HI New to Spanish

Hello,

My name is William and I am really excited to start learning spanish. What would you suggest to get the most out of the Plantinum Program (Spanish)

How long would you work on this a day, etc...

-William

Hi, William, and Welcome! The first thing you should do is sign up for an eTutor Orientation session. They're meant to give you advice on how to use the program, but also to introduce you to an eTutor, and get you started using GoToMeeting so it's all ready for your "real" sessions.

Otherwise, a few general pointers. Learning a language is all about contact hours. It's best to set up a regular schedule for yourself, to commit to a few stretches of time every week, and make sure you make those all about Spanish. If you can do every day, that's great, but most people have a hard time doing that. You'll retain more if your Spanish times are not too spread out. For example, three times a week for an hour each is much better than once a week for three hours. If you can set aside 40 minutes or so a day, that's fantastic.

Go through the lesson in the book with the audio first. To practice the vocabulary, use the flashcards on either your smart phone or tablet, or on the online course. Make sure you read the grammar notes slowly and carefully, and re-read if necessary. Do the exercises in the book, and play the games on the apps or online. Do them more than once, so that the grammar really sinks in. (And make sure you spend time with the Drive It Home exercises in the book; they're designed to help make the new grammar more automatic. They'll seem very easy and repetitive, but this is intentional.)

Make use of downtime to review vocabulary or play a few of the games. So, if you commute by train or bus, or if you're sitting in a waiting room, etc, take out your smart phone and go through the flashcards or games. Remember that you can move from one platform (book/audio - online - app) seamlessly, so you really have a lot of ways of fitting your new language into your life.

Definitely make use of the eTutoring as much as you can. You can enroll in one session at a time, but that's basically the only restriction. You can take the same session again and again to get comfortable, and you can enroll in the next as soon as you're ready.

Come back to this message board to ask questions, or exchange tips, or read advice from the eTutors, other students, or the Living Language editorial staff.

Keep in mind that the internet is a fantastic source of language content. Bookmark a few newspapers in Spanish, or radio, or videos. Try to engage a little bit every day.

And never hesitate to contact us with any questions! If you're stuck, we'll get you unstuck.

I hope that helps. Let me know if I can give you any other information or tips.

Buena suerte!

Chris

Any tips for spanish or radio/videos/newspapers?

Try
http://www.onlinenewspapers.com/ to find newspapers from all over the world. You can choose which Spanish speaking country you're interested in.

There are many, many online radio options, so you should search around to find something that meets your interests. Here are just a few options:

http://www.buenosaires.gob.ar/radiociudad (from Buenos Aires)

http://www.mexico-radio.com/ (from Mexico, several stations)

http://www.radios.com.do/ (from the Dominican Republic, several stations)

Hello William!

Please check this old post entry where I recommended a very entertaining radio show you can find on-line: http://www.livinglanguage.com/community/discussion/64/listen-to-the-radio-hablar-por-hablar./p1

The name of this show is "Hablar por Hablar" meaning "Talking for Talkings Sake."

You can listen to that show to practise your Spanish listening skills,
every weekday night 1.30am to 4am (Madrid, GMT +1), Eastern Time is
(7.30pm to 10pm)

In this radio show people who can't sleep at night call and explain their own stories or the worries that doesn´t let them sleep. The stories are sad stories, and sometimes they are very funny. Other listeners call back and give their opinions and try to help out.

If you love horror films and scary stories this other Spanish Radio Show is what you where looking for! It will help you to improve your listening skills while getting really scared and discover strange and inexplicable stories.

The radio show is called Milenio 3. They tell stories about UFOs, exorcisms, ghosts, psicokillers, secret cults and many other scary topics.

The radio show is on air every Saturday 1:30am to 4.00am (Madrid +1GMT), in Eastern Time is 7.30pm to 10pm

I recommend you to try to listen to some of the podcast of the radio show and if you'd like to the radio show live on the Internet.

Podcast: http://www.cadenaser.com/milenio3/fonoteca/

Live radio show:
http://www.cadenaser.com/player_radio.html (only Saturday 7.30pm to 10pm)

Let me know what kind of radio show would you like to listen to and i can recommend a station or an specific radio show. Maybe sports, music, the news?

Enjoy listening!!!

William. Study for six hours a day if you can make time for it. I would suggest listening to spanish music on an mp3 player everyday, all the time, when you are not having to talk with others ofcourse, etc.

good luck.

And, Hablar por Hablar is a really great resource.

Go do www.memrise.com. Try the 1000 words, and the 500 verbs. Completing those was my gate way for being able to understand 50% of spanish.

@ THoth - just tested memrise. That is cool!

Hi everybody im Paris

Hola, Paris!

Thanks everyone....

Me encanta el nombre "Paris" Mucho sexy :)

-Monroe

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