# Skype to learn Spanish?



## Anthony Reid (Jan 1, 2002)

Over the years I have attempted to learn Spanish but never managed to get a grip on the audio cd's/tapes (and now MP3's on my ipod, by the way - Coffee Break Spanish lessons on itunes Podcast is great and free ).

But recently I have discovered a lot of language schools now teach One to One using skype (video/voice chat & text chat) - and because of how skype works, you can be taught in your own living room by a native who is in mexico, bolivia, spain... in fact anywhere in the world. I think it would be the closest thing to immersion without actually moving there.

Having looked around, it seems that there is quite a price variance for this kind of thing though -

http://www.nulengua.com charge around $8.50 per hour and are based in Bolivia. 
http://www.ie-spanishonline.com/prices-spanish-classes.php charge $15 USD per hour

And then if you look closer to home, the prices go up to around £30 per hour.

I can't really afford to go for these one to one lessons at the moment though.

The alternative is to find some Latin American students who want to learn English and then do some kind of reciprocal teaching/learning for free. I do like that idea - but I'd need decent Spanish conversation basics before attempting it 

I was wondering if anyone else has looked into using online language schools - whether they have used Skype like this, or if they have found a better way or some unusual but effective methods to learn a language?

Tony
x


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## ♥Saila♥ (Mar 27, 2006)

Move there  

In all seriousness, this is my opinion, if you are going to learn Spanish from a native I'd ensure it was someone native to Spain. Mexican people do speak differently... and some words mean different things.

We could have a thread for fun - a spanish thread, for people learning where we speak spanish?  

xx


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## Anthony Reid (Jan 1, 2002)

Pienso que es una buena idea ♥Saila♥


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## ♥Saila♥ (Mar 27, 2006)

Muy bien! Yo creo que es un buen idea tambien! 

Asi podras practicar tu espanol un poquitin mas! 

x


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## VEC (May 29, 2007)

Wotcher both Tony and Saila

Sorry Tony but this is going to be one of those posts where the respondent doesn't really answer your question.  Great!

I teach English occasionally and a few years back I did a certain amount of online teaching (albeit not using Skype).  Have to say it was an infuriating experience, as time delays, poor sound quality and frequent computer crashing meant that any benefit that the student might have had in having a mother-tongue English teacher were pretty much overruled by the irritation of giving such unproductive lessons.  I also found that I totally missed out on the additional contact and communication that visual clues can give us - I really struggled to understand what a student was thinking, and in my opinion this meant that I wasn't able to provide as good a teaching service as usual.  So, I'd think twice before enrolling - definitely perhaps have a trial lesson before signing up for any long-term commitment.  Am not a Skype-user, though, so my comments about quality of connection and sound may well be somewhat dinosaur-based.

Not sure that I agree with Saila re having a Spanish teacher rather than a Mexican.  The school where I teach has a wide mix of nationalities teaching English (English, Scottish, American, Australian and Irish) and sometimes our students insist that they want a "real" English teacher, but what does that really mean?  Nothing as far as I am concerned - the Spanish teachers at our school are Cuban, Colombian and Mexican - yes, their Spanish may be different to a Spaniards, but they have no difficulty communicating between themselves.  I also think that the English that I (as an English person) teach is probably very different to what my elderly (much more formal) aunt would teach and again totally different to what my twenty-year-old well cool godson would teach, but it's all English.  Soz to disagree.

And another thing I ALWAYS recommend with my students - if at all possible, I think that students benefit from having lessons in a small group rather than as individuals.  Provided that the members of the group are prepared to make the effort and NOT speak their native tongue in lessons, having someone else to work alongside is much better than spending all your time just talking to a teacher.  For example, I learnt how to avoid having a very English accent when talking in Italian by learning alongside a woman with a TERRIBLE accent - it just forced me to make an extra effort.  and if you hear another student speaking, you pick up on their mistakes, and it really helps things sink in much quicker.  AND (finally) as what we really want is the ability to communicate orally, I think that having at least one other student there just helps you both gain confidence in just chattering, rather than being too careful about how perfect your Spanish is.  Also, sharing lessons should reduce the cost of your lessons by at least a third.

