USF_Fan's Spanish journey: Bringing Spanish back

[USF_Fan]

Hello everyone!


I am 25 years old and have been monolingual all of my life living here in the United States. That was not the case for my Grandfather when he grew up. My grandfather was a 1st generation Mexican American who grew up bilingual speaking fluent English and Spanish. He saw first hand the harsh realities of the 1930's-1960's when the social and political culture of America was another world compared to what it is today. He grew up in a society where individuals had to be forced to the back of grocery store lines for their skin colors and had different bathrooms for blacks and whites. He served in World War II and witnessed a near possibility of a nuclear war in the 1960's. During those times of segregation and harsh political events, he came to realize that speaking anything other than fluent english was a hinderance rather than a positive attribute. My father was born in 1961, where again, the political and social times were tense. My Grandfather refused to teach any of his children Spanish. My father never learned Spanish from brith, and consequently, neither did I. In December of 2012 when my Grandfather passed away, so did the Spanish language in my family.

I had never bothered to learn the Spanish language, and quite frankly, never had the desire to learn it. It really did not hit me until just a few months ago how significant this can be to learn Spanish. Some want to learn Spanish to pass their required high school or college Spanish classes. Some individuals want to learn it to survive on their next vacation Trip to Cancun. For me, this is personal.


I want to bring Spanish back to my family again. That is, no less than a B2 level in Spanish by the time I am 30 years old. I want to speak Spanish around my household when I am married and raise my children bilingual from birth and pass down the Spanish language to the next generation through my children. In order to speak Spanish daily around the house, it will be necessary to get to a basic fluency B2 level, and I am determined to make it happen by the time when me and my girlfriend likely have our first child when I am around 30 or so.

My Spanish journey begins next week with my first italki lesson with a tutor who has been teaching for over 30 years and had her own language learning school, who I plan to work with at least 1-2 times a week. I have researched and read many different methods for learning a language from Assimil to Linguaphone and FSI to Pimsleur. At the end of the day, I think some of the best advice I have seen is from Iguanamon. Iguanamon, from the posts that I have read from him, only used 1 or 2 courses for a period of months rather than going course heavy and for a period of years like other users on this forum have done. I really like and appreciate Iguanamon's multi track approach. While working and practicing with my tutor, I am also going to supplement with the Berlitz self teacher book to get a good birds eye view of the language at it's most basic, The FSI programmatic course thereafter to get some automaticity, and the FSI basic course for more automaticity, and then since I also have Assimil I will use that to fill in any gaps I may have missed at the A2 level. All while taking about 10-15 minutes a day either listening or reading native material to see the language in the real world rather than in the "language course world". I hope to reach B2 within 3-5 years, and then continue my journey and learn even more for the rest of my life.


Just a few more days and my journey to bring back Spanish will begin! I will post from time to time to share my progress, and hopefully one day be able to help the next individual who wants to learn a language similar to how several members here have helped me jump start my journey into learning Spanish.


Thank you for reading, and let the journey begin!

[eido]

Sounds like an excellent reason to learn a language. I'll be following closely.

[Brun Ugle]

It’s great that you want to bring your family’s language back. Several people here have done that and several have learned a language in part to raise their children in that language. So, it is definitely possible to do.

Your study plan sounds great. I myself used FSI as my main source of learning material. I started with Programmatic. It’s very slow in the beginning, but don’t let that frustrate you. The pronunciation lessons are gold. My pronunciation and grammar are both pretty good thanks to FSI. After Programmatic, I did the Basic course. It’s also excellent.

I also recommend the Gramática de uso del español workbook series. It’s 100% in Spanish, so you might want to wait until you’ve finished the first half of the Programmatic course, but it is very helpful as review and to solidify your understanding of the grammar.

You might also want to look for “Destinos”. It’s a telenovela for learners. It actually is meant as a course and there are books and things available, but I just used the videos and maybe some of the exercises available on the website. It’s almost entirely in Spanish and makes a nice slow introduction to native materials. There is also a show called Extr@ that can be found in Spanish on YouTube. It’s meant for about A2 level, but it only has 13 short episodes. Still, it’s a nice easy introduction to watching real TV shows.

[Fenderman]

Hello and welcome to the forum.

I agree with Brun Ugle in trying Destinos. I'm learning Spanish as well (currently around A2) and use it as my main course though I also use the textbook and workbooks to go along with the videos. If you're interested in using those you can find them used on eBay fairly inexpensively.

