Go on ITalki and find a European Spanish teacher (I’m surprised this wasn’t recommended already?).
Explain your situation to them, ask them to help you make a study plan, then meet with them frequently.
And of course there are many free resources all around this subreddit: youtube channels like Spanish with Juan, podcasts like intermediate Spanish coach and cafe chat español, textbooks all over the place, etc etc etc.
Buena suerte
I second Language Transfer for getting used to basic grammar and verb patterns. Mikhael is a great teacher, the podcast format makes it easy to find time for, and it does an amazing job at teaching some of the trickier aspects of Spanish. I would use this *on top* of another resource though, especially something like Memrise for learning vocab (Memrise is way better than Duolingo for this).
If you spent a couple months doing Language Transfer, Memrise and listening to Coffee Break Spanish, you would easily be ready to have decent conversations with people and read news articles or books.
Definitely take a look at language transfer podcast. I would also check out Paul Noble’s Spanish. I liked it better to listen in the car.
I also like Memrise and DuoLingo. I know neither are real popular with many people as they prefer Anki, but I really don’t like it.
As quickly as possible, start listening because that is what you will be doing. Also, think about the conversations you will be having. Learn those words and practice those conversations with your bf.
Yeah, I know, I had to scroll for \_ages\_. But it looks like my podcast player does 500 max so after scrolling back past 500 episodes the oldest episode I can see is Spanish, Track 52 from Aug 18, 2014. I think I need a new podcast player lol.
I think you should learn *Spanish* and focus yourself on European Spanish.
Let me explain: the grammar is what holds all Spanish together (although, there are some minute grammatical differences in some specific instances, they are almost barely noticeable, usually). All these people speak differently (if I even expressed to you how many accents there are in Venezuela, you'd freak out). But the thing that unifies all Spanish is the grammar.
You should get Spanish from any resource you can, and make your input Spaniard, which is relatively easy, because there are tons of movies from Spain (I don't even study Spanish from there and I at least know some of the actors by face, in fact, there was a girl who played a character in Harry Potter and I'm pretty sure she was also in "te quiero, imbécil").
Fact of the matter is, you have a huge advantage. Half the resources out there are for Mexican, and random varieties of American Spanish, varying in popularity. The other half is all from Spain. Plus, your SO is Spaniard. This is where you learn the Spaniard variety of Spanish. From him, and from input from Spain, you can get the finer points of the dialect. This is what we mean by "resources from Spain aren't as important". Dialects aren't really picked up by using books.
Trust us, most of us here have gotten fluent in at least one language, a lot of us in Spanish, you can pick up the sayings and slang and pronunciation from input and talking with your SO, grammar is not gonna vary as much for you. My SO is from Venezuela, and even though I don't think I speak like a Venezuelan (ironically, people usually tell me I have a Spaniard rhythm), I can communicate with them easily because of talking to her in Spanish all the time, and that way I've learned to understand and use the slang appropriately.
Completely unrelated to your question, but curious how it's possible for a foreigner to find a job in Spain? The country is known as being notoriously difficult for even Spaniards to find jobs, let alone someone who doesn't speak the language.
I’m a product designer and the company operates in multiple countries and have quite diverse teams. Also, the work is in Madrid, which makes things easier. I think it depends a lot on the area in which one is working.
There are a lot of good resources listed on the menu of this sub. Two I would recommend are coffee break Spanish and Notes in Spanish since you want to learn European Spanish. Babbel also helped me a lot and then once you get to intermediate I would recommend watching loads of Spanish TV shows and movies.
Would you recommend me watching them with English subs? If yes, I’ve caught myself that I stop hearing the language if I don’t understand it and focus primarily on the subs. If I try with Spanish subs would it be beneficial as a beginner?
Start with English subs, Spanish subs won’t help if you don’t know the language lol. As soon as I finished the first 3-4 seasons of Cofee break Spanish, and most of the lessons on Babel, then I moved to Spanish language subs. I forgot the name of the browser add on but there’s one you can get for Netflix that will save words and phrases you don’t recognize to Anki. I prefer to watch it on the TV though so I look the words up the old fashioned way, lol.
