OT .. FOAK ... Learn Spanish?

Kids want to go to Spain next year so we've booked to go to Ibiza, small
fishing village on Northern Coast so somewhat away from the nightclubs etc.
It's our first time to Spain, though we speak relatively good French and
German we've never been to Spain or had to learn Spanish before, and feel we
ought to learn at least the basics.

Can anyone recommend a decent Spanish language course for basic
holiday/living needs ?

We don't expect to be fluent, but would like to speak more than simply
asking for a loaf of bread or bottle of beer.

Cheers,

 

Night school - if you have the time to do it. The BBC sell a 'talk
spanish' book/cd (or tape) combi that is very useful, and you can
access a site online, too, which is quite good.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/spanish/talk/

http://www.bbcactive.com/languages/spanish/19.asp

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On Mon, 16 Oct 2006 15:21:28 GMT, "Paul - xxx" <who-cares-

Depends how involved you want to get. I'd second doing the evening class
if possible, the interaction is better than learning from a book or CD.
If not possible, the BBC have a course called "Sueños". Part one covers
the very basics up to (I think) first year of GCSE sort of level. There's
a book and 4 audio CDs.

They also had another one called "Viva España", which was a little simpler
and as I recall covered more of the basics. I think this also had an
audio element to it, and there were TV programs shown overnight on Beeb2.
I might even have them somewhere.

Of course, no recommendations can be made without mentioning Michel
Thomas. You could just get the 2 disc introduction. It doesn't cover the
basics like "greetings" and "getting to know you" sections of other
course, but offers building blocks for basic sentences. Do a google
search on his name on this group for many discussions.

 

Ibiza ain't Spain to everyone. En las islas se habla catalán.

Just watch a few episodes of Fawlty Towers and you'll pick it up in no time.

¡Hasta pronto! ¡Me voy!

--

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I'd recommend, Rusty, night classes in 'Posting to usenet'.

Attribution lines come first ...

... signature separators later.

 

SP came up with the following;:

That;s the awkward bit, we go in April, so not long, but something we hadn't
thought of, thanks.

Interesting, cheers.

 

Paul Carmichael came up with the following;:

But if Spanish is the native language, that's what we would at least try to
speak in ...

I can talk slowly and loudly, if you think that'll help ...

 

Mark Olson came up with the following;:

I'd figured what he'd said, but I was under the impression Catalan (and this
is probably showing my ignorance) was a dialect, as Geordie is in UK.

We've never really been interested in Spain before, but feel we should try
the basics at least.

 

Switters came up with the following;:

Cheers, ordered from Amazon.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Michel-Thom...19/ref=pd_sbs_b_1/202-2554501-7482262?ie=UTF8

 

Look in the G Drive
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Catalan is a completely different language. Domenec could answer what
similarities there are, if any. However, finding a local that doesn't
understand Spanish will probably be as rare as finding a Cornish person
that doesn't speak English.

 

They would disagree violently. The main claim for it to be a language
rather than a dialect is that it's univeral across the population (in
Catalan areas of Spain, of course) and that it has an accepted written
form very different from Castillian Spanish.

OTOH if you're only learning phrase-book spanish to be able to order
in retaurants and ask the way to the bogs, there ain't gonna be that
much difference, TBH. I've got away with poor Castillian in Barcelona
and Andorra - generally they're pleased that at least you've made some
sort of effort. But it really helps if you study road signs, menus
etc. and pick up on some of the local words - like many dialectical
languages there's a considerable version between its usage in
different places.

I've never been to Ibiza[1], though, but shirley you can just get away
with shouting "Watneys Red Barrel" and "Fish And Chips" very loudly,
can't you?

[1] I mean, why would I want to?
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Don't entrust your accent to him though. It's a little, um, well,
different. Try to listen to some native speakers if you can, or get a
foundation in the basics including the alphabet.

 

Ace came up with the following;:

Good points, cheers.

We're hoping it's an area where there aren't the often heard about but never
yet experienced nightclubs ... Puerto San Miguel on the Northern coastline.

We do plan a foray, maybe more, to 'see the lights' etc.

'swot we thought ... but it's for the kids ...

 

Paul - xxx came up with the following;:

'sOK, figured it out ... Zone Alarm wasn't letting explorer.exe through ..


Many thanks.

 

Don't say that too loud, says the woman who just got off a plane from
Barcelona. It's a totally separate lingo, spoken by ten and a half million
people....

Bon dia!

Ali

PS: Yes, Michel Thomas rocks.

PPS: Yes, as a furriner, you are fine with Castellano in Ibiza.

 

I know several people who have used the Pimsleur Spanish course, said
they found it easier to get on with than Michel Thomas. It's fairly
easily available via bittorrent. I'm doing their Portuguese course at
the moment and I'd recommend their system.

Cheers

Dave

 

It's $274!

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Not necessarily.

http://www.torrentspy.com/torrent/88394/Learn_Spanish

 

Not being funny, but this is Veggie we're talkng about. Veggie doesn't
steal copyrighted stuff on principle, for which I applaud him.

Too many people steal copyrighted stuff and there's no justification.