“Otra cerveza, por favor!” These were the first words I learned to utter in Spanish after the Love-goddess and I decided to try wintering in Spain. These were quickly followed by “Dónde está el baño?” The literal translation of these two phrases being “another beer please” and “where is the bathroom?”. They seemed like very important phrases to know at the time and remain so.
If you run out of things to do during the great pandemic of 2020, give some consideration to tackling the learning of a new language. This may be something that you have been wanting to do for some time, or maybe it has never crossed your mind before. Regardless, this may just be the best time to take the plunge and get started – you’re still not venturing too far from home, and you’re retired.
When I say, “learn a new language”, what I actually mean is, to learn it to a level that fulfills your need. At one end of that need continuum would be becoming completely bilingual in the new language, or conversely, at the other end, to simply have enough proficiency to say “please” and “thank you”. Whatever works for you.
Because of the amount of time we spend in Spain, we have acquired some proficiency with the language, but not really enough. Where we winter on the Costa del Sol you don’t actually need a whole lot of Spanish to get along, so the need is not urgent. However, both the Love-goddess and I would like to be more fluent so as to be able to communicate at some level in all situations.
And yes, both of us have done some language training, but we have not followed through to the extent that we really should. That is all about to change. And when I say change, I mean follow through with what we had started and put on pause … i.e. reverse the good old-fashioned procrastination.
Many approaches can be taken to learning a new language. You can go it alone, or you can have someone provide you and a group of others with formal instruction. There are many options. Here are a few.
Take a Course
If you are the type of learner who needs face-to-face instruction and guidance, then taking an in-class course may work best for you. Yes, taking a course right now is very difficult to do, and probably something that would seem very uncomfortable and risky. That said, you might begin with one of these other methods, and when things become normal again, choose to round out your language education in a formal class setting. Many educational institutions and businesses offer formal language classes. These range from university degree-oriented courses, more informal Continuing Education courses offered by both universities and community colleges to an individual offering small group lessons in their home.
Take an Online Course
Even though things are beginning to open up in terms of larger numbers of people being allowed to gather in indoor settings, you may still feel squeamish about an in-class setting – especially if you would have to do it while wearing a mask. Masks are great for personal safety, but probably not helpful when attempting to learn and speak a new language.
Not to worry. There are lots of educational institutions and organizations that are offering online courses where you interact directly with an instructor using some sort of video conferencing software. A quick Google search revealed an option provided by Seneca College. Seneca is offering online instruction for several different languages, including French, German, Chinese, Italian, amongst others. When I drilled down into their Spanish language offering, the stated cost for each course was $ 283.20. Conestoga College is offering Continuing Education online classes in French and Spanish for $185.00.
Many corporate language training organizations, like Berlitz, are also offering instructor-led online courses. The costs for their courses are probably more than you will pay at an educational institution. Berlitz’s certainly is.
“Take advantage of the time and opportunity with private language lessons from Berlitz. Enrol today for only $1,990 including registration fees and digital materials. Take 40 private language learning lessons face-to-face or online within one year.”
There are lots of choices if you are willing to pay for online instruction. I am not recommending any of the choices above as I really don’t have any experience with them or have any understanding of their programs. They are just examples of what is to be found. I am sure any of the educational institutions or commercial language lesson operators in your area have similar offerings.
Get a Tutor
If you don’t like the sound of group lessons, either in person or online, you might want to consider using a personal tutor. I undertook some personal instruction in both French and Spanish from a friend of mine who is totally fluent in both. We did the French in person, and the Spanish online. I found that both approaches worked perfectly well for me. If memory serves, I paid her about $30 an hour.
So, how would I go about finding a tutor? The first thing that popped into my mind was, “I’ll check on Kijiji”. As it turns out, so many people are offering language tutoring services that Kijiji has a “Tutors & Languages” section. I searched for “Spanish language tutor” and came up with over 50 offerings in the province of Ontario. If you are doing it online, it doesn’t really matter where your instructor is located, as long as you can settle on a mutually beneficial working arrangement. I checked a couple of Spanish instructors, and they were charging about $30 an hour, similar to my friend.