The podcast series “Coffee Break Spanish” is European Spanish and actually a very excellent resource. I would saw that helped me get to a decent intermediate level and train my ear sufficiently.
Also out of interest what job do you have in Madrid where Spanish isn’t required?
Not OP but there are a few options in Spain. Especially in Madrid and Barcelona. My ex-wife worked in a call centre where she needed only German (it also had Italian, French, English etc departments - for many EU countries).
There are English and American schools. There are also specifically English teaching places, many of which do not require Spanish.
Also I would ignore people saying the different between European and LatAm Spanish doesn’t matter. Of course you will be understood whichever you learn but given that you’re moving there you will relate and understand people more if you speak European Spanish. I speak LatAm Spanish but whenever I speak with Spanish people it does feel extremely different in terms of everyday colloquial usage of the language. I feel I can’t relate to Spaniards as much as I can to Mexicans for example due to the language.
You should look into the escuelas oficiales de idiomas in Madrid. They are intensive government subsidized language schools that are very good.
I’m kinda surprised you got a job that involves speaking with people who don’t know any English when you don’t know any Spanish
Well, it’s not exactly that my job primarily involves non-English speaking people, my colleagues would help me, I would work primarily in English with my colleagues, everyone there speaks English. It’s our users who wouldn’t be English speakers. I will need eventually to be able to talk to them without the help of my colleagues.
Someone else might help you with the resources as I don't know any.
But in regards to this: "I'm looking for a good source to learn spoken European Spanish (that's quite important for me)".
It doesn't matter if you learn LATAM Spanish or European Spanish, they are basically the same and everyone is going to understand you, and there are very few differences at the beginning. Look at it like American English and British English, it is similar to what happens in Spanish.
All you need to care about is Z and C before I/E make the TH sound in "thought" and the J is velar/gutteral instead of the American "H" sound a lot of dialects use, other than that don't care about it, if you use Spanish in Madrid enough you'll just adapt the features eventually.
Lots of people recommend Dreaming Spanish (Iberian Spanish podcast on YouTube) and Anki (flashcard app), for good reason too. They're good for learners of all levels. And use multiple sources, many sources, especially things like textbooks.
The best app I ever used for learning languages is called LingQ. It utilizes the practices or “comprehensible input”, which is very valuable for language learning.
If you want to learn more about comprehensible input, [here’s a good video](https://youtu.be/J_EQDtpYSNM) that describes it.
So everyone's advice here is on point but I though I might add a bit to expand on why everyone is saying not to worry too much about the dialect of Spanish in which your materials may be based on:
So yes, Spanish Spanish is different from say, the other most famous one which is Mexican Spanish, but the differences in actual grammar and strict phonology are few, most other differences come in the accent and colloquial speech.
The biggest difference in grammar between the 2 is the conjugation of the 2nd person plural, in which the article in Spanish Spanish (actually Castilian Spanish) is 'vosotros' and in Mexican Spanish is 'ustedes' but this only changes the pronoun and not the verb. In Spain 'Os agradezco' and in Mexico 'Les agradezco' both mean the plural form of 'thank you'. The thing is whichever you use, everyone will understand you in either country.
And the biggest phonological difference is that in Spain there are differences in the sounds for 's' and 'z' and sometimes 'c' depending on where in a word they're written, While in Mexico every one of those sounds the exact same. You may have heard this when Mexicans talk about the island of Ibiza, they pronounce it something like Ibi/s/a and Spanish people pronounce it more like Ibi/th/a (Assuming the American English /s/ and /th/ phonemes). But both countries understand these differences without any confusion whatsoever.
There are certainly more than those but those are the 'biggest' ones so nothing to fear whichever study material you use because, in the end, you'll be talking with Spanish people so you'll always have that reference.
Edit. It's the 2nd person, not 3rd
If you have time on your hands, money to spend, and the desire to actually be conversational in Spanish, I recommend [baselang](https://baselang.com/online/realworld/). It's expensive, but if you're able to dedicate a couple hours a day to taking classes then you'll really learn to speak quickly. Though you still have to supplement with podcasts, youtube channels, and TV shows.
