Learning to speak Spanish

[Disciple of The Watch]

So, while chatting with a longtime friend of mine a couple of days ago, it seems he'd like to visit either Puerto Rico and/or Mexico, maybe next summer he said. I've decided to tag along - I always wanted to see IWA and AAA live - maybe even bring back replica belts as a memento of the trips.

Now, I know that we could manage okay with my mastery of English. However, Puerto Rico and Mexico are two places where Spanish is dominant.

This brings me to the point: I have a natural talent for languages (seeing how fast and easily I learned english), so I thought I'd exploit it and learn Spanish, which definitively would make things easier while down in Puerto Rico/Mexico.

My question is this, fellow SPers: I'm looking for some good online resources to learn Spanish. All the better if it's free.

[Enagonios]

I have a natural talent for languages (seeing how fast and easily I learned english),

What's your nationality DotW? I thought you were American?

Can't really help you with the online sources as I didn't use them but I started taking my Spanish Lessons in Instituto Cervantes and the textbook we used at the start was called Nuevo Ven. Quite user-friendly for beginners.

[revmaf]

http://www.studyspanish.com/tutorial.htm
Traditional topic-based lessons you can study and then test yourself on, all online. Has a pitch for lessons you pay for but you don't need them if you're good with languages.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/spanish/
Fun interactive beginner's lessons, also with test-yourself feature.

http://spanish.about.com/
More information than you'll probably want or need but you can get weekly lessons emailed to you for a few weeks, as well as get on their "word of the day" and "phrase of the day" list; the latter is a fun way to figure out what proverbs or quotations say, since you get the phrase one day and the translation the next with the new phrase.

http://www.byki.com/
Free download of "Before You Know It," a flashcard type vocabulary program that pronounces the words for you as well. It is a very effective learning tool. You'll have to pay for the full program if you want to be able to add your own vocabulary lists or share lists with friends, but the free program is not a trial but a permanent program and you can continue to download lists others post and add them to yours - I think.

I have personally used all these sites and can recommend them. The hardest thing to practice online is speaking - for that it might be worth investing in the least expensive cassette or CD Spanish learning resource you can find, just so you can hear some pronunciations. They also vary wildly in quality, but if you're good with languages and only need to hear the pronunciation almost any of them will do.

[Saber]

If you have a library near you, you might be able to find CDs that teach you spanish... I rented some this summer for Japanese, but never got around to using them.

[Disciple of The Watch]

What's your nationality DotW? I thought you were American?

I heard that one more times than I can count... but be that as it may, no, I'm not an American. I'm Canadian, but with a twist - French-Canadian. Therefore, French is my native language. When we begun learning English at school, I was bored out of my skull because it, well, it's hard to say that without sounding like a fathead, but it came naturally.

But anyway... I will check out the resources you've posted when I have some free time on my hands -- I'm still at work fixing the damn server. (Yeah, it's my first day and they let me mess around with the server -- either they REALLY trust me or they're idiots.)

[Dice]

Heya DoTW... I can probably help you with the phrases you won't learn online . I probably won't post them here though.

If you are interested in the etiquette I could give you some hints as well. As far as learning spanish, it should be a snap for you because it is a lot closer to french than english is.