Learning Spanish using books

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kulaputra
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Re: Learning Spanish using books

Postby kulaputra » Fri Jun 22, 2018 12:44 am

I feel the best way to achieve native or near native pronunciation is through large amounts of listening and I've yet to see anyone accomplish that otherwise.
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Iha śāriputra: rūpaṃ śūnyatā śūnyataiva rūpaṃ; rūpān na pṛthak śūnyatā śunyatāyā na pṛthag rūpaṃ; yad rūpaṃ sā śūnyatā; ya śūnyatā tad rūpaṃ.

--Heart Sutra

Please correct any of my non-native languages, if needed!

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Jaleel10
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Re: Learning Spanish using books

Postby Jaleel10 » Fri Jun 22, 2018 5:54 am

Sean Renard wrote:Ummm, but what if i do the following: use a vocabulary theme-based book, a grammar book and listen to podcasts? That'd be kinda sufficient, wouldn't it?


Just do I what I did/am doing

- Start with Assimil. It contains lively dialogue and audio, grammar explanations and exercises (This will be your main resource)
- Do one episode each day from Spanishpod 101. Podcast presented by native speakers with audio and cultural insights as well grammar explanations
- Do an episode or two each of Language Transfer
- Get yourself an app to learn vocabulary. Memrise or Clozemaster. For grammar + vocab. Babbel, Duolingo and Lingodeer.

As you go along you will start getting a sense in which areas you are lacking and which you are strong in, etc. You will begin to supplement where necessary. Don't stress it too much, just enjoy !
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kulaputra
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Re: Learning Spanish using books

Postby kulaputra » Fri Jun 22, 2018 5:58 am

Assimil Spanish is a good course but see if you can get your hands on one of the older editions of the course; the newer ones aren't as great (but still pretty good).

I understand why people may dissent to the following, but my personal advice is: listen to "for native, by native" material from day 1. Listen Spanish radio, music, etc. as much as you can. It doesn't matter if you understand or not right. You will.
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Iha śāriputra: rūpaṃ śūnyatā śūnyataiva rūpaṃ; rūpān na pṛthak śūnyatā śunyatāyā na pṛthag rūpaṃ; yad rūpaṃ sā śūnyatā; ya śūnyatā tad rūpaṃ.

--Heart Sutra

Please correct any of my non-native languages, if needed!

Cavesa
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Re: Learning Spanish using books

Postby Cavesa » Fri Jun 22, 2018 8:34 pm

kulaputra wrote:I feel the best way to achieve native or near native pronunciation is through large amounts of listening and I've yet to see anyone accomplish that otherwise.


I don't disagree but this has nothing to do with the point of this thread, which is beginning to learn Spanish. By definition, the beginner can't have digested hundreds of hours of listening. And they cannot sound native like (I think using this term so much is actually a big problem in the online language learning communities, especially when advising beginners or judging learners), at least not immediately. Few people get to that point even with tons of listening and even at the C2 level and even living in the country for decades, it is not such a big deal. But you can certainly get as close as possible (given your talents) and improve your chances with tons of listening, I agree. But why throw that on a beginner and in a mostly unrelated thread?

What a beginner needs to do is get the basics right. The rest will develop in time. For that purpose, most beginners shouldn't skip the pronunciation drills at the beginning of a good course. Or a book with CD like that Fonetica.

Jaleel10 wrote:Just do I what I did/am doing

- Start with Assimil. It contains lively dialogue and audio, grammar explanations and exercises (This will be your main resource)
- Do one episode each day from Spanishpod 101. Podcast presented by native speakers with audio and cultural insights as well grammar explanations
- Do an episode or two each of Language Transfer
- Get yourself an app to learn vocabulary. Memrise or Clozemaster. For grammar + vocab. Babbel, Duolingo and Lingodeer.

As you go along you will start getting a sense in which areas you are lacking and which you are strong in, etc. You will begin to supplement where necessary. Don't stress it too much, just enjoy !


I agree with the Assimil recommendation. Even though I would say Assimil is the best in combination with the books OP has mentioned in the first post or similar.

Spanishpod101 and LanguageTransfer.

Memrise or Clozemaster are good options. I would add Kwiziq on the list (grammar).

Babbel is, in my opinion, crap. The Spanish course on Duolingo is not good (unlike some other ones). Lingodeer is in general better, even though I haven't tried Spanish, but I think these apps (Babbel, Duolingo, Lingodeer) can easily turn into more of a distraction than a tool moving your forward. So, I'd be careful. I think they are best advised to people still considering whether to start learning at all, not to someone who is further than that and already choosing some serious resources.
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iguanamon
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Re: Learning Spanish using books

Postby iguanamon » Fri Jun 22, 2018 8:46 pm

The OP is a native-speaker of Romanian. There is a large Romanian community in Spain and plenty of resources available for native-speakers of Romanian to learn Spanish. I remember seeing several courses with a Romanian base. As a speaker of a Romance language, I think the OP would probably benefit more from resources intended for Romanians than English based resources.
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kulaputra
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Re: Learning Spanish using books

Postby kulaputra » Sat Jun 23, 2018 2:09 am

Cavesa wrote:I don't disagree but this has nothing to do with the point of this thread, which is beginning to learn Spanish. By definition, the beginner can't have digested hundreds of hours of listening.


Precisely. That's why they need to start listening to hundreds of hours of L2 audio ASAP. You can't digest what you don't eat.

Cavesa wrote:And they cannot sound native like (I think using this term so much is actually a big problem in the online language learning communities, especially when advising beginners or judging learners), at least not immediately.


Correct. But they can sound native or near native if they do listen to very large amounts of audio. Thus, they should start doing that now.

Cavesa wrote:Few people get to that point even with tons of listening and even at the C2 level and even living in the country for decades, it is not such a big deal. But you can certainly get as close as possible (given your talents) and improve your chances with tons of listening, I agree. But why throw that on a beginner and in a mostly unrelated thread?


Because it's good day 1 advice. Unrelated how, exactly? OP wants to learn Spanish. I have given him a technique that will improve his Spanish, that is applicable to every stage of the learning process from "Hola" to C2.

Cavesa wrote:What a beginner needs to do is get the basics right.


A plant you don't water won't grow. I'm not telling him to listen to 10,000 hours of Spanish overnight. I'm just telling him to start now, rather then committing the mistake I did, which was waiting until I got "better."
0 x
Iha śāriputra: rūpaṃ śūnyatā śūnyataiva rūpaṃ; rūpān na pṛthak śūnyatā śunyatāyā na pṛthag rūpaṃ; yad rūpaṃ sā śūnyatā; ya śūnyatā tad rūpaṃ.

--Heart Sutra

Please correct any of my non-native languages, if needed!


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