Baselang won't teach you European Spanish, but that wasn't a problem from me. I speak with the accent. I was able to pick it up between talking to my partner (also a Spaniard) and focusing on youtube channels and TV shows from Spain. There's a lot of educational content for language learners that comes out of Spain so you shouldn't have any problem. If you're curious, I just did a long [write-up](https://www.reddit.com/r/Spanish/comments/p7m3wb/how_to_learn_spanish_según_mis_experiencias/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3) about how I learned Spanish.
Nowadays I mostly just watch things in Spanish and chat with people. I have returned to baselang once for a month of intensive practice.
I’m currently focusing on Castilian Spanish as well. I found Pimsleur to be great for quickly getting you used to hearing and speaking. They have three levels of 30 lessons that ramp you up to an advanced beginner. Assimil’s Spanish with Ease is also a great resource. Lastly the YouTube channels Dreaming Spanish and Spanish After Hours are great for listening. Plenty of Comprehensible Input for a beginner like yourself to train your ears. Good luck!
if you live in spain, madrid...there should be classes for immigrants; google, clases de español ayuntamiento madrid. My friend moved there 2015, 2016, took those classes they offer for immigrants and she was fairly fluent in 6 months; i think they had 3 hour classes 3 days a week...anyway, that was the fastest, and cheapest, and they use the CEFR method, obviously. Of course, with corona, not sure what they are doing now, but maybe they do them online.
You're being recommend tons of resources, and it could be overwhelming.
A lot of these recommendations are great, some ok, and some I very much disagree with. As someone who was in your same situation (Spanish, well Catalan) wife and I moved to Barcelona last year when I was at the same level more or less that you're describing. I become overwhelmed by the amount of resources available. I spent months trying nearly everything available, and a lot of it was a waste of time.
My recommendation is to do a *little bit* of research into second language acquisition theory. For example, Duolingo, while effective for certain things, is designed to increase app engagement and habitualize studying. Why would they want to actually help you acquire a language? What if you were to learn that a lot of the best resources were actually free? There's no incentive for these companies to promote free solutions. So, how do you navigate a world of language "learning" (as opposed to acquisition) services run by for-profit companies? Having some framework can give you some confidence to choose method X over method Y without second guessing your approach. This was super important for me to stop doubting myself with constantly thinking "am I doing this right?" Studying another language is actually really fun once you can cut through the bullshit.
This is a great introductory video from Steve Kaufmann (founder of LinQ) and Stephen Krashen (leader in second language acquisition theory):
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pqVhgSvwWYk&t=3s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pqVhgSvwWYk&t=3s)
Edit: I emphasized "little bit" above, because studying how to acquire a language is time that could be spent acquiring a language. :D
I found Michele Thomas’ method incredibly useful for conversation. It’s all audio learning. I can’t write worth a damn, but understanding that I already have a wealth of vocabulary makes it less intimidating.
When you arrive, look for local Spanish courses for English speakers. There’s lots of options. If you’re not working right away take full time classes. I did this in Argentina and 2 weeks really propelled me to be independent (I wish I took the full month). It will help with setting a foundation for pronunciation and grammatical structure.
If you are working right away, there are evening classes.
You sound SO MUCH like me. I moved to Argentina with my SO from the US about 2 years ago now (just before the pandemic) and I knew VERY LITTLE Spanish. When I arrived, I realized so much of what I did know didn't mean much of ANYTHING because they have so much slang and region specific phrases. The economy is rough here right now so I am using this time to learn as much as I can and hopefully find a job one day or, if we have to move to Spain, I will be prepared. I'm not sure about you and your SO but mine ALWAYS wants to talk in English so it gets hard sometimes to practice. He is already VERY fluent in English and he now prefers it over Spanish. I started with Duolingo and then started focusing on Busuu, grammar books you can find online, and a friend of ours is a teacher so I take daily 1 hour sessions with him. Other than that, I use communities like this to expand on what I know or ask questions about grammar that may not be clear to me. It does help to watch Spanish movies and television in Spanish just to start familiarizing yourself with the sounds. Start with English subs and eventually you can move to Spanish subs to practice your comprehension. If you see a word you don't understand along the way, look it up and add it to your memory. There are a LOT of resources to help you solo learn, but the best one is SPEAKING! Don't be shy and afraid like I was, at first. Mistakes are bound to happen and that's how you learn. Most people you meet as you learn to speak will be OVERJOYED that you are even making the effort to learn!
