Spanish learning help on-line?

Submitted by fyl on 24 January, 2004 - 11:22.

I put up the current "My Spanish is" poll because most of our contributors are still in the U.S. and I was wondering if needing to work on Spanish was an issue. While the sample size is very small so far, it looks like most of us could use some help.

I have been thinking about/playing with various on-line learning approaches. A very simple one, for example would be a mailing list where you just get sent a message each day that might define a word or talk about a common expression. On-line flashcards, quizes and such are others.

What I am looking for here is feedback. That is, would you be interested in something and, if so, what sort of "something". Please just say what you would like. Sorting out how easy it would be to do is my part of the problem. :-)

‹ No Spanish "E" for effort goes for months.... ›
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And One More Time;

Submitted by Miskito Alan on 21 December, 2005 - 20:27.

&#9824 Miskito Alan would like to thank Donald Lee of "calanguage tours" for his 4 over-lengthy commercial comments to this topic and his directions to their kindergarten-developed website.

Even though the posts were not recent; we can not seem to avoid the memories.

__________________________________________________________

Spanish

Submitted by El Quijote on 21 December, 2005 - 19:46.

Great idea. Especially the "word of the day."

The Polyglots Activities & Language Courses

Submitted by calanguagetours on 31 January, 2004 - 19:30.

here is story regarding The Polyglots one of the most unique sites to be found on the Internet "The Polyglots" now expanding worldwide: http://www.thepolyglots.com

From: http://www.centralamericalanguagetours.com/courses.html

The Polyglots Activities & Language Courses

The Polyglots Management

The Polyglots is an international organization of linguists with members on all continents. It is run by Uri Paz, a linguist born in Israel and educated in several countries in Europe, a man fluent in 9 different languages and who is a writer, journalist, language teacher, university professor and businessman all combined. He is the author of published novels and language courses, paramount among which are English for speakers of different languages, Spanish for Speakers of English, Hebrew, French and German, Biblical and Modern Hebrew and Biblical Greek.

The Polylgots Central America Manager is Donald Lee, American Expat who has been living in Central America for a quarter of a century. See Who AM I. He is the engine behind the Central American enterprise of Central America Language Tours.

Are you interested in languages?

If you are not you don’t belong to the Internet era. Period.If you do business over the web only in one language, even if it is the biggest spoken language today, English, you still miss out on many potential customers and contacts.

But you must know that already.

Still, most people can do nothing about it. Most people are monolingual or at the best hardly bilingual. The Polyglots organization is trying to remedy to the best of its ability by providing language services, translation, language training, creation of fast and practical multilingual websites, localization of software, training translators, organizing language courses with travel at the lowest possible rates. And more, much more.

For example, setting up a brand new multilingual Website may start at 150 USD including a domain name, one year hosting and in several languages.

Quality is The Polyglots’ main concern. Costs come second, but you are assured to get the best service and attention as a customer, student, linguist, translator or language teacher.

The Polyglots offer free language courses that are not merely a glimpse of a language but real, serious courses for serious people. On their site you can already find INGLÉS PARA AUTO ESTUDIO and SPANISH FOR ENGLISH SPEAKERS. Both courses are downloadable in PDF format and may be printed out and distributed for free. Registration is free and allows the student to receive additional parts of the courses, FREE. More courses are coming up soon. A special course for Translators and Interpreters is to be launched soon. Write for details.

The Polyglots are now in the process of setting up several tourism-related branches in Central America under the management of Donald Lee.

There is much more to The Polyglots than can be described here. The best thing to do is to visit the site www.thepolyglots.com and see for yourself.

Central America Language Tours Your Vertical Portal to Travel, Trade and Language Study in all of Central America... www.centralamericalanguagetours.com info@centralamericalanguagetours.com

English and Spanish Courses for all...

Submitted by calanguagetours on 31 January, 2004 - 14:36.

Dear Editor and Readers: We are interested in "On Line Spanish Resources" as we presently have an on line Spanish Course for English Speakers and are developing other Spanish Courses for native speakers of French, German, Hebrew and Swedish, to be utilized in concert with Spanish Language Programs (School) or for home study when unable to attend frontal classes. As well (view our Spanish Language Home Page on www.thepolyglots.com)have developed a comprehensive "Curso de Inglés para Hispanoparlantes" which we will soon be promoting throughout Central America. I already have contacts with two established English Teachers in Nicaragua, ready to assist, one in Managua, the other in Masaya. Please contact our Director, Prof. U. Paz E mail paz@thepolyglots.com if you or anyone else in Nicaragua interested in collaborating with us from March 2004. Donald T. Lee The Polyglots América Central http://www.thepolyglots.com E mail donaldlee@thepolyglots.com

Central America Language Tours Your Vertical Portal to Travel, Trade and Language Study in all of Central America... www.centralamericalanguagetours.com info@centralamericalanguagetours.com

On-line help page

Submitted by fyl on 31 January, 2004 - 08:13.

