I work at a place where most people speak Spanish, and I want to be able to hold conversations with them. I’ve watched a couple of YouTube videos, but I haven’t been able to retain the information. I need to write down flashcards and notes. I’m wondering, and I don’t mind if it’s proprietary, what is the best and fastest way to learn Spanish?
Fastest? Moving to a Spanish speaking country. Total immersion is how the French Foreign Legion teaches French from my understanding.
I would probably do a mix of a language program, say Duolingo, Pimsler tapes or Rosetta Stone, and asking a few of your Spanish speaking friends to speak primarily Spanish to you, switching to English only when you are completely lost on a concept. Between the two you should pickup Spanish or rather, their dialect of Spanish, fairly quickly.
I like this. Bonus: read children’s books and bilingual books; watch news or children’s shows in Spanish.
Find a good way to crunch vocabulary memorization with digital flashcard programs you can work during any downtime you have.
For spoken conversations, I think Pimsleur is great. I’ve used it for several international trips, and locals regularly asked if I lived there. What I like is that it 1. focuses on listening and understanding, 2. instructs you to learn first to pronounce words correctly and only to learn the spelling much later and 3. starts with the most useful phrases and develops from there. Instead of teaching you random vocab words like “milk” and “pants” the first phrase you learn is “I don’t understand Spanish.” It mixes in repetition and small changes in the just the right amounts so you learn actively instead of just memorizing. I love Pimsleur.