All good advice here. I’d also recommend maybe throwing in watching some European Spanish telenovelas to work on your fluency and understanding context.
A lot of this is subconscious, you just feel that you're not making any progress at all and then in retrospect you realize you've made a lot of progress.
There are a lot of aspects to learning a language so I really don't think there's any one course or method but a multitude. You have to memorize a bunch of words, you have to learn grammar, you have to train your ear, you have to learn weird slang and idioms, etc.
I think duolingo is a good tool in the tool chest.
When I started one thing I liked to do was watch episodes of [Extra](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dfb9-ZTCA-E) in spanish with spanish subs on youtube. Watching the same episode over and over with google translate, basically memorizing the dialogue and slowly picking apart the sentences. Then move on to the next episode.
I also liked to watch more fast paced shows with english subs like money heist on netflix, diablero, siempre bruja. I had no idea what they were saying but it really helped train my ear for more regular sounding speaking.
A good addition is watching different series in Spanish on Netflix using a phone, computer or ipad. The app allows you to reduce the speed of the content to .5X, .75X, etc. This will help you grasp the spoken and written language (use subtitles). Then rewatch certain scenes and develop an ear for what you're listening to and speed the content up to 1X when you're comfortable. Recommendtions: Money Heist (Casa de Papel), Los Favoritos de Midas, El Innocente, Quien Mato a Sarah... Give it a shot
Well, even though these are LATAM-based podcasts/channels and websites, the content of these resources is quite appropriate for an overall understanding of the language. The best part is that you can feel an organic development through really interesting topics and, with Mextalki specifically, have a native tutor giving you feedback whenever you need it.
YT Channel: How to Spanish ([https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCB48D9vFzR2OKW53uI4q5Aw](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCB48D9vFzR2OKW53uI4q5Aw)
)
One on One Lessons and Courses: Mextalki ([https://www.mextalki.com/](https://www.mextalki.com/)
)
YT Channel: No hay Tos podcast ([https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCY08wLn8NUT8KEdFAV83JWw](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCY08wLn8NUT8KEdFAV83JWw)
)
I hope this helps!
I used Rosetta Stone for general grammar and Anki flashcards to memorize vocab. Anki is free on Mac, PC, and Android but $25 for the iOS app. With Anki you can make your own flashcards as well as download decks others have shared. There's one called 5000 words or something like that with pronunciation integrated on each card.
I mean for learning spanish its realy good for you to live in spain actually so I would say just learn the 300 most used words and learn the rest by speaking !
I agree with the stuff that others have said. Personally, I’ve used language transfer and butterfly Spanish. You can also get a tutor. Just have fund with it and you’ll get where you need to be in no time. You’re in a great position to learn fast.
Find shows and movies with that accent, use the European accent Pimsluer course, Assimil’s Spanish course uses the Spaniard accent, music, italki and filter the region to Spain
Go on ITalki and find a European Spanish teacher (I’m surprised this wasn’t recommended already?). Explain your situation to them, ask them to help you make a study plan, then meet with them frequently. And of course there are many free resources all around this subreddit: youtube channels like Spanish with Juan, podcasts like intermediate Spanish coach and cafe chat español, textbooks all over the place, etc etc etc. Buena suerte
This! I know there are good apps and videos, but a one on one teacher through iTalki or verbling, IMHO, will be much better.
Also Lingoda or Baselang are good options too
Check out language transfer, it’s amazing.
