The author, Claire Handscome, has taught Spanish and French as a tutor, so she provides a different point of view than I do. She’s British and writing for a British audience so there are some references to O levels and other aspects of the British education system that I just ignored. I did enjoy her dry British humor!

The book’s strengths are in motivation, in mentioning a variety of websites, and in giving a more favorable view of classes than I do!

Conquering Babel: An Enjoyable Short Read is a post from: Learn Spanish Rapidly: The Blog.

A Mexican friend of mine told me that she thinks getting estar and ser right is the hardest thing for non-native speakers learning Spanish. She gave as an example an Italian friend of hers who spoke perfect Spanish EXCEPT for mistakes confusing these two verbs.  (Italian is extremely close to Spanish… I can get the drift of Italian movies just from my Spanish.)

I’ve written once before about this: To Be or To Be? In Spanish, That’s the Question is a review of a very useful little book on the subject. Now, I’m going to provide you with some solid information from around the web. (This is going to be a format I’ll use more here. I will always provide links to what I quote…)

Ser and Estar Online

I sifted through a lot of pages to find a good one. One of the clearest explanations is at Spanishdict.com, a site I have blogged about before. On this subject, I liked their memory aid for ser:  DOCTOR stands for Description, Occupation, Characteristic, Time, Origin, and Relationship. Read the article for more.

Clipped from: www.spanishdict.com (share this clip)

A Video about These Two Verbs

Professor Jason has a lot of good videos for learning Spanish on YouTube. I blogged about him a couple of years ago. Here is his lesson on ser and estar:

I discovered that there are a lot of videos made by high school students on ser and estar but none that held my interest enough to share with you.

Estar and Ser: How to Use These Two Versions of To Be is a post from: Learn Spanish Rapidly: The Blog.

When the site loads, you’ll hear the voice of Dave Clark, who taught college-level Spanish. That led to his developing this program, as he explains in the brief video. Just underneath it is a red box offering free Spanish lessons. So of course I clicked on it.A new window opened, with the lesson you see part of below. (I made the image smaller to fit in my blog.)

The red outline draws your attention to the section being taught at the moment. This screenshot only shows part of the screen. A native English speaker says words in English, and then a native Spanish speaker says the words that mean the same thing in Spanish. There is plenty of time for you to repeat the Spanish. Here, the sentence being demonstrated is “I need to go to the park.”

One thing I liked right away was that if I knew what was being said, my eyes could roam over the whole page and I might spot something new to learn. This gave the program a nice flexibility.

As they tell you on the screen, this kind of lesson is called a Listen & Repeat. Roughly 1/5 of the over 500 lessons are this sort. As it tells you, these lessons teach you vocabulary and how to build hundreds of combinations of sentences in 13 major topics.

I went to the next activity, called a virtual instructor, and it was followed by a memory machine. Next came a software tour, and then a video on how it works. This explains that the visual images are linked in your brain to the Spanish words you learn. They have found that words linked to moving images are particularly well retained.

I was fascinated when the video explained the three different learning styles that we humans have, and that each of us has a primary and a secondary style. I had learned this in grad school, and was pleased to see it applied here.

Looks like a good program! There are 11 free lessons. Find out more by clicking on the image:

Visual Link Spanish: My First Impressions is a post from: Learn Spanish Rapidly: The Blog.

The Verbarrator, for Windows and Mac, is the brainchild of Patrick Jackson, an American who lives in Colombia and devotes himself to helping other English-speakers learn to speak Spanish. He has another program, Learning Spanish LIke Crazy, which I have blogged about before and will review later.

Click on that link to go to his website, where you can download a free demo copy and try it for yourself!

Here  is a screenshot I took of the demo version. It doesn’t take long to get the hang of using this program! As you can see, you can choose various kinds of verbs, or specific verbs from the list on the left, and have them in a queue for you to use. I like it that one of the choices on the left is “My custom list.”

On the right, you can choose which verb tenses you want to practice with. I had checked a few right before I took the screeenshot.

