Recommendations for learning Spanish? I'm tired of interpreters at family gatherings.?

Question

I'd like to learn Spanish (Mexican), as my daughter is married to a Mexican American. He’s a great guy; his family (Grandparents) came from Mexico and became citizens.

Over the past year, that they’ve been married, I’ve picked up some bits and pieces, but not enough to be well understood, or to be in a conversation. I really want to learn the language well. But I don’t want to spend hundreds of dollars on a class, if I can find a cheaper alternative.

My wife and I are invited to many of their gatherings, but almost everyone is of Latino descent. Needless to say, when they get together the language naturally drifts to Spanish.

I don’t hold it against them, when my great grand parents (fathers side) got together with people from their local community, they all spoke Gaelic. It’s natural to speak your mother tongue.

My motive to learn Spanish is to be able to participate better and not force everyone to be an interpreter for me. And quite frankly, I’d like to learn something new and useful.

Thanks in advance to anyone who can help me.

Answer 1

Thanks for be willing to do an effort!
Have you tried podcasts? Check this one: http://www.notesinspanish.com
There are several others. Give them a try!
Also you can ask questions here: http://www.phrasebase.com

Answer 2

I learnt chinese to a functional level with nothing more than a dictionary and living in china. When I needed to say something I looked it up. When I needed to say it again I looked it up again. By the third or forth time I would make myself remember it (using mnemonics, rote learning, whatever). Slowly I began to remember the words I needed to use most often. Then I decided to learn a few connecting words (and, but, or, because, if) and I could then string two ideas together.

It took about 6 months before I could go a whole day without using the dictionary (of course my conversations were always very simple ones).

It's been 4 years now and I can pretty much have normal conversations with my wife's family as long as they don't get too complicated. My accent is pretty bad, though.

Answer 3

I would go to the biggest library in your town and see if they have Pimsleur Spanish. Start with level one, and then move on to level 2 and 3. There is a total of 90 lessons, each one about a half hour long. Of course you'll have to listen to each lesson many many times, so you should be able to learn a good amount of spanish within six months.
My library has these on CD and i made copies of them to listen to whenever I want ! Pimsleur is excellent, and the spanish program should be very easy to find.
The podcast thing that another person mentioned is a great idea too.
I've read that it's best to try numerous methods, and it's looking like more and more excellent resources are free.

Answer 4

Wow, that's awesome to do that for your family!
A great program to learn Spanish or any language is Rosetta Stone. It shows teaches you words and grammar through pictures, with barely any writing. It's works pretty good.
It's a bit expensive though, to buy, so it might be better to do what Nat's Javier said, and download podcasts.

Also, watch Dora the Explorer! Maybe you'll learn a word or two! :D

Answer 5

Spanish for Dummies CD. The great part is you hear the words so that makes it much easier than just book learning. I was making good headway until my computer blew up and I don't have speakers yet on this new one. I can't wait to get back to it again, the program makes it fun and easy to learn.