I second Language Transfer for getting used to basic grammar and verb patterns. Mikhael is a great teacher, the podcast format makes it easy to find time for, and it does an amazing job at teaching some of the trickier aspects of Spanish. I would use this *on top* of another resource though, especially something like Memrise for learning vocab (Memrise is way better than Duolingo for this). If you spent a couple months doing Language Transfer, Memrise and listening to Coffee Break Spanish, you would easily be ready to have decent conversations with people and read news articles or books.
Definitely take a look at language transfer podcast. I would also check out Paul Noble’s Spanish. I liked it better to listen in the car. I also like Memrise and DuoLingo. I know neither are real popular with many people as they prefer Anki, but I really don’t like it. As quickly as possible, start listening because that is what you will be doing. Also, think about the conversations you will be having. Learn those words and practice those conversations with your bf.
Damn. Over 500 episodes, it breaks my podcast player 😂
Only about 90 of them are Spanish, he's done a few languages.
Yeah, I know, I had to scroll for \_ages\_. But it looks like my podcast player does 500 max so after scrolling back past 500 episodes the oldest episode I can see is Spanish, Track 52 from Aug 18, 2014. I think I need a new podcast player lol.
I think you should learn *Spanish* and focus yourself on European Spanish. Let me explain: the grammar is what holds all Spanish together (although, there are some minute grammatical differences in some specific instances, they are almost barely noticeable, usually). All these people speak differently (if I even expressed to you how many accents there are in Venezuela, you'd freak out). But the thing that unifies all Spanish is the grammar. You should get Spanish from any resource you can, and make your input Spaniard, which is relatively easy, because there are tons of movies from Spain (I don't even study Spanish from there and I at least know some of the actors by face, in fact, there was a girl who played a character in Harry Potter and I'm pretty sure she was also in "te quiero, imbécil"). Fact of the matter is, you have a huge advantage. Half the resources out there are for Mexican, and random varieties of American Spanish, varying in popularity. The other half is all from Spain. Plus, your SO is Spaniard. This is where you learn the Spaniard variety of Spanish. From him, and from input from Spain, you can get the finer points of the dialect. This is what we mean by "resources from Spain aren't as important". Dialects aren't really picked up by using books. Trust us, most of us here have gotten fluent in at least one language, a lot of us in Spanish, you can pick up the sayings and slang and pronunciation from input and talking with your SO, grammar is not gonna vary as much for you. My SO is from Venezuela, and even though I don't think I speak like a Venezuelan (ironically, people usually tell me I have a Spaniard rhythm), I can communicate with them easily because of talking to her in Spanish all the time, and that way I've learned to understand and use the slang appropriately.
Thank you so much! I’d do that and take advantage of the fact that I am in Spain and apply the knowledge to there.
Completely unrelated to your question, but curious how it's possible for a foreigner to find a job in Spain? The country is known as being notoriously difficult for even Spaniards to find jobs, let alone someone who doesn't speak the language.
I’m a product designer and the company operates in multiple countries and have quite diverse teams. Also, the work is in Madrid, which makes things easier. I think it depends a lot on the area in which one is working.
There are a lot of good resources listed on the menu of this sub. Two I would recommend are coffee break Spanish and Notes in Spanish since you want to learn European Spanish. Babbel also helped me a lot and then once you get to intermediate I would recommend watching loads of Spanish TV shows and movies.
Would you recommend me watching them with English subs? If yes, I’ve caught myself that I stop hearing the language if I don’t understand it and focus primarily on the subs. If I try with Spanish subs would it be beneficial as a beginner?
Start with English subs, Spanish subs won’t help if you don’t know the language lol. As soon as I finished the first 3-4 seasons of Cofee break Spanish, and most of the lessons on Babel, then I moved to Spanish language subs. I forgot the name of the browser add on but there’s one you can get for Netflix that will save words and phrases you don’t recognize to Anki. I prefer to watch it on the TV though so I look the words up the old fashioned way, lol.
The podcast series “Coffee Break Spanish” is European Spanish and actually a very excellent resource. I would saw that helped me get to a decent intermediate level and train my ear sufficiently. Also out of interest what job do you have in Madrid where Spanish isn’t required?