In the middle, you have the verb player and I will put a couple of screenshots further down the page.

Very cool, I think. Learning verbs is so crucial to speaking Spanish well, and this device can help you master verbs waaay more easily than textbooks!

So here are some shots of the VERB Player in the middle of the Verbarrator. When I took them, the phrases given were being pronounced:

So it tells you which verb tense you are practicing and you can see which person. It goes through them all. Here is the same verb tense for “you:”

And here is one for another verb tense:

To find out more,

Click Here to go to the Verbarrator website and see what you think!

The Verbarrator is a post from: Learn Spanish Rapidly: The Blog.

If you were around the blog a few years ago, you may recognize some of these portraits, as I had a portrait gallery expressing much the same idea, that speaking Spanish with native speakers can be both fun and very satisfying, no matter what your skill level.

I often found that if I bogged down on not knowing a particular word in Spanish, I could try the word in English and often the Mexicans would know it… either because the words were similar in the two languages or because they knew some English.

Making this video brings back so many vivid memories! The old man who let us camp our RV at the ferry crossing he ran, the taxi driver who guided us across Xalapa, the artist who loved dogs, the warmth and friendliness we encountered everywhere. Makes me homesick for Mexico, now that I am back in the US!

16 Reasons We Learned to Speak More Spanish is a post from: Learn Spanish Rapidly: The Blog.

Your Spanish Learning in 2011 – Our Best Advice!

Just click on the title to go to Notes in Spanish.

Just Saw This On Another Blog is a post from: Learn Spanish Rapidly: The Blog.

• I’ve heard that he had a terrible accent.
• I’ve heard that some people absolutely swear by his programs. Some friends of mine do.
• He  taught a lot of celebrities.

Contradictory, yes. So I did a little websurfing and found that his method involves no memorization and no homework. Sounds great, but being aware as I am of the value of review for moving things we have just learned from our short term memory to our long term, I was dubious.

His company’s website says in essence that his method gives you building blocks to build up sentences. Well, duh, most programs do. Fluenz Spanish and Rocket Spanish, my two favorite programs, do that. But clearly he has developed a method that helps you create the language structures you need.

Next I read about his method at Wikipedia.

So off I went to do more research at Amazon. I like reading users’ reviews. Of course, they are contradictory but there are always clues.

There are indeed a lot of clues. Evidently Mr. Thomas was a brilliant teacher. His emphasis on having the students relax (by not feeling the burden to perform and memorize) probably has a lot to do with the popularity of the method. We do learn more effectively in a more stress-free environment, and this may be why many people like his programs so much.

Want to read more yourself? Here is a link:

Michel Thomas Spanish Courses at Amazon

Michel Thomas Teaches Spanish is a post from: Learn Spanish Rapidly: The Blog.

The Absolute Fastest Way to Speak Spanish

By NP Dowling

What is the fastest way to speak Spanish proficiently? If you ask ten different people, you may get seven or eight different answers. I want to share with you my answer, which to me is only common sense. The fastest way to speak Spanish is to get speaking Spanish as fast as possible! Learning fluent Spanish from a book or a class is simply impossible.

By this I mean that your course of action should be to get speaking Spanish, not get stuck with your head in text books, or vocabulary or verb exercises. Learn conversational Spanish as fast as you can. And you can do this in eight weeks or less, with about an hour of practice a day.

So what is the fastest way to speak Spanish at a basic conversational level? I’m assuming you don’t live in an area where Spanish is spoken as the native tongue. If you don’t, then I would suggest that you learn to speak Spanish online. Why online? Because you can practice and use the tools at your own pace. Any you have the option of practicing daily. Daily practice is important, to reinforce what you learn as you go along, and maximize retention.

The most important component of the Spanish language program you choose is the simulated immersion component. That is the piece that attempts to simulate real conversations and real situations. Every program tries to do this, but some do it better than others.

