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Language learning method: Part V of V
But I'll tell you the resources I use most often in my studying of Spanish:
1) Formal lessons: I've been fortunate to be able to find some wonderful free on-line courses that give wonderful information on dialogues, vocabulary, grammar, pronunciation, and so on. Everything I need to put into my brain in the way of knowledge.
2) Good dictionaries: I have a number of resources I use to help me learn unfamiliar words or to find words I don't know how to say. I have a couple on-line as well as several paper dictionaries. These include dictionaries bilingual dictionaries, dictionaries of the Spanish language, and dictionaries that cover street slang and idioms.
3) MLE: This site helps me get into contact with people I can correspond with in the language I'm trying to learn, and who can give me a native speaker's feedback on how I'm doing.
4) DVD movies on my DVD player. I'm always looking for movies I would like to see that I can play back either with Spanish Audio, with Spanish subtitles, or, preferably, both. This can, of course, be done with movies in Cantonese as well, but you have to know where to buy movies that can be played in Cantonese. Even with a VCR, there are movies you can buy that play Cantonese audio or Chinese subtitles.
5) Books (novels and such) in Spanish. I have a variety of different kinds of books in Spanish. I started with some of my most beloved children's books my parents read me when I was a twerp. I worked my way up through the Harry Potter books to things like Shakespeare's plays and the Poem of El Cid. I read Spanish books translated from the English as well as books originally written in Spanish. I take advantage of books I find in Spanish that I am familiar with in English, as this also makes the more challenging material more accessible to me while I'm developing my skill. Now I'm to the point where I'm not afraid to pick up anything written in Spanish. All I need is a good dictionary, and I’m good to go.
My biggest weakness is that I don't get nearly enough face-to-face practice communicating orally in Spanish. It will always be physically difficult for me to converse in Spanish until I get the opportunity to really practice and develop the neural pathways in my brain to carry out those skills. I'm working on it. In the mean time, the DVD's, Spanish VHS, the Spanish radio station, anything I can do on the Internet is all effort well spent. We just do the best we can with what we've got to work with.
I'm hoping I may have answered some useful questions here, whether or not they are questions you will have thought to ask. Please let me know if I can offer any further help.
Have fun!
Mark Springer
Sacramento, CA, USA
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Language pair: English; All
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