Post: #76

Does anyone know any good resources for learning to roll the r (trilling)? I've tried some youtube videos with no success and have considered looking up speech therapists or acting coaches. For whatever reason when I meet people who can do it I've yet to meet anyone who can really articulate how they do it.

Post: #77

I know Rosetta Stone is quite popular, but it sounds like people are using many other things.

Thanks for the information.

I'm checking out Pimsluer and Michel Thomas. But my question is: where should I start?

I took two years in high school, so I am not a beginner.

Post: #78

I will be spending a few weeks in Bogota and looking to take an intensive Spanish class while I'm there. I know they have several available but would like to see if anyone recommends a particular one. Looking to stay around Zona T or Parque 93 and would rather not travel too far everyday for the class

Post: #79

I can recommend Nueva Lengua, its a bit far from parque 93 (around calle 70) and a bit pricey but its a good school.

Post: #80

It was one of the ones I saw and was considering, I'll look deeper into it now that you can recommend it, thanks for your input.

Post: #81

(07-30-2016 10:53 PM)DoctaWho Wrote:  Does anyone know any good resources for learning to roll the r (trilling)? I've tried some youtube videos with no success and have considered looking up speech therapists or acting coaches. For whatever reason when I meet people who can do it I've yet to meet anyone who can really articulate how they do it.

Some people get the trilled R right away. Others struggle with it. I've written a layman's description of what actually happens in the mouth when you are making trilled consonants like the one in Spanish. After that are some practical tips that might help out.

At an articulatory level, the trilled R works like this. Imagine a spring-loaded door that opens out. Within the room is a powerful source of air, a gigantic fan. When the door is in the closed position, the air pressure generated by the fan is high enough to open the door. Once the door is in the open position, the air pressure is now lower, since air is escaping. So the power of the spring naturally returns the door to its closed position. Once the door is closed, the cycle repeats. This is basically what is happening with trilled sounds like the Spanish (alveolar) R and the French (uvular) trilled R.

It is not a muscular movement (other than the constant, steady tension needed to hold the tongue in place). What you need to adjust is how tight the spring is. If you hold you tongue firmly in position, it will be too tight for the air pressure to move it to the "open" position so that air can escape. If it is too loose, the tongue will not return to its "closed" position after the air escapes. You may also need to play around with the initial placement of the tongue to find the right front-back position. You'll probably find that it starts about where the English T does.

Some practical tips:

1. At first, you might find it easier to produce the trilled R while lying on your back. (That's a suggestion from linguist JC Wells, an expert of the sounds of the world's languages who himself had trouble producing the trilled R when he was a student of phonetics.)
2. Sometimes the problem is psychological in origin. It can be hard to give yourself permission to make sounds that seem ridiculous or foreign to you. If this might be you, imagine you are a playing a role in a play or you're a spy trying to pass.
3. The trilled R has been compared to the sound of a motor or a machine gun. If that analogy helps you, use it.
4. You can also try making the trilled R within an English context. Here's a vintage commercial for Ruffles potato chips you can try imitating: Ruffles have ridges: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gL3b58Ibw5U You can also try imitating a native Spanish speaker who is speaking English. Exaggerate it as much as possible.
5. Once you get the right sound, work on learning to control it. Make it last for several seconds. There's a traditional tongue twister with the trilled R. Here's one variation of it (there are others): erre con erre cigarro, erre con erre carril, qué rápido ruedan las ruedas del ferrocarril.
6. Now you need to shorten it. It's a common foreigner mistake to make the trill last too long. As pronounced by native speakers, it's actually rather subtle. A waveform diagram shows that there are just a few 'tap's (three or four) in the trilled R compared to the flapped R (with just one tap).
7. Now alternate the trilled R with the other Spanish R (the flapped R). Make up short phrases to practice: una carrera en Roma; es para Ricardo. You don't want to make the mistake of using the trilled R where the flapped one belongs. The trilled version of R is also used after N (honrado, Enrique). An R at the end of a phrase can be trilled or not, depending on the speaker. Spelling can be a guide: the letter R at the beginning of word is trilled. Double R is always trilled. Between vowels, either version of R may be found but the choice can result in different words: caro (expensive) - carro (car); enterar (find out) - enterrar (bury).
   

