Learning Spanish?

Question

How long should I study spanish every night to be effective in learning it fluently? What exercises should I do? Thanks.

Answer 1

i got a long good effective answer just for this ;) before i start you can add me on yahoo messenger while i type this out...

TIME TO TAKE:

every free moment you have can be study time, why only limit it to the night? get some flash cards and a pen and write maybe 5 words on it. keep this flash card with you the whole day. later in the day you will have empty time to use, when you are waiting in line at walmart, waiting for an elevator, in the bathroom, waiting for a friend to answer the phone, walking from your car to a building. (just to name a few)


MEMORIZING:

The brain works in certain ways when it comes to memorizing. Our mind likes to learn by association with more familiar words. You can do this by seeing the words hmm "luego" and do this with it "my friend lue toke me to Santiago later in my life" hence luego means later. some words are harder than others. if a word is hard like "fria" which is cold in Spanish you can do something like "it is friazing in here" lol it really does work.


SPEAK!!!

There is something wrong with us! we seem to think we shouldnt talk to a native unless we are fluent. Why shouldnt we? I'm guessing you have a naughbor or friend or even internet acces right? get a native friend and talk. have her/him correct your mistakes.

have him or her help you make your own sentences.


LISTEN!!!

put your TV on and listen to Spanish. You have a TV right? why not use it? listen for things similar to English. I can already tell you it is much easier than you would think. mostly any word in English that ends in "TION" and "SION" is the same word in Spanish.
vision - vision
participation - participasion

just a few.


PHRASES:

When learning phrases and making your own make them fun.
one of my first phrases in Spanish was "odio la escuela" haha or "te amo" for the guys out there "te quiero besar"

my mom learned and still remebers this one phrase very well in Spanish because it was fun. "Caris tu boca tu pez"
shut your mouth you fish.


Motivation:

be motivated. if your motivation is to get a job where you need to speak Spanish then use that motive for justice. if you motive for learning Spanish is because they have cute guys/girls (which they do) then use that motive.

without interest/motive in learning you wont remember anything in Spanish.


YOU TEACH YOU LEARN!

I was once told one of the best ways to learn anything in life is to teach it. Ofcourse it seems wierd (why would I teach someone something I hardly know?) but if you understand verbs end with o it means I then teach it. you will learn alot more quickly that way.

P.S. use Yahoo Answers to teach.


READ!

Go to Walmart and get a "Spanish" only book and practice reading it. get to the point you pronounce stuff well enough to fake a Native. (to do this you should probably ehem I mean deffanatly learn the alphabet.)


thats all I can think of at the moment. This should be plenty to get start. ;)

best of luck..

Answer 2

Dear friend,
Don't ever stop.Study it day and night for the rest of your life.I started 47 years ago and soon quit.I began again some 16 years ago and I have not stopped since.Presently I speak Spanish in a church every Sunday but I will never be fluent.
Exercises;Listen,speak,read and write.I have found 'La Santa Biblia' to be an exelent textbook.

Answer 3

Try this website:

http://www.mansionspanish.com
.