Quiero aprender español - Ayúdeme!

[tzikeh]

I really want to learn how to speak Spanish, and I want to do it with software, or something I can download to my iPod. I took Spanish 101 and Spanish 102 three years ago, and none of it stuck. The moment we got to any verbs beyond simple present, I was like--bzuh?

I'm familiar with Rosetta Stone, but I'm not spending $500 to learn Spanish. There must be other, cheaper products on the market. Does anyone have any suggestions? Anyone use something they found really worked?

Comments

[svilleficrecs.livejournal.com]

IDK what the price is, but I had good results when I (Briefly, before getting distracted and stopping) used Pimsleur. One of the great things about it is that it's totally audio based (well, I think there's a supplimental book, but it's not needed), all about teaching you bit by bit, having you repeat back and answer questions and building on what you learn (like, some of your lesson one stuff will be sprinkled into lesson three).

IDK what your position is on "obtaining", but I do know that copies of some languages exist in certain usual suspect places, FWIW. But, yeah. Pimsleur sounds like it's what you're looking for.

Second the Pimsleur suggestion

[carbonel]

My boss spoke well of Pimsleur when he was learning French, preparatory to spending eight weeks in France several years ago.

And yes, I've seen it on the usual suspect places, too.

[yorick28.livejournal.com]

You might want to check out this site:

http://www.livemocha.com/study-languages

[thebratqueen.livejournal.com]

Coffee Break Spanish. They have both free and paid for content. The free stuff is robust enough that you don't have to pay in order to benefit, but you certainly can if you'd like more.

[tzikeh.livejournal.com]

Hm. How long is each podcast? I'd like to do this while I'm on the treadmill.

[thebratqueen.livejournal.com]

They start out in the 10-15 min range and then get into the 20-25 min range in the later lessons.

[bentleywg.livejournal.com]

I haven't looked closely enough to see if they have podcasts, but the BBC Languages site has lots of free content. http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/spanish/

[rosawestphalen.livejournal.com]

Coffee Break Spanish is an excellent podcast for learning Spanish. I use it myself regularly and have graduated to Show Time Spanish, which is more advances. There are supplemental materials that you can pay for but the podcasts are free.
Venga!

[vass]

http://www.fsi-language-courses.org/Content.php

[giglet.livejournal.com]

Ooh, thank you!

[trascendenza]

This is a site I like, because you can hook up with people via Skype to practice chatting, as well as posting blogs to practice writing (every time I posted a Spanish blog on there I got numerous helpful corrections): http://www.language-exchanges.org/

As for software, I've read good things about Fluenz, though I think it might be pricey: http://www.fluenz.com/

[pipetua-cool.livejournal.com]

You can also try to look up Spanish speaking people. So you can practice the way it's really spoken. If you would like to give it a try I'm from Argentina =P