I have a question that hopefully some here might be able to help with (Amadeus? Luce? ). My mother is wanting to relearn Spanish. She was, at one point, a fluent speaker, having learned in the Peace Corps and spending some time in Chile. But that was a long time ago (40 years) and has lost nearly all of it. Anyway, I had mentioned Textkit to her as a great resource for myself in learning Latin, with texts, grammars, a supportive community, etc., and she was wondering if there was a similar utility on the Internet for learning Spanish.
Is there something out there for English speakers wishing to learn Spanish? She has no “self-studyer-friendly” grammar, no texts, no environment of others doing the same. Anyway, any help is greatly appreciated.
You probably already know about Spanish-Kit, don’t you? It isn’t as alive as Textkit, the fora was even taken down, but your mother might find it useful… Alas, I guess Amadeus and Lucus can help you out more than me in this
She should consider the FSI (Foreign Services Institute) Spanish language course. It’s an almost-all-audio course (there are books with it, but it focuses on the audio). The best part is that it was produced by the US government so it is in the public domain and can be downloaded completely free if your library doesn’t already have it. The best site for it (and many other FSI courses) is:
The “basic” course is different from the “programmatic” course. I think the above site has all of the programmatic course and is just getting the basic one uploaded (but they are trying to maintain a pace that is faster than anyone could actually do the lessons). Opinions differ on which is better. The programmatic one utilizes a text much more than the basic.
There is also a site (which I have not personally used, so I don’t know how good it is) that is free and has you go through the FSI Basic course (slightly modified) through an online interface. It might be worth looking at: http://www.loquella.com/
Another thing to seriously consider is the platiquemos (http://www.platiquemos-letstalk.com/) course, which is a modern redo of the entire FSI Basic course. People swear by it. It’s not free, but with the “download” edition (all mp3 and pdf) you can get the whole thing for relatively cheap ($150 ish, I think).
The Pimsleur course is also popular. It has around 100 30-minute lessons in all. It is 100% audio. It’s much easier and moves more slowly, but it apparently doesn’t take you nearly as far as the FSI and/or platiquemos course. Also, Pimsleur is very expensive, but you can usually get it from the public library (my library, like many, even has a deal with netlibrary.com so I also can just download it and listen to it). Whatever she does, she shouldn’t buy it new because it will cost around $750-1000. I’ve been through the entire course and it doesn’t get you close to fluent, but it is a piece of cake to do and it makes a lot of the language flow naturally.
I’ll ask around for the best in learning Spanish, but it would be good if you could tell us what your mother is looking for in a method. Is she looking for something formal and academic (like the grammars here at Textkit), or something for tourists and/or for gathering simple information?
So much great information so far…and I was unaware of Spanish-Kit! I will definitely check out the links (especially the FSI).
Her goal is not for tourism…but rather she wants not only to be conversant but also to read literature and academic articles. So yes, formal and academic, though I was hoping something friendly along the lines of a Lingua Espanol by Orberg.
There’s Assimil and Linguaphone. Both are used by professional translators. But I can’t say how good they are, though, and that’s why you should listen more to non-native Spanish speakers than me. Also Linguaphone is a bit expensive.
). My mother is wanting to relearn Spanish. She was, at one point, a fluent speaker, having learned in the Peace Corps and spending some time in Chile. But that was a long time ago (40 years) and has lost nearly all of it. Anyway, I had mentioned Textkit to her as a great resource for myself in learning Latin, with texts, grammars, a supportive community, etc., and she was wondering if there was a similar utility on the Internet for learning Spanish.
Also Linguaphone is a bit expensive.