Step 1: What Do I Want? The first thing you should do is ask yourself: what exactly do I want to accomplish? Am I going for total native fluency (requiring years of work) or do I just want to have a decent grasp of the language so I don't come off as completely ignorant when speaking to a native speaker? Also, what is your time frame for learning this material? Do you have years to work on it or only a few days or weeks before you go on vacation or meet your significant other's relatives? Step 2: Get a Home Study Course This is probably going to be your main tool in teaching yourself Spanish, and which one you choose is vital.
I personally recommend Synergy Spanish, it's relatively inexpensive($49), but this is something that you're just going to have to invest some money in, along with time and effort.
Step 3: Online Dictionary, Thesaurus, and Translators I personally use Wordreference.
com for my dictionary and thesaurus, and Babelfish for my translator.
An excellent paperback dictionary is probably going to be very useful to you, my personal favorite is a small paperback one by Merriam-Webster that focuses on Latin American Spanish (I believe it's the most popular Spanish-English dictionary on Amazon, or close to it, so it shouldn't be hard to find at any bookstore).
Step 4: Spanish Word of the Day Something that will be HUGE for your Spanish vocabulary will be learning one new Spanish word each day.
There's several sites out there that will give you a new word each day in your RSS reader, via email, or on their website each day, such as Spanish-Word-a-Day.
Step 5: Watch Telenovelas! (Spanish language soap operas) One of the best things you can do to improve your Spanish is to sit down for 30-60 minutes each day and watch a Spanish language soap opera, called a telenovela, which will almost always be available if you have cable or satellite.
Personally, I find the best thing to do if you have Tivo or something similar is to turn on subtitles (Spanish not English) and then after a character says something pause it EACH time and figure out what they said, then repeat it a few times to yourself until you've got it and could understand it if you heard it again at full speed, then unpause it and continue to do this.
You might only get through 5 minutes worth of the show in 30 minutes, but you will learn a LOT of Spanish.
I personally recommend Synergy Spanish, it's relatively inexpensive($49), but this is something that you're just going to have to invest some money in, along with time and effort.
Step 3: Online Dictionary, Thesaurus, and Translators I personally use Wordreference.
com for my dictionary and thesaurus, and Babelfish for my translator.
An excellent paperback dictionary is probably going to be very useful to you, my personal favorite is a small paperback one by Merriam-Webster that focuses on Latin American Spanish (I believe it's the most popular Spanish-English dictionary on Amazon, or close to it, so it shouldn't be hard to find at any bookstore).
Step 4: Spanish Word of the Day Something that will be HUGE for your Spanish vocabulary will be learning one new Spanish word each day.
There's several sites out there that will give you a new word each day in your RSS reader, via email, or on their website each day, such as Spanish-Word-a-Day.
Step 5: Watch Telenovelas! (Spanish language soap operas) One of the best things you can do to improve your Spanish is to sit down for 30-60 minutes each day and watch a Spanish language soap opera, called a telenovela, which will almost always be available if you have cable or satellite.
Personally, I find the best thing to do if you have Tivo or something similar is to turn on subtitles (Spanish not English) and then after a character says something pause it EACH time and figure out what they said, then repeat it a few times to yourself until you've got it and could understand it if you heard it again at full speed, then unpause it and continue to do this.
You might only get through 5 minutes worth of the show in 30 minutes, but you will learn a LOT of Spanish.
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