How I’m Brushing Up

In order to brush up on my Spanish skills and get prepared to hit the ground running when I land in San Juan a month from now, I’m spending about an hour per day studying the language. Since I already know the language and am only brushing up, I can afford to focus my efforts only on the areas I’m most lacking in.  Here’s what I’m doing.

• Watching Spanish films and listening to Spanish radio – The Puerto Rican accent is a difficult one for many learners.  As such, I think my listening skills are probably where I need the most work.  While most of what I’ll hear in films and on the radio isn’t Puerto Rican Spanish, any exposure to an authentic Spanish accent will help tremendously.
• Breaking Out The Old FSI Spanish Course - I’ve decided to break out part two of my FSI Spanish distribution of choice, Barron’s Mastering Spanish series.  I should be able to complete part two of the FSI course in less than a month, which will significantly improve my rusty spontaneous conversational abilities.
• Completing A Spanish Verbs Workbook – I decided to use this as an opportunity to try out The Ultimate Spanish Verb Review and Practice workbook.  It looked promising in the store, sharing many of the characteristics that made Dorothy Richmond’s Practice Makes Perfect: Spanish Verb Tenses workbook so effective.  So far, I like it a lot, although I still like Richmond’s workbooks better.  I hope to write a full review of it when I get a chance.  I chose to focus on the verb system because verbs arguably play a more important part in being understood in Spanish than in English.
• Practicing Spanish With Anybody And Everybody – I have a few friends willing to speak Spanish with me on a semi-regular basis.  This will prove to be the most valuable learning tool I have.  If you don’t have any Spanish-speaking friends, you can practice as Mexican restaurants or join a language exchange at your local Latin American Association (most major cities have one).
• Reading El Hobbit/ The Hobbit (Spanish Edition) – Okay, so this is more for pleasure than anything.  I’ve been slowly working my way through the Spanish edition of this Tolkien classic for a little over a month now.  It’s written at a level easy enough for an intermediate student to understand without having to look too many words up in the dictionary.

How do you brush up on your Spanish skills after a long period of not using them?  Is there anything I’ve missed?

Customer Reviews Are Most Likely To Be Unbiased Opinions

That’s an interesting question and has a simple answer:  while there are plenty of honest reviews out there, even by people who stand to gain something from your purchase decisions (I do my best around here!), there are also plenty of people who will stop at nothing to make a quick buck.  So where to find unbiased opinions?  I think customer reviews of products on the major eCommerce sites, like Amazon.com, are a great start.  Even here, however, there are a few caveats.  Here are a few guidelines to help you sort the good from the bad.

• Be Wary Of Products With Only A Few Reviews – Customer reviews are more likely to be objective for larger, more popular products than smaller ones.  For example, the Rosetta Stone customer reviews section on Amazon currently has over 130 reviews and counting.  While a few of these reviewers may have an agenda, the vast majority are likely to be honest people with something to say that they feel is important.  By contrast, a small product with only two or three reviews could easily be manipulated by the author and a few friends.
• Be Wary Of Products With Only Stellar Reviews – No product is perfect, not even the best.  Any honest product review will draw attention to the product’s faults as well as strengths.  For example, FSI Spanish is a very effective program, but it has the disadvantage of being incredibly boring.  Similarly, Rosetta Stone excels at teaching pronunciation but is a bit weak in the grammar department.  A product with only positive reviews should set off an alarm in your head that maybe, just maybe, somebody is trying to make the product seem better than it really is.
• Look For References For Competing Products – Often times, reviewers will attempt to compare and contrast the product in question with other popular products in the same niche.  These reviews can be gold mines of information because they allow you to get an idea of the strengths and weaknesses of both products without having to spend any money.  For example, the very first customer review of Fluenz Spanish (a software package gaining in popularity) is titled “Fluenz and Rosetta” and gives a detailed side-by-side comparison of what the author both likes and dislikes about both software packages.  It would be wise to learn from the experience of this reviewer rather than waste your own hard-earned cash.  You may not agree with their opinion, but at least it offers a different perspective.

What Does This Mean For Learners?

This is good news for learners.  Inevitably, beginners observe the amount of vocabulary unknown to them and begin to feel like it’ll take years to learn enough to be able to carry on a conversation.  The 1000 number above, while it sounds like a lot, really isn’t.  Following my vocabulary card approach, most students should be able to learn an average of 10 new vocabulary words per days in an average of 20-30 minutes scattered throughout the day that would otherwise be wasted and unproductive anyway.

What Are The Most Common Spanish Words?

Knowing which words are most useful is another trick entirely.  Most decent vocabulary card sets more or less contain to the most useful words to know, but not always.  Similarly, I have seen some vocabulary lists in the past with seemingly no connection to reality;  the FSI program in particular is bad at this (just how many ways are there to ask for a cigarette, anyway?).  Fortunately, the most useful source I’ve come across is also the cheapest.  There is a book called 1001 Most Useful Spanish Words that sells for just $2 on Amazon, brand new and contains the most accurate list of common Spanish words I’ve seen yet.  Realistically, an $18 total investment between 1001 Most Useful Spanish Words and a good set of vocabulary cards is probably all you’ll ever need, because it’s much easier to absorb new vocabulary organically once you’ve reached an advanced Spanish level.

