SF Spanish

[x:C-1/75 Ranger]

Any recommendations for teaching myself Spanish so that I can pass the Defense Language Profficiency Test so that I can have a good chance to go to 7th Group. Prefferably anything besides college like language tapes or home study books with tapes.

[Mac679]

Well no home study course eliminates a large percentage of your options, but you might want to check out what local community colleges have in the way of classes. Check out http://www.audioforum.com It's home study courses but they offer a wide variety and some multimedia ( CDROM and videos ). Some of the course they have are those created by the Foreign Service Institute. Hope it helps!
Mac

[Kolt]

There are several Computer multimedia programs available. Several book/cassette tape combinations too. Check your local library so you can use what they have for free. By your 'handle' you seem to be active or prior military so you've probably heard of the 'HEAD START' language courses in the military. We have several at my post library and they seem to be the best quality. Better than most civilian stuff I've seen on the market. I'm trying to learn German for the same reason as you, I want to go to 10th Group. Hope this helps.

[Mike]

Try the local community college. Or set up a study group. Anyone on your base may have been stationed in South America and Germany.
The best way to learn a foreign language is to live in the country or learn from a native.

[BOFH]

Resurrection!!!

Didn't want to start a new thread, as there is already one here...

My assigned language is Spanish. I have been advised to learn all I can BEFORE going to language school. I've tried a lot of things, and nothing works well. Trying to get the wife to teach me has, ironically, been the LEAST productive. Rosetta stone seems to have a good process, but doesn't teach anything useful. "The boy is under the table." I've also had limited success with books and newspapers printed in Spanish, but learning the words doesn't seem to help...whenever I talk to a native speaker, I just can't keep up...even a phrase which should be simple, when spoken rapidly, becomes unintelligible to me. I'm starting to think I might just have little aptitude for languages, but I know I'm a smart enough guy...I should be able to figure this out.

That said, any suggestions on learning conversational Español?

[Spinner]

That said, any suggestions on learning conversational Español?

In the US, you shouldn't have too much trouble seeking out opportunities to practice your Spanish. Restaurants, various retail outlets that cater to Spanish speaking clientele, etc.

In larger metropolitan areas, the same holds true for some of the more esoteric languages. On Devon Ave in Chicago, you'd probably have as good an opportunity for practicing Urdu, Pashto or Hindi as if you actually visited the country where they're spoken.

[HighDragLowSpeed]

I'm not a native Spanish speaker...but learned with the benefit of only 5 days formal language schooling. I did however have a number of years of university Mandarin instruction (good enough to read the Bing Fa or art of War in Chinese and anyone that knew me in the SF course likely remembers that I usually carried and read Mao's Little Red Book in Chinese).

The way to learn a language FAST that works for me is the following:

- make a written list of 20-25 words each day. The list should have less than 5-8 nouns for tangible objects. The idea here is that its much harder to describe an action or intangible noun with a limited vocabulary so you should focus on the things that you cant point to. Practice the words on your list as much as possible that day while adding new words for subsequent days. Roll over any words to the next day that you didnt practice. 90 days X 25 words focused primarily on action words will go a long way in conversation.

Note: The above method alone worked pretty well for learning both Aymara and Guarani on the fly when I was in the military. I'd end up pointing at tangible things and asking how to say them but could work my way through a basic conversation because I was able to describe basic actions and use words representing intangible things like "thought", "distance", or "idea".It's just fast way to get beyond "The boy is under the table".

- watch the news on TV. The news likely contributed most to my ability to understand people talking at real life speed in both Spanish and Chinese. I'd watch the news in English and then rewatch in Spanish. Words are great to learn but you also need phrases. TV can be a one sided conversation focused on your listening comprehension. You live in Texas - Univision should become your new friend.

- read the newspaper. the newspaper is great because you can consume the news that you watched the night before at your own speed (unlike TV) and gain a good sense of usages. It's just a good habit anyway when deployed.

- Get a long hair dictionary. Use at your own risk if your wife is Latina.

Random Spanish Lessons Learned:

- Remember that the versions of Spanish and usages of seemingly innocent terms can be very different by area. Using just about any form of the verb "cojer" around a woman can get you into fistfight in Paraguay but is perfectly acceptable in many other parts of LATAM. Lots of other such localisms to learn.

