For me a major part of getting ready to visit Ecuador is learning enough Spanish so I can communicate basic needs and “get along” with the people there. I’ve seen many comments on the Yahoo Ecuador Expats group saying that if you just try to speak Spanish, most people will appreciate your efforts and be quite willing to help you.
Years ago when I was stationed in Germany I learned enough German to get along. My German was never really good by anyone’s measure, but it did help me communicate in fundamental ways with my landlord and landlady, with the people who delivered Ulmer Gold Oschen bier to my apartment every week, and to other important German nationals -- like Rudi who ran the local gasthaus in Neu Ulm, Bayern, Deutschland and his wife Krystal who cooked up the best possible weiner schnitzel und spaetzle one could imagine.
So, contemplating the need to learn Spanish, I turned to the Internet. No hay problema! Estoy estudiando español ahora (No problem! I am studying Spanish now).
I am constantly amazed at all the great content available today on the Internet. Ivy League schools even offer free classes on the web! In times yet to come, this content will increase many-fold, I’m sure. Back in my high school and college days (studying French) we went to the “language lab” where we spoke into a microphone, parroting back the recorded tapes that played into our headphones. Now though, with the Internet, one can have a complete language lab in a laptop or a netbook.
A few of the sites that I found really fun and helpful include...
http://translate.google.com - just an amazingly powerful service that’s free, as most of Google’s services are. I’ve used it to check pronunciation; to translate simple sentences; to make reservations with Ecuadorians via email, and more. A truly superb service. And BTW, if you have any need to translate web sites, be sure to download the Google Chrome browser. It offers to translate web pages for you automatically. Very cool :)
Years ago when I was stationed in Germany I learned enough German to get along. My German was never really good by anyone’s measure, but it did help me communicate in fundamental ways with my landlord and landlady, with the people who delivered Ulmer Gold Oschen bier to my apartment every week, and to other important German nationals -- like Rudi who ran the local gasthaus in Neu Ulm, Bayern, Deutschland and his wife Krystal who cooked up the best possible weiner schnitzel und spaetzle one could imagine.
So, contemplating the need to learn Spanish, I turned to the Internet. No hay problema! Estoy estudiando español ahora (No problem! I am studying Spanish now).
I am constantly amazed at all the great content available today on the Internet. Ivy League schools even offer free classes on the web! In times yet to come, this content will increase many-fold, I’m sure. Back in my high school and college days (studying French) we went to the “language lab” where we spoke into a microphone, parroting back the recorded tapes that played into our headphones. Now though, with the Internet, one can have a complete language lab in a laptop or a netbook.
A few of the sites that I found really fun and helpful include...
http://translate.google.com - just an amazingly powerful service that’s free, as most of Google’s services are. I’ve used it to check pronunciation; to translate simple sentences; to make reservations with Ecuadorians via email, and more. A truly superb service. And BTW, if you have any need to translate web sites, be sure to download the Google Chrome browser. It offers to translate web pages for you automatically. Very cool :)
http://www.wordmagicsoft.com/dictionary/tools/index.php - Word Magic offers an on-line dictionary that's especially helpful with phrases. For example, "No hay pero que valga" translates to "no buts about it," or "no way José."
www.busuu.com - a site that teaches several languages (English, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, German, Russian, French) and lets you actually connect via text or video chat with people who speak Spanish (or another language) and want to learn English. It promotes an “ I-help-you and you-help-me” arrangement between members from all over the globe. You can use much of the site for free or sign up for premium membership to get more content.
www.123spanish.com - a site that connects you with native speakers throughout South
America who teach you in live sessions via Skype. All of the teachers I checked out had several years experience teaching Latin American Spanish to neophytes. I’d highly recommend this site to those who want to learn from native speakers with real teaching credentials. If you do use their services, you’ll also be contributing to the welfare of people in countries (Columbia, Honduras, etc.) where jobs are hard to find.
http://spanish.about.com - perhaps the most robust free site I found. About.com is a property of the New York Times. Their writers and educators are carefully screened and professional. I found the content here exemplary. They explained many aspects of the Spanish language that I could not find elsewhere. A great site!
www.spanishspanish.com - is a lot of fun. They offer a bunch of (Adobe) Flash exercises on-line that make it easy to memorize the days of the week, parts of the body, colors, months of the year, numbers like mil novocientos cinco y quatro (1956) -- and much more. Some of the content requires payment of $9.99 for the entire year -- a ridiculously small amount. Check out the site, as it’s got a LOT of free content that can really help you learn useful Spanish vocabulary, even if you decide not to spend the $9.99.
www.learnspanishtoday.com - I learned more from this site early on than any other. The authors have a great way of introducing one to Spanish in easy, bite-sized lessons that really add up quickly. The site gives you several lessons for free, then if you want to continue, you need to buy the entire course. I found just the free part, the teaser, to be extremely helpful. Quiero ir al banco pero no necessito ir a al oficina hoy. Check it out and I think you’ll get a lot of confidence from their teaching method. I did.
Madrigal’s Magic Key to Spanish - this is a paperback book I got from Amazon. After reading many customer reviews on various Spanish books, this one quickly rose to the top of the list. One reviewer said:
“Magic Key to Spanish is one of those rare books that you come back to again and again, it inspires progress and there's so much to learn from it- it's certainly not going to be a dust gatherer if learning Spanish is what you truly want. If I've convinced you already buy it- if not read on.
“The book starts with a very positive introduction and goes on to explain that an English speaker already knows hundreds if not thousands of words in Spanish and it gives you the rules that unlock this 'magic key' to Spanish. It then moves on to teach you grammar in a very novel way, none of the boring conjungations that had to be learnt by rote when doing languages at school. She starts with the past tense as this is how we speak to friends and then moves through much of the essential grammar required to Speak, Read and write Spanish.”
Bottom line: get this book if you want to learn Spanish.
www.conjugation.org - OK, I know. Conjugation of verbs is downright boring and dull. Madrigal and others say we shouldn’t spend our time worrying about conjugation. Well, I found that I needed to understand how certain verbs were conjugated in the preset, past (preterite) and future tenses. This site does all that dirty work for you. Bookmark it, for sure!
There are many other sites that can help you learn Spanish. Google search is your best friend, so be sure to explore. In the meantime, I hope some of this helps.
Hasta luego!
~ Allan
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