I have added a page linking to on-line learning resources at http://www.nicaliving.com/book/view/85. The page is in no way comprehensive but everything in it is stuff I have actually tried and found to be useful. As I get a chance to try other sites, I will add them. Feel free to post suggestions to additions to the page.

Some sites make assumptions about what software you are running. This is a very bad thing for them to do and my intent is to only list sites that are useful for anyone with an Internet connection and a modern web browser (Netscape, Opera, IE, Mozilla, Konqueror, ...) and a modest set of plugins.

Spanish lessons

Submitted by gypsytoes on 24 January, 2004 - 14:19.

Needing to work on Spanish is my biggest issue. I have tried on-line courses, CD's, and now I have a private Spanish tutor. I guess that I'm a visual, kinestetic learner... because I seem to learn best with a direct, hands-on approach. I'm getting a little stressed thinking that I'll be running a business in June in Nica with VERY limited Spanish skills. Practically NADA. I'm up for anything that will speed up the process. I'm just at the point where I'm stringing simple ,present tense sentences together. Estar and tener are confusing. Verbs in themselves are confusing in Spanish. I may bring my Spanish tutor along as a translator. He has to return to CR anyway because his visa is up. I'd be most interested in Spanish for a business owner, particularly restaurant, hotel, bar words. Debbie

Learning Styles

Submitted by fyl on 25 January, 2004 - 18:45.

The company I own is primarily a publishing company today but it started out doing a lot of training as well. I started it with a person who had a degree in what could be called "teacher teaching". Learning styles was one of her big issues. Before working with her I was pretty much on the level of "smart people learn faster", no matter what the method.

Today, I know that is not true. Some people learn by seeing others do it. Some by reading. Some by doing. ... I am going to continue to think about on-line ideas but, as my learning style sounds similar to yours, I wanted to make some suggesitons.

Books are generally the wrong answer for me. I don't want to know how to conjugate 500 verbs--I want to communicate. The book that has been an exception has been Madrigal's Magic Guide to Spanish. It has been the exception because you are understanding sentences at about page four. That book has been a nice way to add in the formal part of learning. While you eventually learn to conjugate verbs, it is done a piece at a time combined with usage that makes sense. I have tried a lot of books and this is the first one that I don't get sick of.

The other part is just communicating. For example, my maid is here on Tuesday and knows no English. So, on Tuesdays I practice with a human. If I don't understand, she is very good and saying it a different way. I also walk my dog is is a samoyed--one of the few around here--so people want to talk to me about him. If all else fails I go to the park and hang out. Now, I hate not knowing--I am not used to it. But, I need to do things that put me in a situation where I don't have a choice--I don't have an easy way out. Then I am forced to learn.

My guess is that if you head for that job without your tutor you will feel very dumb for the first week or two but nothing bad will happen. You will manage to communicate. Being in that situation you will learn a lot. Most important of all, you will learn how to communicate in Spanish rather than to translate. That will help you progress much faster.

Think about how a child learns to communicate. They are immersed in a world of language they don't understand. When they start using words it is not a case of them having learned to conjugate tener or estar. They learrned how to say "Tengo un lapiz" and "Quiero un taco" or whatever. Later they learned that tiene was related to tengo. Much, much later they found out that tener is an irregular verb, what the preterit means, what a radical-changing verb is and so on.

In other words, learn to communicate first. Then, when you are doing that, learn Spanish. I hope these suggestions helped. I wish someone had told me this when I was first bying every Spanish book on the planet.

Spanish on line

Submitted by calanguagetours on 26 January, 2004 - 15:06.

If you have Win Zip and Microsoft you may try free of charge the first 3 introductory lessons of our Spanish Course Self Study for English Speakers online. Visit either the English Home Page of http://www.thepolyglots.com or the Courses Page of http://www.centralamericalanguagetours.com I am based in Central america and work with many Spanish language academies which offer home stay and volunteer programs. info@centralamericalanguagetours.com

Central America Language Tours Your Vertical Portal to Travel, Trade and Language Study in all of Central America... www.centralamericalanguagetours.com info@centralamericalanguagetours.com

Central America Language Tours

Submitted by calanguagetours on 24 January, 2004 - 14:15.

http://www.centralamericalanguagetours.com/freespan.html

Start learning Spanish in five seconds!

You can start learning Spanish with a real, serious and very large course made especially for self-study. Download it from The Polyglots site by clicking here. You are under no obligation, not even to register, but it is advisable to send in your name and e-mail address for your own benefit.

And remember: it is all FREE to start, the beginner's lessons, even registering.

If you are interested in language or are a linguist, for your benefit also visit The Polyglots site at www.thepolyglots.com we are hiring associate reps native or "ex pat" (with language skills) bi or multi lingual, throughout Central America. E mail donaldlee@thepolyglots.com