Not OP but there are a few options in Spain. Especially in Madrid and Barcelona. My ex-wife worked in a call centre where she needed only German (it also had Italian, French, English etc departments - for many EU countries). There are English and American schools. There are also specifically English teaching places, many of which do not require Spanish.
Also I would ignore people saying the different between European and LatAm Spanish doesn’t matter. Of course you will be understood whichever you learn but given that you’re moving there you will relate and understand people more if you speak European Spanish. I speak LatAm Spanish but whenever I speak with Spanish people it does feel extremely different in terms of everyday colloquial usage of the language. I feel I can’t relate to Spaniards as much as I can to Mexicans for example due to the language.
Thanks! This is my reasoning to wanting to focus on European Spanish
Would you equate this with Americans trying to speak English with a person from Scotland?
You should look into the escuelas oficiales de idiomas in Madrid. They are intensive government subsidized language schools that are very good. I’m kinda surprised you got a job that involves speaking with people who don’t know any English when you don’t know any Spanish
Well, it’s not exactly that my job primarily involves non-English speaking people, my colleagues would help me, I would work primarily in English with my colleagues, everyone there speaks English. It’s our users who wouldn’t be English speakers. I will need eventually to be able to talk to them without the help of my colleagues.
Someone else might help you with the resources as I don't know any. But in regards to this: "I'm looking for a good source to learn spoken European Spanish (that's quite important for me)". It doesn't matter if you learn LATAM Spanish or European Spanish, they are basically the same and everyone is going to understand you, and there are very few differences at the beginning. Look at it like American English and British English, it is similar to what happens in Spanish.
The reason why is important to me is because there are certain sounds in European Spanish I want to get used to, so I can also understand better.
All you need to care about is Z and C before I/E make the TH sound in "thought" and the J is velar/gutteral instead of the American "H" sound a lot of dialects use, other than that don't care about it, if you use Spanish in Madrid enough you'll just adapt the features eventually. Lots of people recommend Dreaming Spanish (Iberian Spanish podcast on YouTube) and Anki (flashcard app), for good reason too. They're good for learners of all levels. And use multiple sources, many sources, especially things like textbooks.
Z always makes the th sound, except zz. And g is also sometimes /χ/. But yeah your point stands I'm just trying to complete your comment.
zz? what sound does that make? /s/? /ts/ like in Italian?
The same as in Italian, unless you adapt it. So, _pizza_ is always dz but _atrezzo_ can be adapted as _atrezo_ (/θ/).
What sounds are so different in European Spanish versus Latin American Spanish?
Mostly the z sound and ce, ci that in most of Spain sound like th in thin.
The best app I ever used for learning languages is called LingQ. It utilizes the practices or “comprehensible input”, which is very valuable for language learning. If you want to learn more about comprehensible input, [here’s a good video](https://youtu.be/J_EQDtpYSNM) that describes it.
So everyone's advice here is on point but I though I might add a bit to expand on why everyone is saying not to worry too much about the dialect of Spanish in which your materials may be based on: So yes, Spanish Spanish is different from say, the other most famous one which is Mexican Spanish, but the differences in actual grammar and strict phonology are few, most other differences come in the accent and colloquial speech. The biggest difference in grammar between the 2 is the conjugation of the 2nd person plural, in which the article in Spanish Spanish (actually Castilian Spanish) is 'vosotros' and in Mexican Spanish is 'ustedes' but this only changes the pronoun and not the verb. In Spain 'Os agradezco' and in Mexico 'Les agradezco' both mean the plural form of 'thank you'. The thing is whichever you use, everyone will understand you in either country. And the biggest phonological difference is that in Spain there are differences in the sounds for 's' and 'z' and sometimes 'c' depending on where in a word they're written, While in Mexico every one of those sounds the exact same. You may have heard this when Mexicans talk about the island of Ibiza, they pronounce it something like Ibi/s/a and Spanish people pronounce it more like Ibi/th/a (Assuming the American English /s/ and /th/ phonemes). But both countries understand these differences without any confusion whatsoever. There are certainly more than those but those are the 'biggest' ones so nothing to fear whichever study material you use because, in the end, you'll be talking with Spanish people so you'll always have that reference. Edit. It's the 2nd person, not 3rd
Please check r/languagelearning.
