Hi everyone,

I'm looking for some advice on improving my spoken Spanish. I know that the best thing would be to go and study in Spain, but that's not in the cards at the moment. I have lived and traveled in Spain in the past--so I guess I know enough to make myself understood, but not nearly enough to feel as confident as I'd like to. And I love Spain so I know I'll be going back for years to come, and I'd like to feel more comfortable with the language.

My problem is I have a smattering of Spanish--having taken courses off and on throughout high school and college. I just never followed through consistently enough to make it "stick".

I'm also older now (39) and am wondering:

a. Is it possible to teach this old dog some new tricks? Is greater comfort with the language still possible? Have others out there acquired Spanish at a later age?

b. What resources (online courses, casettes, CDs, etc) have folks found most useful? I should emphasize that I'm looking for resources that will teach castellano (as opposed to Latin American spanish).

I look forward to your advice...

Hi Liz49!

In the 19th century there was a writer called Joseph Conrad who became one of the most important authors in Victorian Britain; by the way, I love one of his books: "Heart of Dakness" (Apocalypse Now is based upon it).

He was originally from Eastern Eruope (I think he was born in Poland or Ukraine and he was raised there) and moved to England because he had started to sail in an English ship.
The thing is that he uttered his first word in English when he was 24 years old.
What I mean with this short story is that there's no limit for learning if that is what you really want.

Pieces of Advice:

- Be Patient + Be constant
- Try to learn something new everyday (word, idiom, expression, etc)
- Read online newspapers, books, magazines
- Watch some movies
- Listen to songs with their lyrics, you'll get used to the accent, rhythm, intonation and you'll learn vocabulary at the same time.
- Use Gloogle. Type in: Aprender español, castellano, etc.

Here are some interesting links:

Real Academia Española This is the link to the R.A.E. There you have a monolingual dictionary, a lingusitic corpus and information about verb tenses (grammatical scheme)

Instituto Cervantes This is the offcial site of the I.C. where youv'e got links and sections about it, spanish culture, etc.

Try in the universtities' web sites. They've got links to cultural e-magazines, etc too.

Good Luck!

Hi Liz49
Old dog and new tricks ... you are just a youngster! Take heart from me - I am 51 and started learning Spanish in October 2003. I started by doing a bit on my own and then went to an evening class locally. I would recommend a class so that you get practice with the skills of reading, writing, listening and speaking.
Amleth has given you some great advice to support you working on your own between classes.
There are also some great internet sites fro practising vocabulary and grammer. You might like to try the languages site at the BBC here in the UK. The website can be accessed here.

I would advise you to go ahead and do it! - if I can then anyone can.
Good luck and best wishes
Robbieroy

I have to be one of the oldest people using this message board. You're never too old to learn. These are some of the things I try to do:1--Find a good class or private instructor. 2---Find Spanish speakers who are studying English and do an "intercambio" from time to time. 3---Keep a Spanish language radio station turned on all the time at home. 4--Become familiar with Spanish-language popular music, learn the lyrics of the songs (which are free on the internet) & attend live concerts of popular contemporary Spanish language artists such as Juanes or Cristian Castro (among many others). By all means if and when you can ever get to Spain to attend classes there, by all means do it.