Ready to get started?  Buy 1001 Most Useful Spanish Words and Modern Spanish Bilingual Vocabulary Cards from Amazon today and get stared on the road to fluency!

Switch It Up To Push Through To The Other Side

Fortunately, the solution to a plateau in almost any discipline is the same:  change it up.  What do bodybuilders do when they are no longer seeing the gains they once were?  They change their routine, attacking their muscles from completely different angles often tricks the body into building muscle again.  This makes perfect sense when you consider the reason for the plateau in the first place was that your body had adapted to having the same stress placed on it day after day, week after week.  A new workout introduces new stresses, stresses your body is completely unprepared to handle.  Hence, muscle growth resumes.

The same idea can work for you when your Spanish efforts reach a plateau.  The reason for the plateau is that your mind has become accustomed to the same old stimulation over and over again.  It’s not that what you’ve been doing isn’t effective, it’s just that you’ve saturated your brain from that particular angle for now.  The solution, as with bodybuilding, is to change it up.

If you’ve been focusing on grammar drills using the FSI program, for example, put that program down for a week or two and focus on beefing up your listening or reading skills.  A good Spanish read will reinforce the vocabulary you’ve already learned and expose you to new vocabulary you probably wouldn’t come across in a typical grammar book.

Similarly, if you’ve been using a  program like Pimsleur or Rosetta Stone that minimizes the importance of grammar drills and you’ve reached an impasse, it might be worth it to pick up a quality grammar workbook like Marcial Prado’s Advanced Spanish Grammar or my all-time favorite Spanish grammar workbook, Dorothy Richmond’s Practice Makes Perfect: Spanish Verb Tenses for a while.  The grammar you learn from these workbooks will not only help you advance more quickly through your program of choice, but will help your brain switch gears and challenge it in new ways.

This brief interlude can make all the difference in the world between advancing your Spanish to the next level and struggling with a demoralizing plateau.  Besides, if learning Spanish becomes a boring chore, you’ll probably stop doing it.  Switching things up a bit can help out with that aspect, as well.

Where To Buy Rosetta Stone Cheap?

The unfortunate answer to this question is that it doesn’t seem like you can, at least not where I can find.  It’s certainly possible to find good prices on used Rosetta Stone Spanish software on the internet, but their supply seems to be very limited.  One option you might want to try is looking for Rosetta Stone at your local library, many of which carry copies for patron use.  Unfortunately, the software is usually considered reference material and can’t be checked out, which limits its effectiveness somewhat.  Still, free restricted use is better than none at all!

If you’re one of the lucky few who manage to find a deal on a good used copy, good for you!  The rest of us will probably have to resort to buying new, which can cost up to $500 for all three levels (totally worth the price, by the way).  Amazon carries the full three levels at $494 new (and usually less used), which is better than the $549 price Rosetta Stone itself charges.  Retail stores like Best Buy and Borders usually charge even more, so Amazon is probably your best bet to buy Rosetta Stone cheap (well, cheaper at least).

Not convinced Rosetta Stone is worth the price?  Check out my Rosetta Stone Spanish Review or Amazon user reviews for more opinions.

Principiantes is a wonderful blog for students of Spanish.  It is written entirely in Spanish and contains lessons, interesting cultural facts, Spanish video and music, and more.  If nothing else, you can get in a few minutes of reading practice every day here.

Trying To Learn Spanish is a blog and podcast (mostly podcast, it seems) that gives good learning tips and product recommendations.

Spain Recipes is a site dedicated to delicious Spanish recipes because sometimes, just speaking the language isn’t enough.  Patatas bravas are my favorite.

Spanish Alt Codes

On Windows PCs, alt codes work quite simply and you’ll be able to do them quickly on the fly once you get the hang of it. To use a particular alt code, follow these steps:

• Make sure your numlock is enabled
• Hold down the left alt key (just left of the space bar) while you type the desired alt code on the number keypad to the right of your keyboard. After you’re done typing the code, release the alt key and your character will appear. For example, to type the Spanish ‘ñ’ first make sure your numlock is enabled. Then, press and hold the left alt key as you type the proper alt code (in this case 164) on the number keypad on the right site of your keyboard. NB: Alt codes will not work with the number keys at the top of your keyboard, only with the number keypad to the right.

A Word On Using Alt Codes On A Laptop

Alt codes work the same way on laptops with one notable exception: most laptop keyboards are too compact for a proper number pad. Instead, the number keypad is combined with the regular keyboard, usually with the numbers in tiny squares in the top-left corner of they key. On my keyboard, the number ‘4′ corresponds with the letter ‘u’. To activate these numbers, press and hold down the fn key (usually just left of the alt key) and then press the num lk key. Now that numlock is enabled, you can use the alt codes like above. When you’re done, simply hold the fn key and press the num lk key again to disable numlock so you can type normally.