[redbeard]

(12-27-2015 01:37 AM)enfuego Wrote:  

I use 121 Spanish (121spanish.com). It's $15 - $18 for 55 minutes, depending on how many classes you prepurchase, and the tutors are from all over Latin America and Spain. The company provides the booking and payment engine and you use Skype to communicate with the tutors. I'm highly proficient already and I use it primarily to practice before traveling to a Spanish speaking country rather than an every week sort of thing, but I've been a satisfied customer.

Good tip.

$15 for 40 lessons, that's a year's worth of weekly lessons for $600. Doesn't seem too bad, comparing to the cost of a university class.

[TrifeLife]

Mylanguageexchange.com is a good place to get in contact with latinas (or any other type of foreign girls) online. It costs some money to be able to actually send messages and exchange contact info, a month is $6 I think. However, in a month you can basically mine the site for cute girls. You can search filtering for age, gender, country, etc. It doesn't take long to assemble a small rolodex. You won't have to pay for gold membership for more than one month.

I'll text a few girls on whatsapp simultaneously if I have to kill time during the day. It is a great way for building the specific set of vocab that you will use when talking to girls because your going to be covering a lot of the same subject matter with each one. There are a couple with whom I video chat. It's really easy to stay engaged in a conversation with a young cute colombian girl, and obviously this helps your listening and speaking proficiency.

I wouldn't say there is huge potential for pipelining, but I figure it can't hurt to have a few contacts spread around latin america, either. I have a trip to Mexico planned and I leave in about a month. I just reached out to some dudes in cities I'll be visiting. Could help out with making social circle moves.

[redbeard]

If you're good looking and make the lessons fun for the girls, seems like a great opportunity to pipeline.

For New Year's resolution I got a Spanish Page-A-Day Calendar.

Even if I don't remember the phrase, it'll be a good opportunity to practice and a reminder to study.

[bootyhuntah]

Something I haven't seen mentioned in here yet is http://www.spanishdict.com. Great learning resource and translator. But the real value is their smartphone app which is available for iPhone and Android. You don't need internet for single word lookups in the dictionary. It also has a list of all the verb conjugations complete with participles and "-ing" form of verbs, also available without internet. It gives great contextual examples plus gives you a word of the day.

Also, dating a Latin girl helps a TON.

But before all that, get yourself to Guatemala and take $3.50 PER HOUR private Spanish lessonS. Nothing will help more than this I promise...

[Gótico]

A variety of excellent lingustic resources have already been published in this thread; I could not help but add to this list in plain view of my status as a newly inaugurated member. It seems to me, however, that discussions concerning the acquisition of the Spanish language cannot afford themselves the luxury of dismissing the institution tasked with the tongue’s tutelage, the Royal Spanish Academy (Real Academia Española; RAE), along with Spain’s response to the British Council, the Alliance Française and the Goethe-Institut: the Instituto Cervantes. I will be the first one to admit that the former is at times an unsatisfactory guardian worthy of de Nebrija’s wrath, but the two are invaluable and mustn’t be ignored.

REAL ACADEMIA ESPAÑOLA
The following, I suppose, will be most useful the advanced learners amongst our ranks wishing to improve their vocabulary and obtain greater command of Spanish’s “complexities”. The dilettante should not be discouraged, for they will also be of use to him; I have included the Diccionario esencial (Essential Dictionary) for this very reason. It will be obvious that I have included small bits of information for each work; these are direct (and, I must admit, rather “rigid”) translations of the Spanish-language originals. My list of the RAE resources that could be of interest to the Roosh V Forum’s Spanish learners:―

• Diccionario esencial de la lengua española: “The Essential Dictionary of the Spanish Tongue, published in 2006, is a useful, simple and updated version of the XXII edition of the Dictionary of the Spanish Tongue.”
• Diccionario de la lengua española: “The Dictionary of the Spanish Tongue is lexicographic reference work of the Academy.”
• Diccionario panhispánico de dudas: “The Pan-Hispanic Dictionary of Doubts, of which the first published edition―October of 2005―can be consulted here, responds, from the point-of-view of the cultured [or, alternatively, ‘cultivated’, ‘refined’] norm, to the most habitual [ie most common] linguistic doubts (orthgraphic, lexical and grammatical) established by the Spanish usage.”
• Ortografía de la lengua española: “The Orthography of the Spanish Language (2010), the last published and the most complete of the academic orthographies, has as its objective the description of the orthographic system of the Spanish language and the realisation of a detailed exposition of the norms that govern Spanish writing.”
  

