Post: #26

(05-17-2018 01:43 AM)Prince X Wrote:  Great post. I am learning Spanish right now. With Baselang, do the tutors use the total immersion style of teaching where they do everything in Spanish or do they teach in English and use the traditional approach used in schools to teach languages?

With Baselang you decide how you want to get taught, so i would not call it a tradional approach.

If you want an immersive experience then tell your teacher to only speak spanish, they will then do so. however, this is not a good idea when learning tough grammar ;-)

In my case, when I got to a certain level i started having many conversation classes. These conversations could be "real" or with a predetermined topic (of you choice of course). Sometimes I would read and translate articles with the teacher.

Baselang want's you to learn to actually speak the language ASAP. Therefore, the focus is to learn the most necessary/useful and important vocab, verbs etc. first.
An example of this:
They won't teach you the "future simple" tense until late (level 6-7 or something like that). Instead you'll be taught the "informal future" tense, which is very useful (especially when speaking) and way easier to learn.
There are 9 levels, when you have completed the curriculum of a level you'll get a test to insure that you actually have learned whatever you were taught.

If you decide to get it this following advice is of utmos importance:
Start out by trying a lot of different teachers like 8-12 (if you've got a lot of time, you could do this within like two days since classes are unlimited). You'll experience that some are way better than others (because of teaching skills and chemistry). Double down on the good ones. IMO when you're booking classes, it's preferable to book at least one hour with these good ones. (with conversation classes 30 min can be adequate)

P.S. The most popular teachers (usually the best ones) are booked pretty quickly. Therefore: be ready to book classes shortly after they're up. (If i remember correctly, you can book up to 4 days in advance)

Send me a PM for further information.

Post: #27

I also recommend Pimsleur.

Also, this...
https://www.learner.org/series/destinos/watch/

It's a 52 episodes series of 1/2 hour shows called Destinos: An Introduction to Spanish.

It will really help your listening and eventually your speaking.

Most Movie and TV dialogue will be hard to understand.
The dialogue is Destinos is at an intermediate level of Spanish.

Listening to music, translating, using smart phones apps, etc. are better than nothing...but in order to understand and speak Spanish, you need to listen to real world Spanish and speak it...not read it.

Pimsleur and Destinos will help you do just that.

It's easy for Spanish learners to get caught up in reading and writing and think that they are making progress in Spanish. I know a guy who took 4 years high school and 4 years university Spanish classes and can't hold a conversation.

Post: #28

I followed Plexiglass' suggestion and found some popular Latin Music on YouTube. They list the lyrics in Spanish and English. Just from listening to the videos for one week, I have started to recognize and remember Spanish words that I had difficulty remembering before. If works because these songs are repetitive and you go over words over and over until it becomes second nature.

1. I play the video and follow along and try to learn the lyrics in Spanish(without translating).

2. Once I get a few phrases down I then learn the English meaning of the lyrics.

3. I downloaded these songs so I can play and sing along while I'm driving in my car.

If I can learn a song a week, I think that will get me on my way to understanding more Spanish.





https://youtu.be/9IlmleEiE1M

https://youtu.be/t9_RroQyNIg

https://youtu.be/gP3QAXTX07E

https://youtu.be/XskgaKwPtfk

Post: #29

I might me moving to Miami and if I'm there I think I might as well learn some spanish. Since Miami has such a big spanish speaking population is it a decent place to learn spanish as opposed to somewhere like mexico or cuba?

Post: #30

Don't learn Spanish from Cubans (or Puerto Ricans, or Venezuelans).

Post: #31

(05-18-2018 01:40 AM)Super_Fire Wrote:  Don't learn Spanish from Cubans (or Puerto Ricans, or Venezuelans).

Why not?

Post: #32

I decided to master Spanish as a longterm goal, currently I like to get to know the vocabulary through songs and lyrics.
I like listening to Nicky Jam and Enrique.

Post: #33

I've really ramped it up now. Spending an hour a day minimum with a tutor on baselang, plenty of time reviewing and learning the core lessons on memrise as well as watching narcos and extra Spanish on YouTube.

