@chrisgreen
I am learning Spanish as I was going to buy an apartment near the Med. Since Brexit, I think its safer not to buy at the moment and have turned my attention to a motor home to travel Spain.
I am retired, and to get where i am speaking Spanish has taken two years and around 2 hrs a day! I can read spanish reasonably well and can ask for directions, things in shops etc, but if the Spanish speak to me, I am still totally lost! They speak so fast that words merge together. I can ask them to slow down and this helps.
The cds i have mentioned, i listen to when ironing, washing the car, painting and any house hold chores. I listen to Spanish in the car when travelling. It all helps to build memory.
I was surprised how quickly I picked up the basics and would say its quite an easy language to learn. Without doubt the Michel Thomas cds is a great place to start.
I didn't mention, when you master the basics, I started reading dual text books. One page in English and the facing page in Spanish. Something like this downloaded to iphone works well,
Broken Link Removed
you can drag over words you don't understand and auto translate them.
Also I often download from Spanish web sites anything of interest, houses for sale, boats for sale, places of interest in Madrid and then spend time translating them. You will soon pick up the lingo.
I hope to be travelling to Spain this year coming, so may be keep in touch!
I am learning Spanish as I was going to buy an apartment near the Med. Since Brexit, I think its safer not to buy at the moment and have turned my attention to a motor home to travel Spain.
I am retired, and to get where i am speaking Spanish has taken two years and around 2 hrs a day! I can read spanish reasonably well and can ask for directions, things in shops etc, but if the Spanish speak to me, I am still totally lost! They speak so fast that words merge together. I can ask them to slow down and this helps.
The cds i have mentioned, i listen to when ironing, washing the car, painting and any house hold chores. I listen to Spanish in the car when travelling. It all helps to build memory.
I was surprised how quickly I picked up the basics and would say its quite an easy language to learn. Without doubt the Michel Thomas cds is a great place to start.
I didn't mention, when you master the basics, I started reading dual text books. One page in English and the facing page in Spanish. Something like this downloaded to iphone works well,
Broken Link Removed
you can drag over words you don't understand and auto translate them.
Also I often download from Spanish web sites anything of interest, houses for sale, boats for sale, places of interest in Madrid and then spend time translating them. You will soon pick up the lingo.
I hope to be travelling to Spain this year coming, so may be keep in touch!