WHat is the best way to learn French and Spanish?

Question

Should I learn one language at a time or could I easily learn both at the same time, without getting confused?

Should I buy a book? Get those learn-another-language audio CDs or is there a better way?

Thanks

To Slartibartfast

I'm English. Perhaps you should "immerse" yourself in another country and learn a new language too. Perhaps then you wouldn't be so judgemental.

Answer 1

Though many educators don't agree - I will tell you from experience that the only effective way to learn a language is through immersion. That is, go somewhere that the language is spoken and be forced into learning it.

If you really want to use some technology, I've found the Rosetta Stone software to be helpful. But, nothing is more effective than going where it is spoken and learning it.

Answer 2

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Answer 3

As someone said, immersion is the best way. However that is not often possible. My daughter is learning both at school and has no problem and I did the same over 30 years ago. However I think it depends on whether you have more knowledge of one than the other. I did two Spanish courses with the Open University as revision which were excellent and then followed it up with a French course. Because my Spanish was of a higher standard than my French, I did find my myself lapsing into Spanish when I should have been speaking / writing French. My advice, personally, would be to improve the level of the language that you know the least so that it is up to the same level as the other. Then concentrate on each one on alternate days. It does seem to work. I wouldn't advise learning Latin and Spanish together as verbs endings etc are so similar that confusion is bound to arise.
Bonne chance and buena suerte

Answer 4

Go for it. I learned Spanish and German at the same time, no problem. Watch DVDs in other languages and maybe put subtitles on in English to help at first. In the US most DVDs have French audio and some have Spanish too. Travel although it seems people speak English where ever you go. I learned just using an audio learning program.

Answer 5

Both languages stem form Latin so it wouldn't be to hard to learn them. At the same time though? It might be a little tricky. It's best to learn another language by getting an actual teacher. Though there are plenty of great learning systems you can buy like Rosetta Stone. It's a bit pricy, but I've heard that it works really well :)

Answer 6

All credit to you for wanting to learn other languages in this age of "but everyone speaks English so what's the point".

Not everyone speaks English and it's wrong and arrogant to expect that everyone should.

Be warned, though :once you learn one and start on the other, it will lead to confusion. I speak from experience. French is my main foreign language and efforts to learn Spanish, Portuguese and Italian have often come to not much as I kept on thinking about how to say things in French.

Answer 7

Take a Class
Take spanish THEN french
Spanish and french are VERY close sometimes even the same

Answer 8

Try Rosetta Stone - it's an online teaching program. I'm taking it now for Spanish.

Answer 9

Personally I found that getting a basic grounding in the grammar, vocab and basic sentences and then go and spend time in the country.

Answer 10

Goto France and Spain