INSTITUTO CERVANTES
This will undoubtedly be of use to the interested beginners, for the Institute’s primary mission is to encourage the study of Spanish as a secondary language for foreigners. This, of course, results in a multitude of centres spread throughout the world―from Amman (Jordan) to Zagreb (Croatia) and Jakarta (Indonesia). One also has the option of studying in the Peninsula by means of their centres for foreigners in Spain. Internet programmes are also offered. The Cervantes Institute also maintains a global network of libraries. The information for these programmes can be found below:―

• Communication information for the Institute’s centres outside of Spain
• Study within Spain
• Internet courses
• The Institute’s library system
  

I have taken the time to gather the prices of international programmes in a few Anglophone cities with the intention of comparing them; the fact that most forum members live somewhere in the Anglosphere is largely to blame for this decision. The comparison can be seen below:―
10-week courses

• London: £281–£312.
• New York: $475–$580
• Sydney: A$490–A$585
• Manchester: £143–£190
  

Intensive Courses

• London: £312
• New York: $550–$580
• Sydney: “Special courses” are offered, but I’ve yet to find courses labelled as “intensive”.
• Manchester: £152
  

To those interested in other Spanish languages: Basque, Catalan and Galician are offered at quite a few of the Institute’s centres. I, however, doubt those languages have a “following” in this forum. Furthermore, a number of centres offer “free-trial classes”, along with working holiday visas to Spain; a large amount of information is to be found, my friends. Indeed, I am certain there are cheaper programmes; I’ve only scratched the surface and did not double-check the prices I found.

GOVERNMENT INITIATIVES & PRIVATE LESSONS IN IBEROAMERICA

These are rather novel ways of acquiring knowledge of the language, for governments have only recently capitalised on their ability to establish programmes to garner the funds of interested foreigners. Americans, in particular, are a target of these schemes. I have only been able to find online information on the Colombian programme. Private lessons come next. Members have previously commented on those in Guatemala, for example, but one is perfectly able to study in the Peninsula or any Spanish-American nation; there will always be a multitude of language schools and university courses aimed at foreigners. I cannot recommend any school in particular; perhaps travel forums have more information on them. I did find fee-list from a Peruvian language school. This could serve to provide one with an idea of possible costs.

APPLICATIONS & WEBSITES

I have used these websites whilst studying other languages. As such, I cannot evaluate their Spanish-language programmes, for I have had no need to make use of them. However, the variants in other languages (ie the ones I did use) have been exceptionally helpful. My list:―

• Memrise: One makes us of user-generated flashcards to aid one’s study. This is particularly helpful for vocabulary, conjugations and the like.
• BBC Languages (Spanish): The BBC’s programme serves as a repository of free online lessons, along with links to television channels (chiefly public broadcasters) in Spanish-speaking countries.
• Duolingo: No introduction is necessary. The forum already has an entire thread dedicated to it.
• italki: Allows users to hire native-speaking Skype teachers. Lessons are conducted over Skype or similar platforms.
• International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA): This resource is, of course, not limited to Spanish but it is likely to decrease the difficulty of Spanish pronunciation which is altogether bizarre to monolingual English-speakers.
  

Lastly, I am a native-speaker relatively well-versed in his language’s grammar. Feel free to contact me if needed; I’d enjoy helping each and everyone of you although I must confess I am not a tutor or anything similar. As such, my abilities are painfully lacking. I can offer a nice chat, however.

[Gótico]

I would like to expand on my earlier suggestion of studying in conjunction with the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA), for I mentioned it only very briefly in my previous post; that ought to be condemned as a crime considering the utility and practicality of the IPA. In synthesis, the International Phonetic Alphabet serves as a form of phonetic transcription; sounds of speech are represented by it thus assisting one in matters of pronunciation which frequently trouble learners despite their often high ability in other segments of the language. I said I was “not a tutor or anything similar”; that, I’m afraid, remains true and it is for this reason that I have sought to gather a list of resources to study and learn the IPA. The list consists of the following:―

• English and the International Phonetic Alphabet: This is likely to help those with no exposure whatsoever to the IPA. It is not a Spanish resource, of course.
• YouTube IPA “course”: As with the previous link, this is not a Spanish resource per se; it will, however, help familiarise oneself with the subject at hand.
• Wikipedia’s “IPA for Spanish”: This is intended, I’d imagine, for Wikipedia editors but it is quite good with its English approximations.
  

