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What is the best way to learn spanish?

I am PewdiePie·3/8/2016, 7:10:11 PM·1 votes·1,132 views

I'm in school to be an EMT right now and I thought it would be beneficial to know spanish in this job field plus I've always wanted to learn some type of second language. But I have no clue what the best route is.

I already know a tiny bit about the language. I know just the bare bones very first grammar rules, the alphabet, and for the most part how to pronounce things. Like I think I could read something in spanish correctly but just wouldn't know what any of it means (unless it's a word close enough to english that I can guess at of course) :P.

Basically my two options are either take the spanish series at my community college (it's 6 classes long I have no clue if you really need all 6 to be k) or try self learning with like rosetta stone or whatever. I figured with whichever route I take, once I am comfortable enough that I can start to try to stumble through spanish, I'll begin making everything on my computer that I can spanish and shit so I'm forced to use the language because I was once told that's going to make you learn faster than sitting in a classroom.

If you guys learned any sort of second language, how did you do it?

5 Comments

MisterHealYoGirl3/8/2016, 7:36:42 PM1 votes

This is an ... odd place to ask, but I'd look around at your public library. They often offer language courses, either online or in person.

4ManVotedAgainst3/8/2016, 8:46:28 PM1 votes

God-damnit, lost my whole entire post, but anyway, just immerse yourself.

→　Install ALL software in Spanish →　Change ALL of your software to Spanish-language configurations (Skype, League [may require changing to Spanish-speaking region], Web-Browsers, O/S, Locale, Regional-Settings, ANY and ALL other computer-programs). →　Repeat segments of movies/documentaries that have sub-titles until you can instantly translate it both ways (English to Spanish AND vice-versa) without needing to reference the sub-titles →　Cambiar su configuración del teléfono celular en Español →　etc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DrIu28JKiEE&start=01:34&end=02:46&loop=100 (English portion with Spanish sub-titles)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DrIu28JKiEE&start=02:46&end=03:00&loop=100 (Spanish portion)

I linked an exercise for you. For the part that does not have sub-titles, just use the You-Tube sub-title option, hovering your mouse over the lower-right portion of your screen to activate/disactivate. See if you can IMMEDIATELY give the Spanish-translations in your mind as the doctor is talking until you can do it WITHOUT needing to read the sub-titles. I have it currently set to loop for 100x. Then try doing the same for the portion where the Narrator is speaking in Spanish (then write down the English-equivalent of what the Narrator was saying and re-read the sentences until you can translate it immediately into Spanish WITHOUT needing to look up the Spanish-references).

Not going to bother re-writing my other three paragraphs but they're highly relevant to your language-learning. I speak multiple languages so I know exactly which methods are the most-effective for faster fluency. I suggest that you primarily focus on vocabulary that is relevant to your profession. For example, learning about vocabulary on casting magic-spells and spirit-world adventures, such as from an animé-episode, will be less-likely to be of use to your profession, unless of course for some reason all of your co-workers seem to be frequently getting into such discussions. Next time you do a You-Tube video look-up, perhaps for doing some of your home-work, try doing the exercise that I have just given you until it's ingrained into your memory.

I don't know what your learning speed is but normally you SHOULD be able to have 3-4 sentences completely memorised within a half-hour-period. ALWAYS do a review the following day to make sure that it's been fully saved into your conscious-memory. Otherwise just repeat each exercise the following day and add the same amount of content to practice. Also, language-courses are PRIMARILY for learning the GRAMMAR, but the method I gave you will give you the VOCABULARY that is RELEVANT to your profession MUCH more QUICKLY (due to most language-courses being mostly focused on traveler-vocabulary for beginners... unless of course your work is mobile rather than solely in one location such vocabulary would be of less use to you).