NickNasty wrote:
When anyone asks a question like this it makes me think that they are looking for some magic way to learn easily and quickly...say in a couple of weeks before a trip. And if that doesn't fit your situation please don't take offense. But there is no easy way to learn a new language - no magic bullet. There probably are some ways of doing it a bit more quickly...but overall the end results seem to be similar. That is that it takes time and a lot of work. Time being exposure and use of the language at whatever level you are at, and time to learn words and grammar, all of which needs repetition.
I have used various things...I've done around 25 weeks of immersion Spanish in full time classes. In retrospect I think a week of school, followed by 4 weeks of immersion in a Spanish environment, might have been as good or better. I ended up repeating the same material several times as I would be gone for 6 months, then back for 4 or 5 weeks at school. But eventually it stuck.
As far as online stuff I use duolingo. It works for me perhaps better than it might for someone without the background of classroom immersion Spanish. It makes you practice patterns of the language...basically the grammar, but with about the right amount of repetition for me.
I've been at it for 10 years, and like I said I've done the equivalent of 6 months of classroom work. A younger, more language friendly person might certainly be fluent before that. But I have learned and although I don't consider myself fluent I can get along fine.
Anyway...not to discourage anyone, but don't be surprised that any approach can seem slow. And everyone has a different way of learning...some learn to speak it before they understand what they are hearing. I'm the opposite. I could understand a lot before I could really formulate anything spoken. And now it has evened out...I understand most of what I hear (as long as it's not street spanish), and I can say what I need to say in a few different ways. But I don't consider myself fluent. Hence continuing to work with Duolingo, etc.