- You are always safe with as Castillian version of Spanish as you can learn - especially when working directly with a host nation military. Works wonders for getting host nation enlisted to pay attention and also when dealing with host nation officers. Bar spanish may be fine for the boom boom rooms but you'll be far more effective with host nation folks by learning high quality spanish right from the start....even if only a few words.

- Lots of Americanisms are used as far south as Panama. Good luck with them south of there. I worked with a guy at one point who had the unfortunate habit of using an English word in just about every sentence. I say unfortunate because it usually was the key word in the sentence. i.e. him: "que paso con los spark plugs" local: (insert quizzical look here). He didnt work out so well in South America.

- "Ahora" and "Ahorita" are reversed south of Guatemala. I played the SF version of "Who's on First" with a young Guatemalan trooper because I needed him to do something "ahora" and he kept replying, "si señor, ahorita".

- Last resort: Antigua, Guatemala. Lots of small schools that are (or were) a lot cheaper than other intensive programs.

[random]

Watch Spanish soaps, or dub movies in Spanish. It particularly works well if you're familiar with the movies in English. You can pick up slang that way, or phrases that don't mean what they technically say. Most importantly, though, it starts training your mind to hear a different language. For most people, that's the hardest part of learning a new language, the conversation part. The more you're exposed to it, the faster your brain adjusts to it. At first you might only hear a few words here and there. Keep at it, eventually it'll improve.

[Forgetthisname]

Great advice HDLS...I'm going to start that 20 words a day thing and see how stupid I can be in a few months.

[bubblehead]

You try:

Special Operations Forces Teletraining System
https://www.softsonline.org/

[NWPTrainer]

- make a written list of 20-25 words each day. The list should have less than 5-8 nouns for tangible objects. The idea here is that its much harder to describe an action or intangible noun with a limited vocabulary so you should focus on the things that you cant point to. Practice the words on your list as much as possible that day while adding new words for subsequent days. Roll over any words to the next day that you didnt practice. 90 days X 25 words focused primarily on action words will go a long way in conversation.



I read a book in HS, can't remember the name, that talked about Sir Richard Francis Burton using this method to learn the 29 languages he spoke conversationally. I worked with it and got damned good in Spanish by the time I graduated. I've played with it in several other languages and gotten pretty good results. If I ever feel the need to pick another up, I'll use it again.

It doesn't have to be 25 words a day either. With the romance languages, at least, you can be functionally conversational with 300-400 words. If you work on 10 words a day, with at least half being the aforementioned action verbs, you'll be conversational quick. Within a week or two you can be holding basic conversations with native speakers who are, IME, ecstatic to help you expand your vocab even further. Pretty soon you end up learning more than 10 words/day because you're picking shit up from context.

The issue of course, becomes deciding WHICH verbs to teach yourself...that's on you.

(In addition, I used a long haired dictionary for a while in my early twenties. For awhile it worked really, really well...Then it turned into her saying, "mi corazon," and "te quiero" a lot, so my lease on the dictionary program ended.

[johndivr]

If you have the time and money not much.Mexico,Costa Rica, ect actually have totally good classes,they are not expensive, cost of living is low, plus when going to a resterant or shopping you learn fast.
There are differnet types of schools, and you can look them up online!
Via con Dios y Beuna Suarte,

[smittycolt]

All they do at that school (or did in '84) is have you memorize pronouns, nouns, numbers and verb tenses out of a book. It's up to you to put all that shit together.

You can learn it as fast as you want or as slow as you want, but you have to memorize the shit.

[Magyc]

Mixing what HDLS and random said:

Watch movies and listen to music in Spanish that you know in English. You always hear about other countries learning English from watching Baywatch or something funky, why not try it yourself.

[stanpunjabTrini]

Any recommendations for teaching myself Spanish so that I can pass the Defense Language Profficiency Test so that I can have a good chance to go to 7th Group. Prefferably anything besides college like language tapes or home study books with tapes.

1. Miami
2. Midwest (mainly Chicago)
3. California/Arizona

Other than colloquialisms, you are OK.
There are many Spanish language locations so perhaps going to the nearest store to buy groceries, order at a local restaurant, go to local bookstore, converse with a smiling face to familiarize yourself with the vocabulary.
Ypu may have realized some groups speak faster, other slower, others slur' their words and the rest just hard to understand. The more exposure the better!
a dios