I would also like to add to the list of dictionaries I published above. These, however, will be bilingual dictionaries. The list consists of the following:―

• Larousse’s Spanish-English Dictionary: A French-produced dictionary; it contains quite a few idioms and even proverbs.
• El País’ Dictionary: Published by PRISA which in turn publishes one of Spain’s newspapers of record, El País (The Country).
• Lexilogos: As with other links, not a resource in the strict sense; rather, it is an archive with valuable information and resources for those interested to wander.
  

Lastly, I did a bit of searching and found these to add to the list:―

• Yabla: Quite broadly, a video platform for students of the Spanish language.
• The Instituto Cervantes’ Catálogo de voces hispánicas (Catalogue of Hispanic Voices): A voice-archive of many varieties of the language.
• FluentU: A self-described “Spanish language and culture blog”.
• The Vore: Allows you to choose from a selection of subtitled Spanish films.
• RTVE’s «A la carta» (“à la carte”) service: Our national broadcaster’s version of the BBC iPlayer. I must admit this will only be useful to more advanced learners. Nevertheless, some programmes are subtitled (in Spanish, of course).
  

---

Should I post a Spanish version of this thread or should its functions be served in this thread? I am forced to ask for fear of having my thread locked, sealed and forgotten with a single post reading “dupe” and a subsequent flood of comments along the lines of “OP, please use the search-bar”. In any case, I sincerely hope my posts have been helpful.

[cochise]

I would like to add a couple more things that have personally worked for me. The main ingredient here is spaced repetition flashcard program that incorporates increasing intervals of time between subsequent review of previously learned material. Anki is a flashcard application that employs this learning technique. It's available for free on Mac and PC and there is a paid version for iOS devices. I stumbled upon this by reading an article from a guy who has learned multiple languages in short period of time. He has a book and also a website that has useful tutorials for using Anki software. I haven't read the book but I have been following his program from the article quite closely. My previous attempts of learning spanish via a class in local community college and using Duolingo never kept me interested enough to make much progress. With my current method I'm enjoying the learning process and also getting good results which helps me keep motivated to learn more.

The article: http://lifehacker.com/5903288/i-learned-...-heres-how
Website: https://fluent-forever.com/

I combine Anki software with few other things to get the package that has worked for me so far:
- Language frequency lists
- Use of images and word pronounciations in the flash cards. No english allowed in the flash card. Front of the flash card would show an image and the answer on the back will have spanish word and pronounciation.
- Grammer book: Easy Spanish step-by-step by Barbara Bregstein
- More listening/speaking/grammer practice using "Learning Spanish like Crazy"

[Off The Reservation]

(03-23-2010 09:54 AM)Roosh Wrote:  

Did I miss anything?

Dominican GF

[NYrrugac]

Anyone have any suggestions for Spanish classes in NYC?

[Gótico]

(01-09-2016 08:52 PM)NYrrugac Wrote:  

Anyone have any suggestions for Spanish classes in NYC?

I mentioned the Instituto Cervantes’ Spanish courses in my first post in this thread; I would advise to you check that. The Institute is, of course, one amongst many options in a metropolis like New York City with a myriad of language schools to choose from. I must confess, however, that I know of absolutely none of them by name.

[phluff127]

I really feel that the best way to learn Spanish is with youtube.com It has been incredible in helping me with my Spanish and I highly recommend it to anyone trying to learn any language. Here are 2 teachers I like

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ve1mzuioBRY

https://www.youtube.com/user/languagenow

[lavidaloca]

For understanding verbs, word placement and how to change the meaning of words based on the ending (rapido vs. rapidisimo etc.) I really liked the Imagenes Spanish books.

I used Anki software a lot too.

http://wordsgalore.com/ (STRONGLY RECOMMEND) Download the spanish program. Site looks like crap but it has something like 10,000 spanish words in flash card form. You can customize a ton too. I.e. words you already know, speed, repetition, whether it shows the english word first or the spanish word etc. It also pronounces the words so you learn pronounciation.

The only way though you'll ever get really good is if you are living in a Spanish speaking place. Keep in mind conversationally fluent and writing are two different things. I speak spanish at a very high level but I am far from a high level writer. People speak much differently than they write and use many different tenses.