Post: #82

(08-03-2016 12:03 AM)puckerman Wrote:  I'm checking out Pimsluer and Michel Thomas. But my question is: where should I start?

I took two years in high school, so I am not a beginner.

Rosetta Stone is a scam. Take the new Pimsleur Latin American Spanish. You are probably a "false beginner" and need Pimsleur to get back into the game. High School language training is ineffective.

After Pimsleur, take "Beyond the Basics: Spanish" by Living Language.

Post: #83

I'm sure this website has been mentioned before on one of these threads but Notes In Spanish is a great site for learning Spanish, although it does focus on Castellano rather than Latin American Spanish.

This link contains some great PDFs including one on the verb 'llevar' which I have always struggled with the multiple uses of.

http://www.notesinspanish.com/2011/01/26...l-reports/

Post: #84

(08-10-2016 04:38 AM)librero Wrote:  I'm sure this website has been mentioned before on one of these threads but Notes In Spanish is a great site for learning Spanish, although it does focus on Castellano rather than Latin American Spanish.

This link contains some great PDFs including one on the verb 'llevar' which I have always struggled with the multiple uses of.

http://www.notesinspanish.com/2011/01/26...l-reports/

Thanks for the link. I'd already used this helpful website for their podcasts, I didn't know about this section.

The PDF on 'echar' is great too.

Post: #85

Unless it has already been mentioned (in which case I'm going to sound like an idiot), I think I have found an excellent resource for learning Spanish that will rival Duolingo/Pimsleur/Michael Thomas.

It is http://www.languagetransfer.org/#!comple...nish/c1313 and is based solely on listening and speaking, there is no need to write and take notes. The teacher is a very clever guy who is a polygot and in the lessons he works with an actual student that he asks questions (you are supposed to pause the audio and answer before she does), but it is mainly him speaking and has a very reasonable pace of progression.

It focuses on learning Spanish based from your existing English knowledge. He does it in such an interesting way that it is best if you just try a few of the lessons yourself rather than me trying to explain it, bear in mind the first episode is just him explaining the lesson format.

Post: #86

Quick question. I want to get serious soon about learning spanish as it will make me more competitive in the future in my job field. I have some time off before graduation. Can I reasonably become fluent in spanish within 6 months? How many hours a day would I have to put in?

-CD

Post: #87

If you're at all like me where one of the hardest parts of Spanish is listening comprehension, especially when you're expected to listen to more than a sentence or two at a time without a pause, I found two resources that I thought were worth sharing here:

http://spanishlistening.org/
I really like this resource because it not only lets you choose different levels of difficulty but because it has people from different countries, so you can hear the differences between Mexican Spanish, Colombian Spanish, Puerto Rican Spanish, Spain Spanish, etc, etc. The transcripts of the video are all written out too, so it's really easy to follow along or to check what's being said if needed.

https://www.youtube.com/user/spanishpod101/videos
I thought this YouTube channel's Spanish listening comprehension videos were done pretty well and there's a pretty decent range of things to listen to.

Pretty simple resources, but I hope someone finds them as useful as I have for listening comprehension.

Post: #88

Once you get to the low intermediate level this is a great program to watch called Hola, Que Tal? Its basically a telenovela but the characters speak slightly slower and with clear accents so it is easier to understand. You have to look around for the full episodes, but I found them super helpful.

http://www.rtve.es/television/tve-intern...a-que-tal/

Buena Suerte!

Post: #89

(08-15-2016 12:26 PM)britchard Wrote:  Unless it has already been mentioned (in which case I'm going to sound like an idiot), I think I have found an excellent resource for learning Spanish that will rival Duolingo/Pimsleur/Michael Thomas.

It is http://www.languagetransfer.org/#!comple...nish/c1313 and is based solely on listening and speaking, there is no need to write and take notes. The teacher is a very clever guy who is a polygot and in the lessons he works with an actual student that he asks questions (you are supposed to pause the audio and answer before she does), but it is mainly him speaking and has a very reasonable pace of progression.

