I studied Spanish in high school and college, and I even spent a semester abroad in Spain. At that point, I was very proficient at reading, writing, and speaking it. Sadly, in the 8 years since graduation, I feel as though I have forgotten everything.
I am looking to get into a field where knowing Spanish would be very helpful, and I am trying to figure out the best way to both relearn what I knew (and possible go beyond that).
Obviously for speaking, I will need to get out there and practice, but before that, should I just pick up my old textbooks and get going? Or, is there a better way?
posted by aka_anon
on May 15, 2013 -
14 answers
Can you give me specific instances of US political candidates or elected officials publically speaking in a language other than English?
[more inside]
posted by threeants
on Mar 27, 2013 -
31 answers
Are grammatical genders, as a rule, consistent across the Indo-European languages which use them?
[more inside]
posted by obloquy
on Dec 4, 2012 -
30 answers
Have you used LingQ.com to help you learn a language? What did you think of it? Do you have any other recommendations for paid language learning sites that cost no more than $15 per month? (I am learning Spanish.)
[more inside]
posted by ocherdraco
on Feb 9, 2012 -
8 answers
Can you give me strategy and tactics for maximizing my spoken Japanese interactions, towards the goal of language ability, while in Japan? Those of you who have reached exceptional/native-level fluency
speaking, can you give me some tips, and share your experiences of the things that helped the most along the way, in terms of
speaking ability?
[more inside]
posted by dubitable
on Jul 15, 2011 -
12 answers
A guy in Tallinn pointed at me and said something that sounded like "satavaziru!" (emphasis on the "zi" syllable). What might that mean?
[more inside]
posted by mokudekiru
on Apr 13, 2011 -
12 answers
How does a once confident French speaker re-learn the language after six years of not using it?
[more inside]
posted by schmoo
on Aug 7, 2010 -
11 answers
What are the most interesting, fun, unusual, ridiculous, bombastic, affentoll, and/or funkadelic ways to learn a language?
[more inside]
posted by ElectricBlue
on May 22, 2010 -
25 answers
Why was Afrikaans so widely available as a language option in computer games of the late 80s and (maybe) the early 90s?
[more inside]
posted by colinmarshall
on May 4, 2010 -
8 answers
I'm very seriously considering the foreign service, but I've never been any good at languages. Will I likely be able to learn a language, with the intense training the Foreign Service provides, without a natural apptitude for languages?
[more inside]
posted by anonymous
on Nov 18, 2009 -
7 answers
Looking to purchase some awesome linguistics-related posters. I've searched for hours on the internet and I can't seem to find any family tree posters, IPA posters, or even anything remotely related to linguistics that is interesting and somewhat academic.
[more inside]
posted by iamkimiam
on May 28, 2009 -
8 answers
In the English version of Star Wars, Yoda speaks using some interesting word-order. In other language translations, is this technique carried?
[more inside]
posted by nikkorizz
on Apr 30, 2009 -
6 answers
What materials should I keep an eye out for in my quest to study Cantonese? I'm currently working my way through the Pimsleur Cantonese audio course, and I don't know what I should check out after that ends.
[more inside]
posted by Xere
on Nov 17, 2008 -
3 answers
Slightly-random-but-interesting-filter: I've noticed that French books tend to be longer than English books, and German books tend to be longer than both. If given a normally written (so no really fancy words, just sort of... average) English book of 100 pages, which language of translation (using same font and size, as well as same sized pages) would make it the longest? the shortest? Bonus points for approximate page numbers! (thanks!)
posted by Planet F
on Oct 21, 2008 -
21 answers
What are your favorite online resources for learning, practicing or getting exposure to the languages you speak? I'm looking for things that go beyond a textbook and a couple of CDs: things like interactive tools and study materials, well-written blogs written in / about the language, and especially audio, video or reading materials that people learning the language might not be able to find easily.
[more inside]
posted by shirobara
on Jun 4, 2008 -
8 answers
What can I buy, download or find online to help me learn as much Polish as possible in the next ten days, with a budget of about £50?
[more inside]
posted by Lebannen
on Feb 20, 2008 -
9 answers
I need to review Russian badly (up to the speaking/writing/listening level of a minor in Russian). I have a semester (two is doable but pushing it) to devote to this. I need some kind of structured process to go about this--while I have textbooks and some materials from years ago it's not enough. Does anyone have any suggestions for other good tutorials? Syllabi? Quick-review websites?
posted by schroedinger
on Sep 6, 2007 -
9 answers
Hawaiian has only eight consonants. Pirahã purportedly has even fewer phonemes and no numerals. What other languages have properties which would be considered unusual by Indo-European language speakers?
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane
on Nov 16, 2006 -
33 answers
For those of you fluent in Japanese, I'd like to hear your best advice on the subject. I've studied for about 4 years, and have been living in Japan for nearly a year, but despite this, achieving true "fluency" still seems like an insurmountable task. Although I am conversationally fluent, at times I become incredibly frustrated. How long do you think it takes to become fluent? And now for the oh-so-impossible question: what should I do to speed up the process? Advice, experiences, suggestions would be welcome from any students of foreign language.
posted by dead_
on Feb 13, 2005 -
9 answers
International animal sounds : In English, dogs go 'woof', cats go 'meow' and ducks go 'quack'. Does anyone know what noises they make in other languages (or maybe other countries)? [I don't mean to limit this to those three, it just seemed like a good selection to show what I meant...]
posted by twine42
on Nov 1, 2004 -
22 answers
When I was in high school (91-95), I learned three computer languages -- BASIC, LOGO, and a third that I don't remember the name of.
It involved putting everything in nested parentheses, so you'd end up with some code that looked like this: (((object a)go to)object b)
I looked on google, and found something about LISP and SCHEME, but I couldn't find anything that would narrow it down a bit further. I know that we used a piece of software that would make certain we had the right amount of parentheses (by highlighting each closed parenthesis when we included it), and that the software ran on Macintoshes. We learned how to form graphics with the software -- circles within circles, that sort of thing.
Anyone know what it was? Because it's bugging me, and I kinda think learning that helped me later on in life with keeping track of nested tables and HTML in general.
posted by Katemonkey
on Jan 27, 2004 -
19 answers