As for other methods - when I moved to Italy I knew NO italian and have never studied it.  OLbviously living here is the best way to learn, but if that is not an option, I'd really advise not rejecting language tapes until you've tried Michel Thomas's language tapes.  If you haven't already given him a go, libraries can generally get their hands on a copy for you to borrow (as they're flippin expensive) and you just sit back and listen and repeat and don't write anything down.  After doing eight hours of this, generally whilst I was driving or walking to work, I learnt every tense in the Italian language, as well as how to fom fairly complex sentences.  You don't end up with a huge vocabulary, but they are a much more practical, useable launch into a language than any other tape where you just learn to order a glass of wine and how to ask where the nearest cathedral is.  Of course, Michel Thomas doesn't give you the opportunity to develop listening skills (which is generally one of the hardest skills to pick up), but it is a good start and if you follow his course before you enrol on a language course (whether via skype or face to face) you are pretty much guaranteed to enter into your language course at a higher level than you would otherwise.

Apols if you've already tried Michel Thomas and found it too irritating!

Such an earnest response to your email.  And I wish I could join in your Spanish conversation.  I LOVE the sound of Spanish, it is probably my favourite language, following English.

VEC XX


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## Anthony Reid (Jan 1, 2002)

Hi Vec,

I tried Michel Thomas years ago(a friend lent me several CD's of his)- but looking at his costs today, he is a little expensive. If I remember correctly, his rules were "Do Not Revise and do not write anything down!" - but I seem to remember he was quite effective.

The internet has come along way, and a video/voice, whiteboarding and collaboration systems are much more stable these days. But its really down to the quality of the connection of the students. They all offer trial lessons - so maybe I'll just go round all of them getting free trial lessons 

I take your point about groups though and might look into that - as I am sure its much more cost effective.

Thank you 

Sailia,  

Que is podras?


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## VEC (May 29, 2007)

Hello again

Michel Thomnas is flippin expensive - I just borrowed and kept renewing from the library.

That was precisely our problem with teaching online - our connection at the school was whizz bang fab but the students' connections were POOR - massive amounts of time (being paid for by the students) spent trying to fix the connection.

Anyway, good luck in finding the right place

x


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## ♥Saila♥ (Mar 27, 2006)

I think if you vacation in Mexico - have a Mexican teach you Spanish, I've been brough up in Spain and Spanish is quite practically my mother tongue and I can honestly say after speaking to Mexicans in spanish that yes we understand one another but there are differences.

I can see why you'd disagree Vec and no worries about that hon, everyone has their own opinion   To me for example if I was going to England and wanted to learn English I'd probably want an native English person to teach me.... as opposed to an American or an Australian. Each country has their own slang also and particular ways to say or perhaps refer to things in my opinion.

As a child in America I repeatedly asked for a serviette it took 3 waitresses to work out what I wanted was a napkin!

I conversed once with a mexican man who took his girlfriend for a picnic to tell her he loved her, I thought it was the most romantic thing I'd ever heard as he took her there in his "carro" Carro in mainland spain is a horse and cart. Next thing he pointed out a ford escort and told me this was his "carro" a car in mainland Spain is a "coche" needless to say the story was not so romantic after that but I learnt something new that day about mexican and spanish. Carro is car in mexican but in spanish a horse and cart and coche in spanish is a car and a horse and cart in mexican

Podras is from the verb Poder Tony   and in the sentence I used it in it means "you can"

x


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## BABY2 (Nov 28, 2007)

I have to agree with different types of Spanish I'm afraid....DH is American and knows how to speak "South American" Spanish and it was a nightmare when we went to Madrid as people could not understand him very well...def different accents and usage of words...

what about taking in a Spanish student if you have free room?? There are lots of English teaching schools that have studens from overseas, and often they look for host families (and they pay well too)...it's always on short term basis ...imagine you could get paid AND learn the language 

and muy bien on the trunks  

my attempt at using some spanish words...they are spanish words aint they Saila


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## Anthony Reid (Jan 1, 2002)

