100-180, which isn’t very much in the grand scheme of things. The best countries to learn Spanish in my opinion, because of clarity and easiness of native tongue, are Mexico, Cuba, Colombia, and Ecuador. The worst places in my opinion to learn Spanish are the Caribbean countries, Argentina, Uruguay, and Chile. Caribbean countries often chop up a lot of words (a good example of this is the Spanish spoken in Puerto Rico) while Rioplatanese Spanish isn’t a great place to start or even progress your Spanish skills. Chile is just a mess of a country to learn Spanish in. Chilenos speak very strangely and quickly. As a general rule, cities in mountain regions speak more clearly and slowly than coastal cities. So a city like Quito is a lot better than say Cartagena. There are plenty of private Spanish schools littered throughout Spain and Latin America. You can also find Spanish schools as offshoots of universities, such as CEPE of UNAM in Mexico City.
Spanish Language Websites: There are numerous websites out there that are geared towards Spanish learning. My favourite by far is SpanishDict. They have conjugation tables for every verb in Spanish and a number of other resources. I use Google Translate a lot for simple words or phrases. Other examples of good websites like this are Live Mocha, Study Spanish, Mi Vida Loca, and FSI Spanish.
A Template of General Spanish Progression:
I thought I would also break down a basic flow chart of the different steps in learning Spanish incorporating some of the resources I highlighted above. This is by no means scientific nor concrete for every person. Nor is this a table of "your level of Spanish is this." Rather, it's just a basic guide of what each step entails.
Beginner:
- Start with basic vocabulary: colors, days, months, numbers, pronouns. Learn basic greetings.
- Learn some of the basic conjugations of the most common verbs (such as tener, poder, querer, estar, ser, hacer, ect.).
- Do an immersion of a couple to a few weeks in Spain or a Latin American country and get your feet wet.
- While in a foreign country make friends with locals and stay in touch with them over email or facebook. Continue to speak with them in Spanish.
- Beginner resources: Michel Thomas, Children's Books, Google Translate.
Advanced Beginner:
- Start to learn more verbs in present indicative tense, both regular and irregular.
- Start using verbs and limited vocabulary to form simple sentences.
- Advanced Beginner Resources: Practice Makes Perfect or other grammar books, Michel Thomas, Children's Shows, Destinos, Notes in Spanish.
Intermediate:
- Progress from present tense into past and future tenses, both indicative and perfect/imperfect.
- Master present tense conjugations.
- Learn imperatives.
- Start focusing on picking up more vocab through passive studying, conversation with native speakers, and intensive reading.
- Look to live in a Spanish speaking country for an extended period of time.
- Intermediate Resources: Grammar books, young adult novels or other literature, TV shows and movies, news articles.
Advanced:
- Master all general tenses in present, past, and future.
- Begin to get a handle for the subjunctive tense.
- Actively increase your vocabulary through reading and flash cards.
- Read advanced Spanish literature or non-fiction on a regular basis.
- Watch Spanish entertainment with Spanish subtitles or no subtitles.
----------
Some basic notes:
- Besides formal study, I don't pay a cent towards any of these resources. I can go into more detail about how to get resources for free (legal or illegal means) if anyone wants.
- Be humble. You always have more to learn and it takes years of practice to become a master of a language. You are always going to get yourself in a situation where you don't understand something someone says.
- Since I put this in the travel section, I can expand on which countries are best to learn Spanish in if anyone would like.
- I didn't post this thread to have a debate on what people think is the best way to learn a language. Some of these things are my opinion, it's not gospel, I just wanted to add some value to the board. Feel free to offer opinions though.
- I encourage anyone to share other resources they might have come across that they like.
- I hope this helps some people!