Recommendations for Self-study Intensive Spanish Course

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MC2194
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Recommendations for Self-study Intensive Spanish Course

Postby MC2194 » Wed May 17, 2017 12:39 pm

I will be travelling to Spain quite soon and I would like to become as fluent in Spanish before that as possible in order be able to talk and read as much as possible in Spanish while I'm there and have a foundation for further studying.
I have 6-7 weeks until I go to Spain. I can spend 2 hours on workdays and 5 hours each on Saturday and Sunday, which totals up to 20 hours a week, or 120-140 hours in total, not including listening to music in Spanish which I can do at work for additional 6-8 hours each weekday. I have learnt a bit using Duolingo and Pimsleur, i.e. I know basic grammar, basic phrases and have a very limited vocabulary.
Language courses are not an option due to tight finances. I have access to some Spanish textbook, Rosetta Stone (all levels, Spanish and South American version), Pimsleur audio, and could probably get most of paid software.
The problem is I feel a bit overwhelmed with the vast options on how to approach this. I would appreciate any and all recommendations you can give me on setting up a routine, how much time should I spend on what, using certain sources, etc. The more practical advices, the better.
Thanks in advance!
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Re: Recommendations for Self-study Intensive Spanish Course

Postby Tomás » Wed May 17, 2017 3:00 pm

MC2194 wrote:I will be travelling to Spain quite soon and I would like to become as fluent in Spanish before that as possible in order be able to talk and read as much as possible in Spanish while I'm there and have a foundation for further studying.
I have 6-7 weeks until I go to Spain. I can spend 2 hours on workdays and 5 hours each on Saturday and Sunday, which totals up to 20 hours a week, or 120-140 hours in total, not including listening to music in Spanish which I can do at work for additional 6-8 hours each weekday. I have learnt a bit using Duolingo and Pimsleur, i.e. I know basic grammar, basic phrases and have a very limited vocabulary.
Language courses are not an option due to tight finances. I have access to some Spanish textbook, Rosetta Stone (all levels, Spanish and South American version), Pimsleur audio, and could probably get most of paid software.
The problem is I feel a bit overwhelmed with the vast options on how to approach this. I would appreciate any and all recommendations you can give me on setting up a routine, how much time should I spend on what, using certain sources, etc. The more practical advices, the better.
Thanks in advance!


I would suggest finishing Pimsleur to become a competent tourist, and simultaneously doing both Assimil and FSI Basic. At two hours a day, you could do a lesson or two each day in all three courses.
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Re: Recommendations for Self-study Intensive Spanish Course

Postby -JM- » Wed May 17, 2017 3:20 pm

You should use Michel Thomas, it is the fastest method to get you speaking.
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Re: Recommendations for Self-study Intensive Spanish Course

Postby Chung » Wed May 17, 2017 3:48 pm

Oxford Take off in Spanish (paperback with 5 CDs). I'm not sure if I call it intensive, but it's rather like a beefed-up version of Teach Yourself Spanish or Colloquial Spanish. You get good grounding in the basics and a fair number of chances to practice (especially in listening comprehension but also some speaking practice in as much as speaking is construed as responding to cues given by the announcer on the CDs :mrgreen:).

Anyway I highly recommend the series if you want to get your feet wet. I've used the Russian volume and am using the Latin American Spanish one now to get some basic knowledge before travelling to Latin America.
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Re: Recommendations for Self-study Intensive Spanish Course

Postby James29 » Thu May 18, 2017 12:50 am

Get as far as you can get with one lesson of Pimsleur a day and use the rest of the time to do other things like maybe Assimil.
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Re: Recommendations for Self-study Intensive Spanish Course

Postby JonRocket » Thu May 18, 2017 5:47 pm

Hi MC2194,

I second the suggestions about the Pimsleur and Michael Thomas methods.

If you are looking for structure, I would suggest checking out http://www.studyspanish.com. It has been awhile since I have used it, but their program is relatively structured, focused on grammar and a lot of the material offered is free (at least it was hen I was using them).

Other than that, I also always enjoyed the Notes in Spanish podcasts - though it is probably not as structured or intensive as you want.
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Re: Recommendations for Self-study Intensive Spanish Course

Postby Tomás » Thu May 18, 2017 7:35 pm

Language Transfer is basically the same course as Michel Thomas, but free on Youtube.
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Re: Recommendations for Self-study Intensive Spanish Course

Postby PeterMollenburg » Fri May 19, 2017 4:00 am

I agree with James29.

Pimsleur + other things...

But i'll add my own thoughts on what those other things could be-

Pimsleur and Michel Thomas and for a course, although I'd normally recommend Assimil, you won't get far enough in that short amount of time. I'd recommend Hugo Spanish in 3 Months. No, you don't have three months, but if you work hard you can nearly make your way through the whole thing in 6 or 7 weeks. Good luck!
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Re: Recommendations for Self-study Intensive Spanish Course

Postby arthaey » Fri May 19, 2017 6:29 am

LeCon wrote:You won't be able to have conversations because it's not enough time to get listening comprehension up to speed, but you can certainly learn a whole load of stuff to say in order to get your point across.

If i was on a tight schedule such as yours i'd go the 'find as many example sentences for certain situations as i can' route and practice using them like your life depends on it.

I just got back from a trip to Hungary after spending the month prior to it cramming Hungarian from scratch. What LeCon suggests is pretty much what I did, and would do again if the situation came up.

So learn "where is X?", "how much is that?", "do you take credit cards?", "where is the ATM?", etc.

Polite phrases will go far to making native speakers act friendly and helpful. Please, thank you, you're welcome, good morning/afternoon/evening, have a good day, you too, just a minute, excuse me (to get someone's attention), excuse me (to apologize — different from the other "excuse me" in Spanish!).

Learn all these basic phrases down pat, until your mouth completes the phrase without your brain really thinking about it. They need to be automatic if you're going to be able to say or recognize them when you're actually in county and everything is different and confusing and maybe stressful. ;)

Another unusual thing I did, which I'm glad I did, was make image-flashcards with local food items & their names. Both dishes that sounded good, so I could ask for them, and dishes that sounded yucky to me, so I could avoid them.

Finally, the one listening comprehension piece that I'd say is worth the (considerable) time for such a trip is drilling numbers and directions. Spoken numbers come up surprisingly often as a tourist (prices, addresses, phone numbers…) and I was glad I could understand them without having to write them down. As for direction words, it's good to be able to understand the answers to all the ¿dónde está X? questions you'll be asking. ;)
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Re: Recommendations for Self-study Intensive Spanish Course

Postby shapd » Thu Jun 01, 2017 10:07 am

The linguist Paul Nation has on his website at http://www.victoria.ac.nz/lals/about/st ... panish.pdf (for Spanish) a substantial number of "survival vocabulary" lists which give the basic words and phrases he has picked out as most important for basic functioning in a country.
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