bobbieb

I have a friend/old coworker who married a native Spanish-speaking woman, and his way of starting to learn Spanish (his mother in-law speaks very little English) was to label objects throughout his house with the object's name in Spanish. I thought this was a great idea! And probably much more effective than any app one may try to use on a regular basis. Now he is of course at an advantage to be married to someone who knows Spanish fluently already, but it seems like a great way to stay motivated in learning a language.

My Mexican-born biology professor recollected to me when he knew he started to become fluent in English... He had had a dream completely in English. Is this true for anyone else? I have yet to dream in Spanish (being a native English speaker).

I have been studying Spanish for some time. I started learning my junior and senior year of high school and then went on to minor in Spanish at college, which really helped balance out my science-intensive degree. I love Spanish and I love pushing myself to think in different ways linguistically. I unfortunately haven't become fluent in the language, because like so many others I need to become fully immersed in the culture/language in order to fully become fluent. However, I have not lost hope that I will someday when given the opportunity.

I really enjoy using Duolingo for refreshers in Spanish (although I have started to learn Italian using the app) and to keep my mind active with the language. I don't think I could fully rely on the app to make me fluent in Spanish, which seems to be the consensus with most people here. I do appreciate the fact that you can receive updates and reminders for daily practice. Learning basic words and phrases is a great perk regardless.