Good for you! There are lots of things that you can do on your own to learn Spanish.

First of all, in many areas Spanish-language programs are available on television. When I was first learning Spanish, I particularly enjoyed watching the news programs. At first I considered myself lucky if I got the main topic of the news story, but as I continued I was able to follow the news better and better. Don’t worry about understanding everything you’re hearing; just try to comprehend as much as you can, even if it’s a little.

You can also read in Spanish. There are many Spanish-language books and magazines. I especially like Selecciones, which is a magazine very similar to Reader’s Digest. You can probably also find many other books and videos of interest at your local library. If you already know a bit about Spanish pronunciation, you can even read to yourself out loud, but silently is okay too.

Again, don’t worry about looking up too many words that you don’t understand or trying to translate from Spanish to English. Just get as much as you can from the Spanish and don’t worry about the rest. I think you’ll be surprised at how quickly your comprehension gets better if you work at it on a regular basis. You might want to start with some material that’s pretty familiar, and go from there.

I strongly believe that listening comprehension is the key to learning how to speak a language, so if you build your listening skill before your get to your class, I expect that your conversational skills will take off! Also, the Spanish vocabulary that you learn on the television news and in magazines should be appropriate for many settings, so you can use it without being afraid that it’s inappropriate or archaic or something.

I hope you have a lot of enjoyable success with your Spanish learning!

I have been helped alot by using a set of tapes I checked out of my local library. I also look up alot of common everyday words in a pocket dictionary for spanish/english translation. There are some websites which will actually translate languages. They are also helpful.

either you could try and visit somewhere Spanish speaking for as lengthy a time as possible, failing that course books, tapes: probably even net lessons..don’t know.

Watch Dora the explorer go to Mexico or get a computer program to teach you spanish.