Can you teach yourself Spanish? I think so. Of course, you can’t teach yourself anything you don’t know without some form of help. But what I mean here is that you can learn a lot of Spanish on your own, without formal classes, by using Spanish language software, sound files, websites, etc. You do have to motivated enough, and persistent enough, to keep going on your own.
Is teaching yourself the best way to learn Spanish? Well, opinions are going to differ on that one, and I would have to say that it depends on various factors in your situation.
- If you just want to pick up some basic phrases before a vacation trip in Mexico, Spain, or some other Spanish-speaking country, and if you don’t have much time, I would say yes.
- If you already know some Spanish but haven’t used it for a while and want to brush it up, again, yes. There are plenty of good resources for this online and elsewhere.
- If you know no Spanish whatsoever and want to become fully fluent in the language, well, then I think your best bet is really to go to a Spanish-speaking country and take an immersion course. However, if you don’t have the time, money, or inclination for such an adventure, then you could get a start by teaching yourself Spanish.
If this is what you are going to do, here are some choices for how to do it: [1] Use a commercial software program; [2] use CDs or mp3 files; [3] Use internet programs; [4] Use books. Taking these in reverse order, books are a terrible idea, and hey this is a librarian saying so! The reason is that you would never have decent pronunciation.
CDs, mp3 files, and internet programs will be much better in offering you plenty of practice in listening to words and phrases and repeating them yourself.
Best of all, in my opinion, would be to use software that has good voice-recognition features built into it, as this can give you the best feedback on your pronunciation of any of these ways to teach yourself Spanish. And be sure to use your Spanish with real people as soon as you can.