Also, if you wanted to add grammar books to your studying the "Practice Makes Perfect" series is very good.

Good luck!

[USF_Fan]

Finished the first 5 lessons in the FSI Programmatic course as well as the Berlitz self teacher. I really like and am enjoying both. I really love the vintage and older materials. There is something about language courses, and books in general, from the 1930's-1950's that I think is really special. Has anyone read the book "How to win friends and influence people" by Dale Carnegie? I think it is arguably the best book ever written, and it was written in the "vintage" age of 1930. Similar to the Berlitz self teacher that was written in the 40's there is something really appealing about the vintage course.

I think upon completion of the two sets of materials I would likely have some A1 knowledge. I read on a post that the programmatic course has A1+ material. Not sure how much material is in the Berlitz self teacher books with strictly vocab and grammar use. Regardless, courses in general are more for going up to the A2+ level. I am currently saving some money to be able to afford the weekly Italki lessons. I plan to begin the lessons and get some native speaking practice starting in July. Once I finish the berlitz self teacher and the programmatic course I will do the FSI basic and possibly assimil at the same time while doing my Italki lessons.

Admittedly, I should probably do a bit more with the multi track approach in that I should put some time aside to get more native materials in. I am mostly concerned with listening at the moment, so perhaps ESPN Deportes or the other Spanish channels and just watch for 10-15 minutes. Reading is significantly easier than listening, so I want to get more used to the sounds and speed of the language.

Overall, so far it has been decent. Hope to update you guys on some more progress later. Until then, ¡Hasta luego!

[Brun Ugle]

I would say that both FSI courses go up to about B2 in terms of grammar, but you probably wouldn’t actually reach B2 using only FSI. For one thing, it is rather lacking in grammar. This is intentional as it allows you to concentrate on drilling the grammar without having to use up to much brainpower on searching for the right words. Secondly, they are meant to be used in a classroom where you’d have additional materials plus speaking and writing practice.

If you add in some listening, reading and maybe a few language exchanges, you should be fine.

[USF_Fan]

I would say that both FSI courses go up to about B2 in terms of grammar, but you probably wouldn’t actually reach B2 using only FSI. For one thing, it is rather lacking in grammar. This is intentional as it allows you to concentrate on drilling the grammar without having to use up to much brainpower on searching for the right words. Secondly, they are meant to be used in a classroom where you’d have additional materials plus speaking and writing practice.

If you add in some listening, reading and maybe a few language exchanges, you should be fine.

That's good to hear! I wasn't sure how high the grammar went up to, but if it is B2 grammar than FSI is something that those at even higher levels can always come back to for a refresher or brush up if need be and get some B2 work in for grammar. I would like to give DLI a try later down the road, but I have heard that the audio is completely disorganized for the Spanish course.

[USF_Fan]

I have hit absolute gold this week in language learning. My grandma has decided to sell her house and move in with one of her daughters, and she is giving away most of the furnitures, beds, cd's and records, books, etc. In the basement is a book shelf with books that my grandpa had. Books from the early 1900's and even late 1800's were there. I was absolutely amazed to find that he had possession of two vintage language learning courses: The Cortina Method and El Hombre De Negro.


This is an original copy of the cortina Spanish method. Below are some images.

Cortina re-edit.JPG

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The pages are like brand new and the book is in absolute excellent condition.




The other course, or more of a Spanish reader, that many may not be familiar with is called El Hombre De Negro. Take a look below.

El Hombre Negro medium edited.JPG

El Hombre Negro 2 edited.JPG

This book, similar to the cortina method, is like brand new and in excellent condition. The publication for El Hombre De Negro is 1949, which is considered to be in the golden age of language learning materials, and educational materials in general for that mater.


This truly brought a huge smile and amazement to my face when I saw these books. I am now the new proud owner of these books and will be using them both now in my language learning journey.

[Brun Ugle]

The pictures don’t seem to have shown up. Try using the ‘attachment’ tab and the ‘add files’ button below the message box. If the pictures are too big, you can resize them.

It’s really cool that you found those old courses. I like old materials too.

[USF_Fan]

Thank you, Brun, for letting me know. Here are some more images from El Hombre Negro

El Hombre Negro 3 edited.JPG

El Hombre Negro 4 edited.JPG

El Hombre Negro 5 edited.JPG