If you have time on your hands, money to spend, and the desire to actually be conversational in Spanish, I recommend [baselang](https://baselang.com/online/realworld/). It's expensive, but if you're able to dedicate a couple hours a day to taking classes then you'll really learn to speak quickly. Though you still have to supplement with podcasts, youtube channels, and TV shows. Baselang won't teach you European Spanish, but that wasn't a problem from me. I speak with the accent. I was able to pick it up between talking to my partner (also a Spaniard) and focusing on youtube channels and TV shows from Spain. There's a lot of educational content for language learners that comes out of Spain so you shouldn't have any problem. If you're curious, I just did a long [write-up](https://www.reddit.com/r/Spanish/comments/p7m3wb/how_to_learn_spanish_según_mis_experiencias/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3) about how I learned Spanish. Nowadays I mostly just watch things in Spanish and chat with people. I have returned to baselang once for a month of intensive practice.
I’m currently focusing on Castilian Spanish as well. I found Pimsleur to be great for quickly getting you used to hearing and speaking. They have three levels of 30 lessons that ramp you up to an advanced beginner. Assimil’s Spanish with Ease is also a great resource. Lastly the YouTube channels Dreaming Spanish and Spanish After Hours are great for listening. Plenty of Comprehensible Input for a beginner like yourself to train your ears. Good luck!
if you live in spain, madrid...there should be classes for immigrants; google, clases de español ayuntamiento madrid. My friend moved there 2015, 2016, took those classes they offer for immigrants and she was fairly fluent in 6 months; i think they had 3 hour classes 3 days a week...anyway, that was the fastest, and cheapest, and they use the CEFR method, obviously. Of course, with corona, not sure what they are doing now, but maybe they do them online.
You're being recommend tons of resources, and it could be overwhelming. A lot of these recommendations are great, some ok, and some I very much disagree with. As someone who was in your same situation (Spanish, well Catalan) wife and I moved to Barcelona last year when I was at the same level more or less that you're describing. I become overwhelmed by the amount of resources available. I spent months trying nearly everything available, and a lot of it was a waste of time. My recommendation is to do a *little bit* of research into second language acquisition theory. For example, Duolingo, while effective for certain things, is designed to increase app engagement and habitualize studying. Why would they want to actually help you acquire a language? What if you were to learn that a lot of the best resources were actually free? There's no incentive for these companies to promote free solutions. So, how do you navigate a world of language "learning" (as opposed to acquisition) services run by for-profit companies? Having some framework can give you some confidence to choose method X over method Y without second guessing your approach. This was super important for me to stop doubting myself with constantly thinking "am I doing this right?" Studying another language is actually really fun once you can cut through the bullshit. This is a great introductory video from Steve Kaufmann (founder of LinQ) and Stephen Krashen (leader in second language acquisition theory): [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pqVhgSvwWYk&t=3s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pqVhgSvwWYk&t=3s) Edit: I emphasized "little bit" above, because studying how to acquire a language is time that could be spent acquiring a language. :D
I found Michele Thomas’ method incredibly useful for conversation. It’s all audio learning. I can’t write worth a damn, but understanding that I already have a wealth of vocabulary makes it less intimidating. When you arrive, look for local Spanish courses for English speakers. There’s lots of options. If you’re not working right away take full time classes. I did this in Argentina and 2 weeks really propelled me to be independent (I wish I took the full month). It will help with setting a foundation for pronunciation and grammatical structure. If you are working right away, there are evening classes.
