Learning Spanish online

[rich p]

Having mastered many other languages, although, to be fair, English is a work in progress, I have decided to try and learn a bit of Spanish from home.
Given that I'm starting from virtually zero, I've done a few basic tests on the free Duolingo site but I'm not sure about the structure of their learning.
Has anyone used Duolingo or can recommend a better one?
I've used CD and book approaches for French and Italian. Some good, some appalling. I particularly disliked Michel Thomas' approach and would go so far as to say I'd have like to punchio his lampios out sometimes.

 

[User482]

I was going to recommend Michel Thomas! I put the course on an ipod before we went travelling in South America, and found it very helpful for picking up the basics.

 

[Globalti]

Yes it's an easy language to learn, especially if you did Latin at school.

 

[Markymark]

I found Spanish quite easy to learn. There is a fixed structure of pronunciation that you do't get with English. You can loom at any word and know exactly how it is pronounced.

 

[shouldbeinbed]

I think you mean 'loom at any worm' don't you?

I love the idea of looming at words or worms

 

[Tim Hall]

I love the idea of looming at words or worms

You could weave a narrative from them.

 

[Bollo]

You could weave a narrative from them.

Don't try to wriggle out of it.

 

[marinyork]

Lots of sites where you can exchange pen palls, chat pals, video exchange or even (rarer) face to face language exchange (living in Brighton one place with quite a few language schools I reckon you could make this work). These websites are dominated by Spanish and Mandarin (with a few other languages).

My advice would be is get a video pal to speak with you in return for English (just tell your wife first).

What did you not like about duolingo? Not lengthy enough (it is a bit weird what it teaches you). There is such a thing as a Duden pictorial Spanish book which is fascinating but out of print but available now, I saw it in the library and thought it impressive.

 

[marinyork]

P.S. Paul Noble is available in Spanish. Know what you mean about Michel Thomas, lol.

 

[Fnaar]

BBC stuff is very good. All pages are archived (no longer updated) but there is some good stuff on there, freely available.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/spanish/

 

[Fnaar]

I falta de hilo richp sobre extractores



........ O algo por el estilo

Had no idea you could speak Klingon!

 

[threebikesmcginty]

I've had tortilla de patatas for tea if that helps.

 

[John the Monkey]

I like Duolingo (although it's French and Dutch for me) but I do think that it needs supplementing with some more direct teaching of grammatical rules &c. I bought a couple of books for that.

If you're happier with a more experience based teaching method, you might find Duolingo OK on its own.

 

[Crackle]

Can't you just use the same online course provider as the Double Dutch one. You're really good at that.

 

[Markymark]

Having spent lots of time in Spain I recommend just saying it in English slowly and loudly and everyone can understand you. If not, just point to the picture on the menu of what you want and shake your head in despair.