I have borrowed the Michel Thomas CD's and will stick them on my ipod later, I also got the vocab builder CD's too


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## ♥Saila♥ (Mar 27, 2006)

BABY2 said:


> and muy bien on the trunks
> 
> my attempt at using some spanish words...they are spanish words aint they Saila


Muy bien is definately spanish hon  Muy bien for you using them 



Tony Reid said:


> I have borrowed the Michel Thomas CD's and will stick them on my ipod later, I also got the vocab builder CD's too


Oooo what have you learned so far


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## Anthony Reid (Jan 1, 2002)

erm... everything in english ending in BLE or ANT is *almost* the same in spanish, with the exception of the way its pronounced and written.

Acceptable   = Aceptable  (*crude phonetics =  A Sept Ahh Bley)
Important     = importante (*more crude phonetics = import aunteh)

so..

no es aceptable para mi, pero es aceptable usted.

(if I got it right - it is not acceptable for me - but it is acceptable for you). I am not sure where to put the question marks on the pero bit though.

no es posible para usted, pero es possible para mi.
(It is not possible for you, but it is possible for me)

My grammer will be way off and the spelling is probalby wrong too


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## ♥Saila♥ (Mar 27, 2006)

Tony Reid said:


> no es aceptable para mi, pero es aceptable usted.


You needed a para before the usted 

Your doing great, I hate the word "usted" well not hate but it is a pointless word, I'd only ever use it with a significantly older stranger in the street that I was directing somewhere, it always amazes me that the spanish have a polite way of saying "you" when its quite a rude language in many ways

x


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## Anthony Reid (Jan 1, 2002)

Gracias Saila, se me olvido
    (Thank you Saila, I forgot)

I just had to look that up 

*tony is thinking he must learn to type with accents and stuff


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## VEC (May 29, 2007)

Saila - totally agree re the "usted" thing - same thing is true in Italian, and actually it is the one major criticism I have of Michel Thomas (sorry, Tony, forgot to say that before) - he doesn't really teach the more informal "you" form until you get on to the advanced tapes).  Still, to be fair, where I live, Italians do use the more formal you form, and so it has been helpful for me - just not so helpful when I first met my DP and my language remained somewhat too formal considering what we were getting up to in the meantime!


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## Anthony Reid (Jan 1, 2002)

I was thinking about that, but then it allows me to practice my vibrating 'vth' sounds.

Michel is a bit hard to understand sometimes (I've only gone through about 30 minutes of the 8 CD's though) and sometimes it feels like he is running too fast - but I am going to keep at it though.

I bought a spanish dictionary yesterday with a nice little verb section - so will start revising with that 

Vec, I like the Italian language - I remember from a school trip they gave us a couple of weeks to learn basic conversation, and then tested us on the plane. We all did quite well and back then at such a young age it seems it was so easy to learn. I have forgotton it all now. 

I guess our brains slow down quite considerably as we get older.


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## ♥Saila♥ (Mar 27, 2006)

De nada Tony, lo estas hablando y escribiendo muy bien! Ahora solo te falta practicar lo que sabes y aprender mas poco a poco. 

Vec ~    What were you getting upto in the meantime?   Conjugating verbs??   

xxxx


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## VEC (May 29, 2007)

Tony - michel does sometimes go a bit fast, but you find that he repeats and builds on previous phrases - the next thing you'll be learning is "that is not acceptable to me because I am tired", and then in about three weeks you'll come back to that and learn "That is not acceptable to me because I am tired because the donkey kept ee-orr-ing all night" or something like that, and so you'll have plenty of practise at being reminded of these phrases.

Saila - conjugating verbs     - as I told him on our first date that I wanted six children and that I hoped he was ready for action, whilst still using the formal "you", I think you may be able to guess that conjugating ain't what we were up to!  Hope you've recovered from your recent scare by the way and that things are resolved and you can move back on with treatment very soon. 

