Forums > Specific Focus > Learning Spanish

carolgreen363

Sep 9, 2012, 6:33 PM

Post #1 of 2 (3892 views)

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Oral Exercises

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Hi all.

I have been practicing Spanish for over 3 months. I have been learning by way of an extensive grammar book, a computer program, reading Spanish newspapers and stories, the podcasts on this website, music, films, drinking Spanish red wine (!) etc etc. What I have found is that while my listening and writing skills are improving quite quickly, my speaking skills are lagging behind. This is simply because I am not getting much practice with speaking Spanish; if any.

So the question is: what exercises are there for speaking Spanish if a) you don't have access to the Internet at home and b) you live in a small town with no Spanish speakers?

Any suggestions would be very much appreciated!

Lilmsmaggie

Sep 24, 2012, 2:06 PM

Post #2 of 2 (3630 views)

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Re: [carolgreen363] Oral Exercises

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I'm green in this area but the answer is obvious: You need to find someone to practice with. You can practice with yourself but then you have no one to provide feedback or correct pronunciation. Maybe you have some Spanish speaking friends?

I will be starting an 8-week Beginning Spanish class tomorrow here in the states.
It was suggested when I signed-up for the class that I look into Meetup groups: http://www.meetup.com for people locally that are either learning Spanish for the first time or Spanish speaking individuals seeking to learn English to augment classroom instruction. Not sure how small of a town you live in but there may be a community close by to you that does have Spanish speaking individuals.

I know that some computer programs such as Rosetta Stone have a pronunciation component to them but having a real live person to work with would be the optimum goal.

You must have some Internet access; otherwise, how are you able to post your question here on the forum? Depending on that access you could try using Google Translate to listen and practice pronunciation. There is a little speaker icon that appears after you begin typing a word into the text box. Providing your spelling is correct, you could listen and repeat words til the cows come home.

Bottomline: Like Math and Music -- Practice. Practice. Practice.

In this case, Practice pronunciation.
Dwain (aka Lilmsmaggie)