Use an App
Of course, “there is an app for that!” I know this because I frequently see online ads for them. The usual suspects being, Babbel, Duolingo, Busuu, and Rosetta Stone. Before I downloaded one from the App Store to see how they work, I did notice that all the ones I checked stated under “Information” that “In-App Purchases” were involved. I assumed this meant you can only go so far with the free download before you have to start spending money to advance any further.
And, I was right. I downloaded Babel and discovered that you are strictly entitled to a seven-day free trial. After that you have to pay. The prices range from $15 a month for three months or $10 per month if you sign on for 12 months. I think I’m going with the seven-day free trial J. I got halfway through the first lesson before I bailed on it. It was mostly just listening and touching words on the screen.
This is a terrible and unfair way to judge an App of course, but it’s all I had patience for. It does appear as though in more advanced lessons the app will actually listen to you and provide feedback on how you are speaking the language. This would be a good feature to have. For those of you who have more patience to devote to working your way through the basics, this may very well work very nicely for you. I’d love to hear from you if it does.
Get a Lesson Kit from the Library
I probably should have said, “get a book or a lesson kit from the library”. However, in the era of “Ye Olde Inter-web” using a book as a teaching tool is probably not going to cut it. A multimedia approach is definitely in order these days. That is not to say that books don’t have their place. I frequently travel with a foreign language dictionary, or a phrase book. There are many times you do not have access to the Internet, so a handy reference guide is great to have with you.
These kits can be bought online of course, but I am suggesting that you check out your local library for one simply as a cost-saving measure. You probably have noticed that everything else I have suggested you will have to pony up money for. If language learning is going to be a work in progress sort of thing, I think it would be a good idea to start off by not having to actually spend any money. And, any of the kits I have come across need to be loaded onto a computer anyway, so you don’t really need one kicking around the house after you’ve done so.
I know kits can be had from local libraries because I have borrowed one myself. My original attempt at language self-instruction began with a kit I bought at Costco for $39.99, Instant Immersion Spanish Levels 1, 2 & 3. The Love-goddess and I both used this kit prior to our first winter in Spain and found it was quite useful in preparing us with a basic understanding of the language.
You will have noticed I said I borrowed one from the library, which had nothing to do with me buying one at Costco. Having enjoyed using the original Spanish kit, I decided I would look for a German kit prior to a separate visit to Europe which was going to include a fair amount of time in Germany. Fortunately, I decided that before buying a copy online, I would check with our local library system to see if they had something similar. In fact, they had the Instant Immersion German version, which I was thrilled to discover.
My Spanish kit includes discs packed with audio lessons which can be loaded into iTunes, a book containing all the lessons, and a PDF version of the book. The only thing the kit is really missing is the ability to provide feedback on how you are speaking the language. However, you do get to hear how the language is spoken and you get to repeat the phrases. If you can live with that, the kit route is an easy and inexpensive way to begin your way up the language learning curve. The nice thing about having audio files is that you can take the lessons with you on your phone, tablet, or laptop as you travel.
Don’t get too hung up on trying to find the exact kit manufacturer that I used. Lots of other companies produce language kits. I just recently went to my library website and searched the phrase “Language instruction kit”. This produced a list of other kits for many different languages, available at our local library.
A Useful Online Resource
Over the years I have found that Google Translate has been very useful when I want to know how to say something in another language – or, to translate a foreign language phrase into English. Not only will it translate what you want to say into another language, it will also speak the translation to you so you know how to say it. I find it useful when I am abroad to figure out how to say something or ask important questions before I head out to accomplish a task, e.g. buying train tickets. Give it a try.
Here’s something with which to practice the use of Google Translate, – my first and second phrases in German, “Noch ein Bier bitte!” and “Wo ist die Toilette?”. 🙂
Hasta la luego!
