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Additional Information
Step 1 - Immerse Yourself in the Language
You can use whatever text or language learning program to get a good foundation in Spanish. It's largely a matter of personal preference and a willingness to work at mastering the fundamentals.
Having said that, we've looked at a lot of programs and found one that in it's updated format meets the needs of the modern language learner. We've tiltled it The Home School Spanish Immersion Program and it does not represent an untried theory. It is based on the classic text, Spanish through Spanish, by Estafanía Chavez and is the result of many years of successful teaching. The aim is to teach Spanish in a very simple way, training the ear, the tongue and the mind at the same time. And, as the original title indicates, Spanish is taught through immersion in Spanish and not through English.
Spanish is easy to teach and to learn, and whatever program you choose, for you to be successful it must follow fundamental laws of teaching and learning:
- two difficulties must not be presented at the same time
- one must progress from the easy to the difficult
- each lesson must be a continuation of yesterday's and a preparation for tomorrow's lesson
- there must be many examples and few rules
Home School Spanish follows these rules and has the following features as well
- The six preliminary lessons are devoted entirely to teaching the Spanish sounds.
- The student is taught how to speak before being taught grammar.
- The presentation of grammar is in a very natural way.
- Vocabulary is taught in context.
- There is connection between all the lessons in the book.
- There is variety in the lessons.
All text, audio, and video lessons plus answer keys are available to subscribers.
Step 2 - Learn the 600 words that make up 80% of Spanish.
 Available to Premium Subscribers. Eighty percent of the Spanish in daily use is made up of about 600 words and phrases, which are listed in the Core Vocabulary listed in the links below. If you know these words and phrases, you'll understand 80 percent of the Spanish words being spoken. This gives you a huge head start in being able to enjoy the books, movies, and music as you enjoy them.
The Core Vocabulary is composed of 52 short lists, none longer than 20 items, organized in eight categories. Each vocabulary entry consists of a main entry followed by its English translation, including a grammar tag where appropriate. We used the transcripts of 40 movies to develop the Core Vocabulary and found that it clearly matches the frequency list developed for The Big Red Book of Spanish Vocabulary (McGraw-Hill, 2005). The time you invest in making sure you know this Core Vocabulary is time well spent, because this list consists of the words you will encounter when you - watch movies in Spanish
- watch Spanish television programs
- listen to Spanish music
- read Spanish novels and nonfiction books
- participate in everyday conversation.
In short, these words are the foundation on which you will build your fluency in Spanish.
COMMON PHRASES, NUMBERS, CONNECTORS, COGNATES, NOUNS, PROUNOUNS & ADJECTIVES, VERBS, ADVERBS
Step 3 - Learn Spanish from Movies, Books, TV Shows, Music & The Bible
Available to Premium Subscribers. W  atching foreign language movies (or listening to music or reading books) has long been a way for students to learn a new language, and many language instructors show movies in the target language as a means of helping their students learn. Foreign language experts recommend watching movies or television in the target language as a way to improve language skills, with the following benefits in mind: - Native speakers can be heard and imitated.
- The rhythm and sound of the language becomes familiar
- Grammar and vocabulary are used in a natural context
- The student is immersed in the language for extended periods of time.
- It's an entertaining and fun way to learn.
Now that familiar English language movies are readily available with foreign language audio tracks through DVD and other digital formats, foreign language enthusiasts can take advantage of this technology to improve their language acquisition and to learn Spanish and other languages more quickly and easily than ever before. But before you turn on the television to a Spanish station or sit down to watch your favorite movie using the Spanish audio track, you may want to consider a couple of things. While there is some benefit to watching movies and trying to pick out familiar words, it is easy to become overwhelmed as the wave of unintelligible, indistinct, and meaningless syllables crashes over you. It's also not very efficent: You can spend many hours listening to a lot of dialogue and come away with only small gains in understanding. That could be boring and frustrating, but it wouldn't be if you could progress more rapidly--and mark the progress you've made. Our approach helps you solve these problems. For instance, let's take a line from The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.The untrained ear hears something like what the eye sees here: MevoyatenerquehacerunpeludosombrerodecastorBut if you already know this: me voy a: I'm gong to tener que: to have to hacer: to make un: a, an, one peludo: furry sombrero: hat de: of, from castor: beaver You will hear this: Me voy a tener que hacer un peludo sombrero de castor.
And understand this: I'm going to have to make a furry hat out of that beaver.
(Lit, I'm going to have to make a furry hat of beaver)It's that simple! But, while you could start with this stage, and many have, we recommend that you take care of the two preliminary steps discussed above. (1) Learn the basics of Spanish with a text, audio, video, or computer program--immersion is best, and (2) Master the 600 words that make up 80% of everyday Spanish.
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