VECxx


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## Anthony Reid (Jan 1, 2002)

VEC - did you go through his full course from start to finish - or just listen to the first couple of tapes over and over? before moving onto the next?

I guess it goes against his guidance to revise - but I cant help it


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## ♥Saila♥ (Mar 27, 2006)

Vec ~   Thanks sweetie, got an appointment on the 9th of July so hoping that we'll get the go ahead then. Not long till your little one is here I bet you can't wait!

Tony ~ Pasame un cerveza porfavor estoy cansada, tengo calor y me apetece un San Miguel  

x


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## Anthony Reid (Jan 1, 2002)

Pero, no tengo limon Saila - san miguel necesito limon.

Quieres el vino blanco?

Topical and funny video - Do you speak english?


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## ♥Saila♥ (Mar 27, 2006)

I'll have to view that video when I get in

Me encanta el vino blanco, en particular los de Australia por ejemplo la marca "Hardys"   A estas horas lo que me gustaria mas es un cafe con leche  

x


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## VEC (May 29, 2007)

Am v jealous of you both chatting away in Spanish - I understand it but don't speak it.  So I gather that you like talking about alcohol ...

Saila - my fingers are crossed for your appointment on the 9th, will be lovely to get permission to get back on the train!

Tony - DON'T revise.  Do the whole course.  Then if necessary do the whole course again.  But he does keep coming back to the same phrases throughout the course.  

Am going to have my hair cut.  Have nice days you two.

x


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## Anthony Reid (Jan 1, 2002)

Yes, Sailia wanted a beer (san miguel) but I had no limes(it needs a lime!) - so offered her some white wine, which she loves - specifically Hardys australian wine, but it is too early and she would rather a coffee with milk 

I'll take your advice and stop revising then


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## ♥Saila♥ (Mar 27, 2006)

Urgh it doesn't need lime Tony   Lime is just for Corona  

Aw thanks Vec, I am praying I am allowed back on it too  

xxxxx


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## Anthony Reid (Jan 1, 2002)

Nooooo..... San Miguel too - everything needs lime anyway!!! I love lime


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## alex32 (Nov 2, 2008)

Hi Tony,

Just thought I'd jump in to suggest language exchange via the Gumtree: http://www.gumtree.com/london/london-skills-language-swap_1583_1.html (this is the London site, but they have different sites for other cities).

I've used this before and it's a great way to get some practice in the language you're learning. Some of the swappers are actually training to be teachers so they're really good, and it's free of course!

Also - have to put in a word for South American Spanish. I learnt in Bolivia and found it much easier to pronounce than Castilian Spanish (no th th ths and rolled rrrrs). But other posters are quite right that there are vocab differences.

Good luck!

Alex x


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## Anthony Reid (Jan 1, 2002)

Thanks Alex.

I have discovered a website called livemocha and for the last day or so have been teaching english to a whole heap of people. 

The flashcard quizes on there are quite good too. A chap in Spain has contacted me direct and offered to teach me spainish over skype in return for me helping him english pronounciation. So that should be fun 

I'll check out the language section on gumtree! thank you 

Tony
x


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## ♥Saila♥ (Mar 27, 2006)

Wow that is good Tony! Do you get paid or is it voluntary?

Que bien, hoy es Viernes y ya nos toca a todos el fin de semana! Pienso pasarlo paseando con la perra en la playa!

xxx


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## Anthony Reid (Jan 1, 2002)

♥Saila♥ said:


> Wow that is good Tony! Do you get paid or is it voluntary?
> 
> Que bien, hoy es Viernes y ya nos toca a todos el fin de semana! Pienso pasarlo paseando con la perra en la playa!
> 
> xxx


If you get enough teaching points then you can apply to be a formal teacher and earn a nice bit of doe


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## ♥Saila♥ (Mar 27, 2006)

OMG I might have to look into this tonight! x


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## Anthony Reid (Jan 1, 2002)

http://www.livemocha.com/teach


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