The verbs and vocabulary are important also, but there is less differentiation between the various programs for these aspects. In other words, they all do a reasonably good job. Evaluate the simulated immersion aspect carefully – it could mean the difference between learning conversational Spanish or simply learning a few words and verbs. After all, your goal is to speak the language, not to grasp the technicalities of conjugation.

Find out about the best Learn Conversational Spanish programs, with side by side comparisons, to help get you on the right path to learn Spanish fast.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=NP_Dowling
http://EzineArticles.com/?The-Absolute-Fastest-Way-to-Speak-Spanish&id=3533852

The Absolute Fastest Way to Speak Spanish is a post from: Learn Spanish Rapidly: The Blog.

How to Find the Time to Learn a New Foreign Language

By Martina Srblin

With the frenetic rhythm of nowadays, it often seems impossible to fit a(nother) foreign language into your busy schedule. But when you think of the benefits this new knowledge entails, it also seems impossible not to try, right?

So, what can you do to bring in the magic and conjure up enough time to start learning a language? Here are seven of my favorite strategies…

Committing to 20-minute chunks

While allocating a whole hour of your day to a new language may be difficult, splitting it up into smaller chunks of 20 minutes is much easier. And since consistency will get you more results than sporadic learning for prolonged periods of time, you can easily settle for one 20-minute chunk a day. In the morning, before you go to sleep, during lunch break or your commute to work, when you can listen to audios if you’re not in the position to read.

Creating pocket-size memory cards

Write down the words, expressions or grammar patterns you’re having troubles with on small, pocket-size cards. Then flip them over and fill their back with the proper explanations. Skim through these memory prompts whenever you get the chance. While you’re queuing or waiting for your dentist appointment, you’ll be glad you have something to distract yourself with!

Replacing your reading materials

Another language learning booster is reading. If you can’t squeeze in the time to learn a (new) language no matter how hard you try, think about replacing your native-tongue-literature reading time with reading materials written in your language of choice. You’ll appease your reading desire and do yourself a major favor, since reading is no less than a vocabulary building wizard!

Thinking in the chosen language

An extremely effective method of improving your foreign language skills is thinking in this language as often as possible. It works best if you’re surrounded with natives, since it feels more natural, but in your mind, you can always pretend you’re a native, too. The beauty of this technique is that it increases your responsiveness in conversations and ignites your learning curiosity.

Attending a live language course

If you’re not disciplined enough to work on a language on your own, sign up for a live language course. The financial investment and the group support will swipe the excuses away in a heart-beat. In addition, you’ll be »forced« to do your homework, which will get your language learning ball rolling faster than ever!

Finding a hidden time treasure

If your everyday routine devours all of your time, you need an efficiency check-up. Which actions you take are making you waste more time than necessary? Maybe you could adjust your work schedule so as to avoid rush hours, or, if you’re working from home, limit your social media and email management to a couple of times a day. Instantly, you’ll have another hour on your hands, to say the least. Just imagine how many new words can you learn in an hour…

Increasing overall productivity

Fix the overwhelm by single-tasking; your productivity will skyrocket and you’ll get more done in less time. Again, an additional half-an-hour or more will magically appear in your day. Every day! How powerful is that? Use those 30 minutes for language learning, and in a year, you’ll have studied for more than 180 hours!

Martina Srblin is the Language Learning Magician who will help you discover the language learning system that best fits your needs, skills and schedule, so you can stop wasting time, money and energy on language learning methods that – for you personally – are inefficient. For free resources and to sign up for a FREE report on “7 Key Steps to Smart Language Learning” and a FREE subscription to the Language Learning Magic Ezine, please visit Martina’s website http://www.martinasrblin.com.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Martina_Srblin
http://EzineArticles.com/?How-to-Find-the-Time-to-Learn-a-New-Foreign-Language&id=3548070

How to Find the Time to Learn a New Foreign Language is a post from: Learn Spanish Rapidly: The Blog.

DVDs to Teach Spanish to Young Children is a post from: Learn Spanish Rapidly: The Blog.