
Ask HN: How to learn Spanish quickly and effectively? - sean_patel
In my early 20s, want to learn Spanish - as spoken in Mexico, South America and not the one in Spain - quickly and effectively.<p>Please give me proven tricks &#x2F; tips that has helped you learn a new language, bonus if Spanish. Also how long it took, how many hours per day etc. Age range if you are ok sharing (since I am adult, I am told it&#x27;s difficult to learn new languages).<p>My background: Indian-American born and raised in Hawaii and California. Can fluently read, write and speak English, Hindi, French and know a bit of Gujarati, Punjabi, Tamil (all from Indian Uncles and Aunts lol) and sparse Dutch and Polish (don&#x27;t ask me how lol).<p>Thanks!
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ColinWright
Might not work for you, here's what I do:

[http://www.solipsys.co.uk/new/LearningLanguages.html?HN_2017...](http://www.solipsys.co.uk/new/LearningLanguages.html?HN_20170107)

It's a non-trivial amount of time. You need about 800 to 1000 words to start
bootstrapping properly, about 2000 words to communicate effectively (but not
fluently). If you target six months, that's still 10 to 15 new words _every
single day._

For me, I learn sentences and phrases and most of the grammar emerges. That's
not true for everyone - you will have to work hard on fixing the bits that
don't come as part of the study process.

I spent about an hour every day, plus 30 minutes vocab revision spread through
the day, for about six months and I was able to communicate in Danish,
although I was never fluent. It's all gone now, you need to use it actively
and relentlessly. But that's what I did in my late 30s.

Immersion and practice with native or near native speakers will cut the time
in half (for some value of a half).

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sean_patel
Thank you! This seems like something that could work for a person like me
(assuming I know me lol.)

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laurieg
How to Learn a Foreign Language by Paul Pimsleur is a short book that has a
lot of gems about language learning.

My tips as someone who has learnt a foreign language to fluency after becoming
an adult:

Focus on sounds before the written language. Pimsleur's courses are good for
this, but also just watching TV shows etc in the language you want to learn.
The flow, rhythm, any extra sounds etc are all important. Mess around and try
copying what people say when you hear it. Ham up the accent.

Try to learn everything in a context. "Where is the money?" as a line in a
tense movie thriller is far more memorable than reading it in a textbook. The
brain loves little connections. It's not like a hard drive. Remembering more
is often easier than remembering less.

Don't feel you have to learn any particular thing right now. If some
word/phrase/grammar form is hurting you just put it down and come back another
time. It might be months down the line. You will have probably picked up more
knowledge and more examples in those intervening months so learning it will be
much simpler.

Use materials that are intended for natives. Books for learners are more
likely to have mistakes or have very unnatural phrases in them. Sometimes they
swap out the more common phrase for a less common one because "We haven't
learnt that yet". Have a healthy suspicion of textbooks.

Learn how to use a dictionary. Look up words you already know to help you get
the measure of a dictionary. Look words up in one and then cross check in
another. Always be aware of the fact that a certain idea may be very common in
one language but uncommon in another, thus the words may match in meaning but
be wildly different in frequency. Context and materials for natives helps a
lot here, if you're reading a Spanish magazine it will contain a good cross-
section of common Spanish words.

Have some way of reviewing words. I recommend a flashcard app like Anki[1].
While useful, try not to spend too much time reviewing. Flashcards are just
something to remind of what you learnt last week, not to learn new words. If
you want new words, go back to native materials.

[1] www.ankisrs.net

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Rzor
Being immersed in another culture is a known method of acquiring fluency fast,
but I take into account that it might not be for everyone.

Having said that, one of the easy ways (as in approachable, maybe not so much
efficiently) of taking advantange of such contact with another culture, in my
experience, is to watch movies based in the country (or countries) with a
subtitle on the same language; of course, a transcript is better than an
adaptation. That way you not only get access to context, which I think is a
great way to assist in understanding, but also learn a bit about manneirism
and varied pronunciation. Two things that are hard to grasp in courses and
instructional videos.

Just for disclosure: I'm Brazillian. If you rate my English skills poorly,
bear in mind that I've never took a course whatsoever. OTOH, American/English
content has influenced my childhood (and culture actually) to such a degree
that makes me biased, but the argument for movies as a tool in this case
doesn't seem so far off to me, TBH.

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saltvedt
Try Pimsleur, Memrise and the book Fluent in 3 months.

[http://www.pimsleur.com/learn-spanish-latin-
american](http://www.pimsleur.com/learn-spanish-latin-american)

[https://www.memrise.com/](https://www.memrise.com/)

[http://www.fluentin3months.com/](http://www.fluentin3months.com/)

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AlexAMEEE
Hey there, I recently created a post in a web developer forum, few hours later
I already had a Spanish guy who wanted to get into web development.

I'll teach you web dev, you teach me Spanish.

This might be also a possible route for you, or you could post in a French,
Punjabi forum ? There are always people who really just want what you got.

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gobr
[https://www.duolingo.com/](https://www.duolingo.com/) consistently

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smisker
The best way is to get a native spanish speaker significant other.

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kstenerud
Live in a Spanish speaking country, in an area where nobody speaks your
language, and DO NOT hang out with other foreigners.

That is the single fastest way. Should take you at most 6 months to become
fluent.

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rootme
Get a girlfriend

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Findeton
I was born in Spain, so I know Spanish. Being born Spanish is an easy way to
learn Spanish :)

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sean_patel
Isn't the Spanish spoken in Spain much different from the Spanish spoken in
Mexico / South America? At-least that what I see on youtube comments in
Spanish teaching videos.

~~~
Findeton
No. Intonation (not even pronunciation) is a bit different but perfectly
understandable.