For those who have used baselang, what's a good level to aim to reach in 6 weeks? Finishing level 3? Is that possible in such a short time?

Post: #34

(05-22-2018 06:46 AM)Zikibala Wrote:  For those who have used baselang, what's a good level to aim to reach in 6 weeks? Finishing level 3? Is that possible in such a short time?

I think it's possible.
It depends whether you're a fast learner or not.
If you wanna make sure that you're going to finish level 3, you could start doing 1,5 hours of classes per day.


However, it is not important. Just make sure to stay persistent with your classes etc. That's what matters most.

Post: #35

(05-17-2018 01:17 PM)buja Wrote:  I also recommend Pimsleur.

Also, this...
https://www.learner.org/series/destinos/watch/

It's a 52 episodes series of 1/2 hour shows called Destinos: An Introduction to Spanish.

It will really help your listening and eventually your speaking.

Most Movie and TV dialogue will be hard to understand.
The dialogue is Destinos is at an intermediate level of Spanish.

Listening to music, translating, using smart phones apps, etc. are better than nothing...but in order to understand and speak Spanish, you need to listen to real world Spanish and speak it...not read it.

Pimsleur and Destinos will help you do just that.

It's easy for Spanish learners to get caught up in reading and writing and think that they are making progress in Spanish. I know a guy who took 4 years high school and 4 years university Spanish classes and can't hold a conversation.

I just wanted to give a thumbs up to Destinos, since you mentioned it. It's cheesy as hell but it really has helped me with my listening comprehension. The only thing is that it's Spain spanish though, so it sounds different than Latin American spanish. Was still helpful for me though.

Also want to mention http://www.spanishlistening.org which is cool because it has people from different places, speaking things at different levels, so you can get used to accents a bit and people who speak spanish a bit faster.

Post: #36

Thanks for both suggestions guys!

Some days I have been doing 1.5 hours of lessons. I'm lucky to have loads of free time at the moment so will try cramming plenty of lessons in each day.

Post: #37

I just wanted to share a bit of advice on how I learned english by myself. I improved my english a lot by listening to talk radio, it had the conversational tone and the vocabulary that helped me to finally understand english and be more fluent. I can recommend a few radio stations from Colombia if you guys want.

Post: #38

Please do Lonewolf...

Post: #39

(05-18-2018 05:28 AM)pargan Wrote:  

(05-18-2018 01:40 AM)Super_Fire Wrote:  Don't learn Spanish from Cubans (or Puerto Ricans, or Venezuelans).

Why not?

At least to me, cuban and caribbean spanish sounds like what ebonics to english.

Post: #40

(05-25-2018 07:24 PM)Zikibala Wrote:  Please do Lonewolf...

http://caracol.com.co/
http://www.wradio.com.co/
https://www.bluradio.com/

There you go mate, just try to listen as you work on stuff or do something else just like the normal way people listen to the radio. That's how I did. Also, if you want a language exchange someday, let me know! I want to practice my English. Cheers.

Post: #41

YouTube!!

Check out "the Spanish dude" "fast break Spanish" and "light speed Spanish"

Learning Spanish on YouTube changed my entire perspective on the education system. Absolutely amazing tool to use and I highly recommend it. Also, search for things like "top 100 Spanish verbs".

Post: #42

Learning the lyrics of songs is a great way to help improve your Spanish but I don’t recommend reggaeton if you’re a beginner. Slower salsa songs are better, I like Wille Colon, Hector Lavoe and Grupo Niche. Listening to reggaeton would be the equivalent of learning English by listening to American gangster rap.

Post: #43

Cheers for the YouTube and song suggestions, I'll check them out. I've been watching 'extra Spanish' on YouTube hitch is cheesy as fuck but a level I can actually understand at the moment.

Another 1.5 hours of baselang lessons booked today. Hoping to have completed level 1 by next weekend. A lot of it has overlapped with stuff I'd already learnt off duo lingo.

On another note, tips on gaming one or two of my Spanish tutors haha?