| The reasons for learning to speak Spanish are | | | | around $100. Listen to how native speakers make |
| many and compelling; 17 million Hispanics in the U.S. | | | | the sounds, how they speak. Then imitate them, |
| who don't speak English or don't speak it well, | | | | say it the way they say it. Don't worry about |
| Spanish is the language with the most native | | | | making mistakes. You didn't get English right the |
| speakers of any language spoken in the | | | | first time you tried it either. But you tried and got |
| Americas, the list goes on... | | | | better... Do the same with Spanish. |
| But if you want to learn Spanish and aren't sure | | | | Again, don't translate! That will make your speech |
| of where to start, learn how to speak | | | | halting and tortuous, marking you as a "gringo |
| conversational Spanish first. The conversational | | | | foreigner" by your sentence structures. Get the |
| approach is the natural way. You could carry on a | | | | new Spanish word directly associated with the |
| conversation, understand and make yourself | | | | thought, the idea that it expresses. See the |
| understood, long before you could read or write, | | | | thought, feel the thought as you speak the |
| remember? | | | | words. Learn to think in Spanish as you speak |
| Do not worry about the form. Ignore nouns, | | | | Spanish. |
| verbs, conjugation, all that stuff. Start by learning | | | | Having a learning course on digital media means |
| to speak. Start with simple words and phrases. | | | | that you can study whenever you want to. You |
| "Buenos días" (good morning). "Gracias" | | | | can offload lessons to your iPod or burn it to CD's |
| (thank you). "Muchas gracias" (thank you very | | | | and take it with you wherever... Work at it, get |
| much. And go on from there, expanding and | | | | into it. Practice speaking, imitating the recorded |
| adding to your conversational ability. | | | | audio lessons. Then find Spanish speakers to |
| It's important to make the connection directly | | | | practice with. |
| between the meanings and the thought pictures | | | | With a good learning course and a little work at it, |
| and Spanish words in your head. Do not try to | | | | you will be able to carry on a basic conversation |
| translate from English. Get into the language and | | | | in a few days. In 2-3 months you should have |
| how it is spoken, the pronunciation, the meter of | | | | learned how to speak conversational Spanish. You |
| delivery, how the thought is expressed. Learn | | | | will have the foundation with all the basics. To |
| how it is said, don't worry about the reasons for | | | | expand your vocabulary and increase your range |
| saying it that way. | | | | you will only need to polish and extend what you |
| Get yourself a good interactive audio learning | | | | already know. |
| course, downloadable in mp3 format. There are | | | | And then you might want to get into written |
| excellent courses available over the Internet for | | | | Spanish as well, but it's up to you... |