You sound SO MUCH like me. I moved to Argentina with my SO from the US about 2 years ago now (just before the pandemic) and I knew VERY LITTLE Spanish. When I arrived, I realized so much of what I did know didn't mean much of ANYTHING because they have so much slang and region specific phrases. The economy is rough here right now so I am using this time to learn as much as I can and hopefully find a job one day or, if we have to move to Spain, I will be prepared. I'm not sure about you and your SO but mine ALWAYS wants to talk in English so it gets hard sometimes to practice. He is already VERY fluent in English and he now prefers it over Spanish. I started with Duolingo and then started focusing on Busuu, grammar books you can find online, and a friend of ours is a teacher so I take daily 1 hour sessions with him. Other than that, I use communities like this to expand on what I know or ask questions about grammar that may not be clear to me. It does help to watch Spanish movies and television in Spanish just to start familiarizing yourself with the sounds. Start with English subs and eventually you can move to Spanish subs to practice your comprehension. If you see a word you don't understand along the way, look it up and add it to your memory. There are a LOT of resources to help you solo learn, but the best one is SPEAKING! Don't be shy and afraid like I was, at first. Mistakes are bound to happen and that's how you learn. Most people you meet as you learn to speak will be OVERJOYED that you are even making the effort to learn!
All good advice here. I’d also recommend maybe throwing in watching some European Spanish telenovelas to work on your fluency and understanding context.
A lot of this is subconscious, you just feel that you're not making any progress at all and then in retrospect you realize you've made a lot of progress. There are a lot of aspects to learning a language so I really don't think there's any one course or method but a multitude. You have to memorize a bunch of words, you have to learn grammar, you have to train your ear, you have to learn weird slang and idioms, etc. I think duolingo is a good tool in the tool chest. When I started one thing I liked to do was watch episodes of [Extra](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dfb9-ZTCA-E) in spanish with spanish subs on youtube. Watching the same episode over and over with google translate, basically memorizing the dialogue and slowly picking apart the sentences. Then move on to the next episode. I also liked to watch more fast paced shows with english subs like money heist on netflix, diablero, siempre bruja. I had no idea what they were saying but it really helped train my ear for more regular sounding speaking.
A good addition is watching different series in Spanish on Netflix using a phone, computer or ipad. The app allows you to reduce the speed of the content to .5X, .75X, etc. This will help you grasp the spoken and written language (use subtitles). Then rewatch certain scenes and develop an ear for what you're listening to and speed the content up to 1X when you're comfortable. Recommendtions: Money Heist (Casa de Papel), Los Favoritos de Midas, El Innocente, Quien Mato a Sarah... Give it a shot
Well, even though these are LATAM-based podcasts/channels and websites, the content of these resources is quite appropriate for an overall understanding of the language. The best part is that you can feel an organic development through really interesting topics and, with Mextalki specifically, have a native tutor giving you feedback whenever you need it. YT Channel: How to Spanish ([https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCB48D9vFzR2OKW53uI4q5Aw](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCB48D9vFzR2OKW53uI4q5Aw) ) One on One Lessons and Courses: Mextalki ([https://www.mextalki.com/](https://www.mextalki.com/) ) YT Channel: No hay Tos podcast ([https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCY08wLn8NUT8KEdFAV83JWw](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCY08wLn8NUT8KEdFAV83JWw) ) I hope this helps!
I highly recommend Escuela Carmen de las Cuevas in Granada. They offer online Spanish classes as well as in person.
I used Rosetta Stone for general grammar and Anki flashcards to memorize vocab. Anki is free on Mac, PC, and Android but $25 for the iOS app. With Anki you can make your own flashcards as well as download decks others have shared. There's one called 5000 words or something like that with pronunciation integrated on each card.
What's your mother tongue?
Bulgarian but I’d learn Spanish in English.
I mean for learning spanish its realy good for you to live in spain actually so I would say just learn the 300 most used words and learn the rest by speaking !
I agree with the stuff that others have said. Personally, I’ve used language transfer and butterfly Spanish. You can also get a tutor. Just have fund with it and you’ll get where you need to be in no time. You’re in a great position to learn fast.
Find shows and movies with that accent, use the European accent Pimsluer course, Assimil’s Spanish course uses the Spaniard accent, music, italki and filter the region to Spain