Best Software/Program to Learn Spanish?

[turtile]

Does anyone here have any experience with learning Spanish with software or another program? I'd like to be able to speak and understand it.

Thanks for any help

 

[Platypus]

Duolingo is free on iOS/Android/Web and is pretty good as an introduction to any language. I would start there and see how it goes before investing money into something. If you are going to spend money, it's likely better spent from a real instructor. The problem with most software is that you don't have the chance to use the language in a meaningful capacity, which is going to kill your adoption of it. You need to find a way to use it every day. Rosetta offers some conversation mode thing with native speakers but it's very expensive.

 

[TheVrolok]

Duolingo is free on iOS/Android/Web and is pretty good as an introduction to any language. I would start there and see how it goes before investing money into something. If you are going to spend money, it's likely better spent from a real instructor. The problem with most software is that you don't have the chance to use the language in a meaningful capacity, which is going to kill your adoption of it. You need to find a way to use it every day. Rosetta offers some conversation mode thing with native speakers but it's very expensive.

Came here to post this almost verbatim. +1 for Duolingo while you find some way to immerse yourself. Would also day that watching Spanish TV is a way to sneak in some immersion, although certainly not as good as interaction.

 

[Platypus]

Came here to post this almost verbatim. +1 for Duolingo while you find some way to immerse yourself. Would also day that watching Spanish TV is a way to sneak in some immersion, although certainly not as good as interaction.

Definitely

There are tons of Spanish speaking accounts you can follow in Twitter for example, I recommend watching the news in Spanish and other shows that are in the language as well. It's helpful to have a frame of reference for the content, such as watching one of your favorite shows dubbed in Spanish.

There are likely IRC channels as well that let you converse with native speakers. It's important to speak the language out loud and with others too, but in lieu of that, you can at least type in it and have conversations with people.

 

[turtile]

So there's no software that can analyze your speech? I'll definitely try out Duolingo, thanks!

 

[quikah]

So there's no software that can analyze your speech? I'll definitely try out Duolingo, thanks!

I think rosetta stone has some speech analysis thing, it is $$$ though. You can try a demo.

 

[Imp]

I bought Rosetta Stone Spanish, liked it. Good for vocabulary and listening, but you'll need to spend time learning conjugations/grammar elsewhere. It's only ~$180 now. The cost of a 3 month intro to Spanish course from a local college is over $200 where I am.

You'd probably learn more just finding a Spanish speaking friend or employee to talk to you everyday.

 

[sdifox]

Depends on what kind of learning you want. Proper grammar based learning will take time and effort. Learning a bunch of phrases you can just use google and ivona.

 

[Svnla]

OP, if you want to learn another language well, you need to practice with the natives for listening (different accents and dialogs) and speaking skill. No software will help you with that.

 

[brianmanahan]

OP, if you want to learn another language well, you need to practice with the natives for listening (different accents and dialogs) and speaking skill. No software will help you with that.

unless that software is an online game with voice chat

and your server is one that speaks spanish