What is the best way to learn a new language?
That was a question that I had at the start of my quest to learn Spanish. Some people refer to this language as “Mexican Spanish” or “South American Spanish”, but it is all Latin American Spanish!
You can try a traditional method such as classes at your local college where you really are at the mercy of the quality of your instructor, maybe some old CD or DVD based lessons accompanied by a text book. These may work for you but you will need additional help. This site will help you with other systems as well as offering tips and tricks.
The modern way for many people is to look for an App, or something close to it, and yes, there is an app for that! DuoLingo, Babbel are among the most popular and a good deal of the content is free. There is now also a lot of other Apps that I have never heard of and am slowly trying out. Many of these are simply clones of other courses out there which are still OK, and many are just garbage.
What I Used To Learn To Speak Spanish
In my particular case my quest ended, as it had for millions of other people, with Pimsleur Latin American Spanish Courses.
At the time, there were not many methods that offered the flexibility that Pimsleur does, but now, as you will see, there are several top quality courses available. Fluenz, Quino, Rocket Spanish, DuoLingo, Babbel, Rosetta Stone are among the top names; each have their good points, some are more expensive than others, and some are free. Also, each of these will have users of their systems that have their own success stories
A New World Opens Up For You With A New Language
Just imagine if you could not speak English, assuming you live in an English speaking country. Life would definitely be more difficult and very frustrating as you would not have much control over your own life, and would undoubtedly be relying on other people to translate, communicate, etc.
As I say, just imagine if you moved to a foreign country, especially away from resorts areas. Your toilet is leaking, your car won’t start, you or a loved one have a medical emergency, you need some special supplies for your child at school. If you think that if you moved to say, the suburbs of Barcelona, Havana, Santo Domingo, Buenos Aires, Mexico City, that you can easily find an English speaker to help you out, think again.
The methods that we will discuss on this site will enable you to avoid such problems, will open up a whole new world for you and, depending on how far you want to go, fluency in Spanish can be achieved in a remarkably short period of time. I know because I did it, and I did it with The Pimsleur Method. You can too, but there are courses to suit everyone’s budget, style and pace of learning.
Smartphone, Tablet, MP3 player, CD player, App, Computer Compatible.
Portability and flexibilty are key for many people nowadays and that is one reason that Pimsleur became so popular several years ago before the age of smartphones. It is now also available in several formats so you can study while commuting to work, at the gym, on your lunch break, or while cleaning the house. No need to sit at your computer after work if you don’t want to. Fit it into your lifestyle. Take it anywhere!
Later, I will also be adding a few tips I have learnt about studying the language that you may find helpful, along with some details of my experiences in Latin America, both personal and in my business dealings, that may be of interest to many of you.
Now, get started with a free lesson:
One thing I have found us English to be is pretty ignorant in the fact that we do not know another language despite the fact we are taught from a young age. I did experience this myself quite a few years back first hand.
Theres one thing I have always wanted to do and that is to learn another language all be it I do not have a lot of time.
I do find the method called Pimsleur interesting and I look forward to seeing what more updates you have to share with us 🙂
Thank you Andy for your comment. Yes, there is often an assumption that everyone should learn our language but today it is increasingly important that for our own benefit, we learn another language.
Thanks again for your comment. I will be posting updates right away.
I’m glad I found this post, my best friend is getting married this year and wants to go to Puerto Rico for his bachelor party so I have been wanting to learn Spanish.
I need to get started soon I figured six months would be enough time to at least have a general conversation. In your opinion, if I practiced a little each day, would this be possible with the Pimsleur program?
Thanks for your question Jeremy. Yes, six months is lots of time. I managed to learn enough to hold a general conversation within 3-4 months. Ask the other person to speak a little slowly (I assure you they won’t mind), and you will do just fine. It made the world of difference for me, and I assure you that you will gain a whole new perspective of life over there.
Enjoy Puerto Rico!
Yeah Pimsleur is a really great program. I used them once before as a beginner and it did a really great job of teaching you how to have conversations right away.
I think that learning Spanish is becoming more and more important for Americans like myself. Every year that I get older I see more and more signs in both English and Spanish. And If I remember correctly, Spanish is now the second most spoken language in the world, right after Chinese.
Do you happen to know how many people speak Spanish worldwide?
Hi Nick:
Thanks for your comment. Yes, Spanish is becoming more prevalent, especially in North America – that’s why i try and highlight how important it is,and will be, for us to learn the language – Latin America will be a huge market for us here.
As far as number of Spanish speakers, it has about 430 million native speakers which puts it second to Chinese, with another 90 million who speak it as a second language. English has some 340 million native speakers but over 600 million who speak it as their second language.
Glad that Pimsleur helped you out as well.