Another thing I did is listen to tons of spanish music every day when I went to the gym. I found that even if I didn't know the word I began to be able to seperate words, learn pronounciation, understand how words get placed together and even learn vocab based on context.

[Panteleimon]

I am getting back into studying the Spanish language again. I have been using a combination of Babbel and Memrise. Babbel has provided a sound foundation in grammar, conjugation, vocabulary while Memrise is pure vocab. Very simple regimen but it easy to complete my objectives every day and I look forward to the manageable lessons. If you are studying Spanish right now, what are your resources?

[Chevalier De Seingalt]

(02-23-2016 06:55 PM)Panteleimon Wrote:  

I am getting back into studying the Spanish language again. I have been using a combination of Babbel and Memrise. Babbel has provided a sound foundation in grammar, conjugation, vocabulary while Memrise is pure vocab. Very simple regimen but it easy to complete my objectives every day and I look forward to the manageable lessons. If you are studying Spanish right now, what are your resources?

In addition to this thread be sure to check out the resources on Americas' thread:

thread-44280.html

I have been using Anki to make my own flashcards going by this frequency wordlist:

http://www.amazon.com/Frequency-Dictiona...0415334292

It's a useful book, they collected data on word usage from written and oral sources all over the Spanish speaking world and then listed out the 5,000 most commonly used words. Starting with "el". I've covered the top 3,000 so far and have noticed that systematically learning vocabulary this way has immensely increased my ability to follow conversations and communicate. I also watch telenovelas on Netflix.

The best thing I'm doing for my Spanish is planning an extended trip to Peru this summer.

[Sidney Crosby]

Anyone ever tried this? Guy seems to be pretty legit and speaks multiple languages but I can't comment on his accent, can a native Spanish comment on what they think.

http://www.mimicmethod.com/the-flow-of-spanish.html

[Designate]

(01-05-2016 10:15 PM)bootyhuntah Wrote:  

Also, dating a Latin girl helps a TON.

I highly vouch for this. Dating chicas who are only Spanish speakers has improved mi Español above and beyond any other method I've used.

Like with game and seducing women, nothing substitutes real live experience.

Among other things it's also prevented me from talking too much, as I am limited in my vocabulary and has pushed me to focus more on kino and physical touch in my interactions as well.

[britchard]

Bump. Can anyone point me in the direction of an interesting TV series (in Spanish of course) that has Spanish subtitles and is free to watch online? A direct link to a stream/website would be great!

[LINUX]

(07-12-2016 11:37 AM)britchard Wrote:  

Bump. Can anyone point me in the direction of an interesting TV series (in Spanish of course) that has Spanish subtitles and is free to watch online? A direct link to a stream/website would be great!

I did this a few pages back.

http://learner.org/series/destinos/watch/

I highly recommend this series. If you want substitles use the CC button but it's better if you don't use them.

[ElFlaco]

(07-12-2016 12:08 PM)LINUX Wrote:  

(07-12-2016 11:37 AM)britchard Wrote:  

Bump. Can anyone point me in the direction of an interesting TV series (in Spanish of course) that has Spanish subtitles and is free to watch online? A direct link to a stream/website would be great!

I did this a few pages back.

http://learner.org/series/destinos/watch/

I highly recommend this series. If you want substitles use the CC button but it's better if you don't use them.

It's worth mentioning that Destinos is a series made for learners, 52 episodes in all. It has a typical telenovela (soap opera) format but important scenes are repeated several times, sometimes with comprehension questions by the narrator. By design, some speakers use a natural conversational pace, but others in the slow and deliberate style that you might find in a language classroom. The action takes the main character to several Spanish speaking countries, so you get exposed to a variety of accents. Almost no English is used, except in the first few episodes.

The series is mostly based on the "communicative approach" (learning through exposure); you should watch an episode several times until you really feel comfortable with it. If you find yourself caring about the story line and forget that the goal is to learn Spanish, you are doing it right. There is an optional textbook, supplementary workbooks and audio materials if you want to go all in. If you're starting from zero, you'll probably need something other than the videos themselves to make good progress.

This series is what I recommend to anyone who wants to learn Spanish independently. It is also a good series for anyone whose Spanish is rusty, who studied Spanish a long time ago but wants to brush up on it now.

