STYLETHREAD -- LET'S TALK SHOP!

jah · Dooney & Bourke

Spanish

Joina · Kenneth Cole

if you have the knack for languages, then I think it's definitely possible! Do you speak any latin language fluently? Reason I ask is because I speak Portuguese, and it was extremely easy for me to learn French, Spanish and Italian.

If the classes aren't enough, you should ask your boss to pay for a month trip to Spain The best way to learn is to submerge in the culture!

-- Edited by Joina at 00:54, 2005-02-18

Hermes

yes there are programs that enable you to learn conversational Spanish in a year. I believe Berlitz has progams in most major cities. If your employer is asking you to do this, they should pick up the tab and give you the time off that you need to do this. http://www.berlitz.com/default.htm

crystal · Kate Spade

i think joina's idea is best.. go to spain for a year, forget the classes. i took spanish for 5 years in high school but was never fluent. i went to costa rica after i graduated though & got much much better in the 19 days i was there. i'm half mexican though, so i picked up the language pretty easily since i'd heard a lot of the words b4 from my grandparents. but here i am 5 years later & i can barely put a sentence together. and understanding it? forget it! anyways, go to spain/mexico/south america... it's the only way!

halleybird · Hermes

!Si!

Detroit and Joina are right. If you can find a good immersion program, that's your best bet. Like crystal, I took Spanish for at least 4 years and am not conversational (but I wasn't taught in an immersion program). The high school I teach at uses ONLY immersion (they never speak English, even from Day 1) and the kids are easily conversational within a year. It's scary, but it's the best way.

Universities sometimes offer programs like this -- usually through their "extended" branches. Where I went to school, they had something like this for 4 weekends. It was 8 hours a day, every weekend for a month, but it supposedly worked wonders.

Good luck! And trying to get a Spain (or Mexico) trip out of the deal is worth a shot, right?

honey · Gucci

i think you can do it. imo the hardest part of learning a language is nailing the accent. i took a year of spanish in college, and still maintain a basic understanding, and that was 7+ years ago (i feel so old now.)

jah · Dooney & Bourke

Thanks for the encouragement. I scheduled an informational meeting at the Berlitz center in my city (ATL). We'll see what happens!

If I can get halfway conversational, I'll get plenty of free trips to Spain, South America, Latin America, etc. out of the deal, but I don't think they will send me to one of those places for a month before I have exhibited a propensity to learn the language. However, we do have an office in Spain, so if the Bertlitz thing goes well, who knows!?!