Planning a month in Malaga and Seville Spain this winter. Looking for app or software to help us learn the essential phrases, etc. for our trip. Due to other prior travels, only have about 2 months. Given the complexity of learning another language, we think we have to focus on necessary conversation so many language programs seem too general for our needs. Any recommendations? Thanks!
Posted by
Cleveland
351 posts
Five years ago or so, my wife and I went to Malaga and enrolled in a Spanish immersion school. 5 hours of lessons a day. We did it for 3 weeks. According to their schedule, two months = 1 year of college Spanish. Four months= 2 years. And according to them after 4 months you should have conversational (basic) fluency. You should be able to read a newspaper, make yourself understood, follow along pretty well to Spanish language movies etc. This is all roughly speaking. There are actually official levels -- I can't recall them off the top of my head.
My wife had a year of Spanish in college (albeit decades earlier) and she was placed at a higher starting point than me -- I was clueless. I had no Spanish-- I had studied German and Chinese decades earlier.
It fried my brains. I was behind on day one and was behind when we finished. I was the only American in my class. Others were from all-over and all had exposure to Spanish or at least some Romance languages. The other students were from France, Italy, Monaco, the Netherlands and so on.
My wife did much better than me. And we both had a great time even if I was the dullest of the crowd.
Next, I plan on picking up the piano. I understand it gets easier as you get older.
Good luck!
Posted by
Southeastern US
2608 posts
For learning a few basic phrases I think YouTube is good. If you want to take it further check if your library has free language learning subscriptions, such as Mango Languages.