If you're at a solid intermediate level, you should also be consuming content made for native speakers. Here are the suggestions I made in Vinny's lazy language learning thread. Good luck with your Spanish.
thread-55380...pid1288854

[Sidney Crosby]

(07-12-2016 11:37 AM)britchard Wrote:  

Bump. Can anyone point me in the direction of an interesting TV series (in Spanish of course) that has Spanish subtitles and is free to watch online? A direct link to a stream/website would be great!

If you use a VPN and have Netflix you can change the language to Spanish and I think turn on subtitles (in Spanish)

Although most of the shows will be just be dubbed American stuff so it's not as good obviously.

[ElFlaco]

This is the first episode of Como en el cine, the 2001 Mexican telenovela/series I recommended in a different post:
thread-55380...pid1288854

Como en el cine is the series that took my Spanish from intermediate to advanced. Previously I had done many things to improve, including living with native speakers, studying close to a hundred textbooks, language exchanges with 60 native speakers, reading novels and newspapers, courses in the US and Mexico and so on, but Como en el cine was responsible for the major leap. For the first time, I began to recognize and use the expressions that Mexicans use in everyday life for social needs, not what you learn in a classroom. This got me noticed and led to more opportunities to put my Spanish into practice and more social circle contacts.

The plot itself centers around Isabel/Chabela, a nightclub dancer who pretends to be a psychologist by day. (The now-famous Mexican actress/celebrity Ninel Condi had one of her early roles here as the Isabel's nemesis, La Matadora.) A lot of scenes take place with the nightclub dancers and at the all-girls Catholic boarding school / convent that Isabel's younger sister attends. I wouldn't describe the story line as intelligent -- there's a secret evil twin that everyone thinks died long ago -- but it is possible to get drawn in, which is really the only requirement if your purpose is developing your language skills.

Since this telenovela is long -- daily one-hour episodes for a year -- you get to know the characters and the situations, which helps with understanding. (Many telenovelas run for only a few months.) This is an advantage over watching a movie, where you get two hours of contact with the language, at most.

In addition to YouTube, you can find Como en el cine on DVD at amazon, all three seasons, 24 disks altogether. Unlike most telenovelas on DVDs, this one is relatively unabridged, so you can actually follow the storyline even if you haven't previously seen the full version.

No subtitles here, but if you need them to follow the gist even after repeated viewings, look instead for something aimed at students, like Destinos, mentioned earlier in the thread. Good luck!

[britchard]

Me parece que duolingo, memrise y destinos estan una combinacion para mi bajo nivel de espanol. Pero yo sé que la cosa la mas importante es hablar cada dia. Y tengo que trabajar en el infinitivo!

[Tytalus]

I really got a lot out of synergy spanish:

http://synergyspanish.com/

Great for getting started at the conversational level without being bogged down with millions of verbs. Works well in conjunction with another source for verbs.

[HOD]

My experience learning Spanish

I'm currently learning Spanish again, because I am running into alot of SA girls around the world. These bitches are mobile and horny.

The best way to pick up hot latina's is to speak the language of love, espanol.

I was once fluent in Spanish.

This is how I initially master the language in terms of speaking, reading and writing.

I initially study IB spanish in high school, from a Hungarin American Women, she was fun loving and you would think she was from Spain. I think I learn best from her, because she was a M.Ed. with credentials in Spanish, and she was a top teacher who would only work at the top private high schools. The private school teachers are the best.

College Spanish at USC, home of the Trojans. I would say it totally suck, I should of use rate my professor to find a good teacher. Mine was an old dude, he told stories about his shitty adventures.

College Spanish at UCLA, it totally suck balls, to much boring lecture and constant testing. Very boring. So my writing improve but my speaking suffer, I don't think we ever spoke to each other in spanish, my partner was a dean of law at UCLA, talk about the pressure.

College Spanish at a community college, it totally suck because the teachers are paid shit, so you have a bunch of cal state professors teaching you crap. I had a Mexican American who got a Master in Spanish, when she is a native Spanish speaker, she went to Cal state, and she didn't know how to teach, she was there to get paid. I think she belongs in the CA DMV, so she can get her union pay.

I think the ideal teacher is a training center with a teacher from America who has his/er M.Ed. and teaching credentials. Make sure your teacher didn't go to cal state.

Another option is an immersion program in Columbia or Spain. This is probably the one I will sign up for next.

[bumborass]

not sure if it was mentioned before, but duolingo (app) and duolingo.com are good as well

I use it for Italian, they have Spanish and a few other languages as well