It focuses on learning Spanish based from your existing English knowledge. He does it in such an interesting way that it is best if you just try a few of the lessons yourself rather than me trying to explain it, bear in mind the first episode is just him explaining the lesson format.

This is a fantastic resource, thanks a lot for sharing! It's hands down the best language course I've ever used.

I was learning some Spanish years ago and now I went through this course in two weeks. It was a great refresher and I learned a ton of new things. The course is close to 15 hours total and covers about 80-90% of my Spanish grammar book (250 pages). It gives you a very solid and comprehensive grammatical foundation, but of course you will need to practice a lot afterwards and build your vocabulary.
The teacher is very captivating and structures the lessons really well. He makes it as easy for an English speaker as possible. I was hooked from the beginning and it was almost like I couldn't stop (and that rarely happens to me). Another bonus is that the student is very good as well and usually gets it right the first time.

Again: highly recommended!

Post: #90

Yes, it is amazing (and free!). It would be perfect for guys on here who don't speak Spanish at all but are going to a Spanish speaking place in less than 2 months or so. It focuses on speaking and listening, which is most of what you'll be doing.

Cannot recommend it enough, here it is again: http://www.languagetransfer.org/#!comple...nish/c1313

Post: #91

I'm using a book called Spanish First Year by Nassi and Levi. It uses the grammatic method and I like that. However I prefer books that start each lesson with a short story (reading comprehension) as that is more engaging. Do you know any?

Post: #92

http://www.languagetransfer.org/

for me personally the best by far, and it's free.

Post: #93

This thread is getting a little disjointed as it is blending beginning speakers with advanced speakers. My question is what resources are people using as advanced speakers rather than those first starting out?

To help others, here is some information that I have found to be useful.

1. Online language tutors. The main site I use is italki.com and it is very good at allowing you to find various teachers. You can filter by country and also their education level so it can be narrowly tailored based on where you want to travel. The costs can vary too according to this but most rates usually around $10 to $20 for an hour session. However, you can find cheaper costs than this with some lesser thought about countries or with people just starting to get students. I find this useful for getting you talking in the language on a consistent basis. These lessons can be conversational or focus on grammar.

2. Online language exchange. The two main sites I have used are mylanguageexchange.com and interpals.net. Italki.com also has a language exchange section too but I have yet to use it. These things are free to use but you are spending half your time talking in English in exchange for half the time in Spanish. I have found mylanguageexchange.com to be the more serious language learning option whereas interpals.net is more of a quasi dating site. As another had said, one advantage of doing these things is you learn where Spanish speakers have trouble with English and this shows you differences. It can also be refreshing to see others also struggling with language learning which you don't normally see with regular online tutoring.

3. Online writing assistance. Lang8.com is a free writing resource where you can write sentences to longer stories in Spanish and have them corrected by Spanish speakers in exchange for you doing the same to their writings. The one thing I would caution here is the longer writing sample you make, the less likely you will see as many corrections. But it can be a nice way of getting some feedback to shorter things.

4. Ask people if they speak spanish and talk in spanish to them. This is simple enough but can be a little intimidating for new speakers. One of the best places I have found this to work is with uber and lyft drivers. Many times they welcome the ability to have a conversation in Spanish and it is a good uninterrupted time to talk as they are driving you to your location. Some of these folks are very accomplished Spanish speakers too so you can learn a few things along the way. I have also tried in other places like bakeries and restaurants but the problem here is the conversation will often be limited by how busy the place is which can be frustrating for a newer speaker. With these thoughts in mind, I would think the best targets would be those who are somewhat captive or boredl ike those waiting for or on a plane, bus, train, etc.

5. Short story dual language books. These are books that consist of short stories where one page is in English and the other is in Spanish. These are great for traveling and don't require you the need to look up words you don't know as you have the translation right there. However, these will often be more of a beginner resource to intermediate resource.

Post: #94

Bump.

Does anyone knows some interesting podcasts about topics like travel, philosophy, history, game, business etc for fluent Spanish speakers?