Onionman

Yeah, I found Latin American Spanish easier to take on board, albeit I never properly mastered it. But the analogy with speaking English is a relevant one. A lot of people that speak English as a second language hear American English easier than British English, and vice versa.

I'm not sure whether it matters what sequence you watch his films in. I haven't seen all of his films but I do like All About My Mother, Volver, Talk To Her and Bad Education.

There are a lot more that I feel I probably should have watched, mind you.

Confidence in speaking has always been my problem. My listening has been ok but I do feel very self aware when I'm having to speak. I guess that's really down to developing confidence in it all. Learning verbs has also been a strength of mine in terms of using the right tenses.

My experience with YouTube options are that they're good up to a point. They allow you to get a flavor of a language and at least you get some visual aspect to it as well, rather than just listening. But you get what you pay for. If it's just the freebie approach then you should know that your learning is going to be limited.

There are some pretty good tips here. When I first started learning Spanish, smartphones and apps didn't even exist!

But having barely touched the language in the last decade I really need to apply new, up-to-date strategies to get ahead this time.

When I first started learning Spanish I was taught by a lady from Valencia. I was doing ok but didn't make great inroads. Then I moved to Miami and was being taught by a guy from Venezuela, if I'm not mistaken. I certainly think I found it easier to "hear" the language with him. But when I returned to London and started again with Spanish language groups I regressed badly.

Has anyone else had this experience of struggling with variants on Spanish?