Habla español?

Thanks everyone. I’ll take up all your offers and advice and let you know how I go. I am currently thrashing google translate, but am confident I will end up telling someone, “I am a dog and pregnant”, when what I really want to say was that, “I am, but am embarrassed”. (Pero/perro = but/dog; embarazozo/embrazada = embarrassed/pregnant)! Clearly, I need help.

I don’t know any tutors, but I’m teaching myself. I swear by a combination of:

– Colloquial Spanish by Untza Ota Alday
– McGraw Hill’s Practice Makes Perfect Spanish workbooks
(both from Uni Co-op)

and also LoMas TV, a Spanish immersion video service. You pay US$10 per month for access to about 250 videos of a few minutes each, graded by difficulty and with a selection of accents from both Spain and Latin America. The Flash video player it uses lets you slow down the speech, and show or hide both Spanish and English subtitles.

Do you have a preferred time? I have a friend who can do weekends. She specialises in kids, but that probably means it’ll be more fun.

harley said :

Watch Dora the Explorer…

I’m getting some basic Spanish so I can keep up with my 3 year old.
She watches more Dora than me, although when Dada doesn’t get what she is trying to say she is nice enough to try and say it slowly and loudly.
I have a friend who has just come back from touring around South America, I’ll see if she is interested in tutoring.

Watch Dora the Explorer…