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Post by candleangie on Jul 19, 2023 3:07:06 GMT
I would like to become conversational in Spanish, for work (retail) and for my friends new husband and his lovely family. I’m finding it really difficult to decipher the junk from the serious learning programs. Do any of you have direct experience, one way or the other, on the programs that are out there?
ETA: I will probably use duolingo as a support tool, but I am definitely looking for something more serious.
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Post by crazy4scraps on Jul 19, 2023 3:25:38 GMT
While not exactly formal curriculum, I’ve been doing the free version of DuoLingo for Spanish off and on since 2018. I hit it pretty hard the first year, then slacked off for most of the next year, and have really been making an effort to work through the lessons for the past year and a half. I probably know about 3000 words or so. I do much better with reading the language written out than listening to it spoken, mostly because people speaking tend to talk so fast. I probably could learn faster if I paid for the unlimited version but I’m pretty cheap LOL. It’s a good way to start especially since it’s free.
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Post by Basket1lady on Jul 19, 2023 4:27:25 GMT
I refreshed my college French with Duolingo when we moved to Belgium. It was good and then I took 2 years of French for citizenship with the local mairie that helped a lot with grammar and conversational French.
What really, really helped were the Duolingo podcasts. They half in French and half in English. It helped a lot with sentence structure and vocab.
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Post by monklady123 on Jul 19, 2023 10:05:36 GMT
I'm also a Duolingo person. I use it (Spanish) along with a grammar book and the internet. As someone else said, the Duo podcasts are good, and there are other podcasts that I found just by searching....."easy Spanish stories" or "Spanish stories for kids". Etc. I find those helpful.
That still might not be what you're looking for but it's what's worked for me.
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Post by *sprout* on Jul 19, 2023 10:23:33 GMT
My dd uses DuoLingo. She said she prefers that over Babble because she can do multiple lessons in a day, verses one lesson with babble.
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Post by *sprout* on Jul 19, 2023 10:26:05 GMT
As for an actual curriculum, reach out to your local homeschooling groups and co-ops. They would have definitely have recommendations.
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dawnnikol
Prolific Pea
'A life without books is a life not lived.' Jay Kristoff
Posts: 8,036
Sept 21, 2015 18:39:25 GMT
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Post by dawnnikol on Jul 19, 2023 10:59:21 GMT
Check your library, ours offers Rosetta Stone for free online.
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Post by imkat on Jul 19, 2023 12:04:55 GMT
I used Learn Spanish with Paul Noble while commuting every day. I recommend it. I also did DuoLingo, but it’s helpful to have a program that has you speaking constantly.
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Post by mammajamma on Jul 19, 2023 12:43:33 GMT
I did lots of self study to learn Spanish over 15 years ago. I tried to immerse myself by every time I was commuting in the car, I listened to Spanish podcasts. There are a number of free ones. I also had a native speaker who was a co-worker, and I would write sentences each week using one of the 30 most essential verbs. He would correct my sentences and we would discuss over lunch.
I recommend you also get a verb book. I like “The Big Red Book of 555 Spanish Verbs” or “501 spanish verbs”. I also suggest a Spanish dictionary. I have a Spanish app but it can be annoying with ads every now and then. Carry those around and look up things any time you find yourself idle.
As you get more comfortable, you can watch telenovelas, movies or kids shoes with closed captioning on.
I am currently signing up for some conversational Spanish on Fiverr to brush up on my Spanish. Finding a way to speak is key. Either a friend or class.
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Post by auntkelly on Jul 19, 2023 14:55:06 GMT
I've been using Rosetta Stone for about two years to try to relearn French. (I took about 15 hours in college).
I've tried a lot of different resources including DuoLingo. I've been taking once a week in person conversational French group classes. I think Rosetta Stone is the most helpful resource for me.
I also listen to the French Coffee Break Podcast (I assume there is a Spanish version) and I read a lot of children's books in French. Google translate is very helpful when I want to hear a certain phrase spoken.
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SweetieBsMom
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 4,659 
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Post by SweetieBsMom on Jul 19, 2023 16:05:42 GMT
I follow someone on IG who uses Fluenz (I think), it's 1:1 video. She raves about it and she has become quite fluent since using them.
