19 Jan 2015 5:26 PM:

I've only just noticed this!

Have you tried looking on ebay or Amazon for cheap books/cds to learn Spanish?  There's lots of first level material.  If you start with something like this to get a feel for the language you can back it up by listening to people around you, even if it's odd words here and there.  This gives you a basis to work frrom.

Get a good dictionary and read short articles on a subject that you enjoy.  At first, you'll be forever looking up words, but the same words will keep cropping up. We learn by repetition - hearing the same thing over and over again.  Orseeing it in print over and over again. Don't let the spoken language overwhelm you at first. 

 

Be careful with Google translate.  It tends to translate things literally.  Try Spanish.dict.  It translates thing literally at times, but it's better.  It might be better than getting a dictionary.

 

 

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Thread: language

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04 Oct 2014 7:28 PM:

When I first joined this forum, I mentioned that my Spanish was not good, even after studying it for years.  For several months following that statement, I've thrown myself back into actively practising it.

I read all the advice about submerging yourself etc. to let your brain adjust to another language.  Don't translate, just LISTEN.  That was quite helpful, at first.  The trouble is, there's only so much time you can spend listening to something when you've no idea what they're on about.  It gets boring after a while.

I'm very limited with what I can listen to from here in the UK, it's either the news, radio or a very limited  selection of progs, of which I have no idea what they're about.  There seems to be an awful lot of politics and sport.  Politics I can't   understand even when reading the subtitles.  (My reading skills are probably my best.)  I've even sat and listened to sport!  I have no interest whatsoever in sport!   I did manage to pick up what  "Gooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooool !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" meant. I have a slight suspicion it may mean someone has just scored a goal.

I'm coming to the conclusion that I'm never going to be fluent/half-fluent/quarter-fluent/eigth-fluent.  It would have been nice to have been just a tidgy bit fluent, a "poquito fluento", but no.

The trouble is: it hurts failing.  I can't explain to anyone else because none of my friends has learned a language and they don't understand the difference from learning, say, cake decorating.  They think that the longer I do Spanish, the automatically more fluent I'm becoming.  Following that logic, we'd all end up as translaters for the EU.

When I listen to the radio now, Spanish of course, I feel frustrated, disheartened and stupid.  It's time I gave up.  I just wanted to tell someone.

 

 

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Thread: At the point of giving up.

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17 Aug 2014 11:56 AM:

I'm amazed at what I'm reading!  It makes everything here in the UK souind like peanuts - wer'e complaining because some politicians have fiddled a few thousand  and claimed for a packet of biscuits!  And strictly speaking, the bankers didn't do anything illegal, just merely "poor business decisions".   How could it have gone on for so long?

Thread: Not new, but.....

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16 Aug 2014 3:45 PM:

Thanks for that reply.  Wow!  That's even worse than any of the scandals here in the UK.  Fact is sometimes worse than fiction.

Thread: Not new, but.....

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11 Aug 2014 2:54 PM:

I don't seem to be able to start a new thread any other way except through here, though strictly speaking, I''m not new.  Anyway, I wanted to ask the following question:

I've been practising Spanish by listening to the news frequently for the last few months.  There seems to be a lot of fraud and several names have been linked to it eg. Pujol, Undungarin,Blesa, Ojeda, NOOS, etc.  Several people have gone to prison.  Several different organisations have been involved.

 What set it all off?  Here in the UK, a whistle-blower informed a newspaper about the expenses scandal, but these cases seem to be all over Spain.  What sparked it all off?

 

 

 

Thread: Not new, but.....

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