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Post by Jockscrap on Jul 19, 2023 17:58:23 GMT
For those using Duolingo, if you use it through a web browser rather than the app, you don’t get all the annoying ads you have to watch if you make so many mistakes before you can continue. They offer free trials of the paid-for version all the time but I don’t see much benefit.
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Post by monklady123 on Jul 19, 2023 21:34:06 GMT
For those using Duolingo, if you use it through a web browser rather than the app, you don’t get all the annoying ads you have to watch if you make so many mistakes before you can continue. They offer free trials of the paid-for version all the time but I don’t see much benefit. That's the only way I use Duolingo. I think it's really silly to give us "lives" for something like learning a language. So I do all my regular lessons on my laptop, then sometimes before I go to sleep I'll do some review on my phone. But there are some lessons where I would lose all my lives on one sentence if I was trying to do it on my phone.  |
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Post by candleangie on Jul 19, 2023 21:46:24 GMT
THANK YOU peas! You guys are the best, those are great resources
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Post by crazy4scraps on Jul 19, 2023 21:46:29 GMT
For those using Duolingo, if you use it through a web browser rather than the app, you don’t get all the annoying ads you have to watch if you make so many mistakes before you can continue. They offer free trials of the paid-for version all the time but I don’t see much benefit. That's the only way I use Duolingo. I think it's really silly to give us "lives" for something like learning a language. So I do all my regular lessons on my laptop, then sometimes before I go to sleep I'll do some review on my phone. But there are some lessons where I would lose all my lives on one sentence if I was trying to do it on my phone.  I know what you mean about the hearts but if you burn through all of them on mistakes you can go into the practice area and do practice lessons with unlimited mistakes to refill them for free. It will only let you stockpile five of them though, but then you can go back and redo the lesson. Lather, rinse, repeat as necessary. I almost always do the lessons on my iPad. It’s too easy to fat finger a mistake on my phone. |
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Post by monklady123 on Jul 19, 2023 22:12:37 GMT
That's the only way I use Duolingo. I think it's really silly to give us "lives" for something like learning a language. So I do all my regular lessons on my laptop, then sometimes before I go to sleep I'll do some review on my phone. But there are some lessons where I would lose all my lives on one sentence if I was trying to do it on my phone. I know what you mean about the hearts but if you burn through all of them on mistakes you can go into the practice area and do practice lessons with unlimited mistakes to refill them for free. It will only let you stockpile five of them though, but then you can go back and redo the lesson. Lather, rinse, repeat as necessary. I almost always do the lessons on my iPad. It’s too easy to fat finger a mistake on my phone. Good to know, thanks! I like doing the lessons on my laptop best because I can use the keyboard. I have the same fat fingers that you do. lol  But if I get on a role when I'm on my phone in bed at night I'll check out the practice area for more lives. |
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Post by crazy4scraps on Jul 19, 2023 22:23:51 GMT
I know what you mean about the hearts but if you burn through all of them on mistakes you can go into the practice area and do practice lessons with unlimited mistakes to refill them for free. It will only let you stockpile five of them though, but then you can go back and redo the lesson. Lather, rinse, repeat as necessary. I almost always do the lessons on my iPad. It’s too easy to fat finger a mistake on my phone. Good to know, thanks! I like doing the lessons on my laptop best because I can use the keyboard. I have the same fat fingers that you do. lol  But if I get on a role when I'm on my phone in bed at night I'll check out the practice area for more lives. For anyone who doesn’t know, if you tap on the heart in the top right corner (even if it shows zero hearts remaining) it opens a screen where there’s a button you can click that says Practice to Earn More Hearts. When you click that it starts up a new practice lesson that you can work through to earn a heart. You don’t get dinged on those levels if you make a mistake but it will keep cycling through the ones you get wrong until you get them right. You can do that enough times to completely refill your hearts in order to try the progress level again. That’s why I never feel compelled to pay for premium, since I can do the practice levels to refill my hearts for free in the free version. |
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But if I get on a role when I'm on my phone in bed at night I'll check out the practice area for more lives.
But if I get on a role when I'm on my phone in bed at night I'll check out the practice area for more lives.