language learning tools

It´s been two months now of living in this little olive town and I´m as content as ever.  But more importantly, I am certain I would do just fine if someone blind folded me and dropped me off in the middle of a Spanish speaking country.  I am sure of this because my fear to speak, knowing that it is likely to be full of mistakes, is almost entirely gone.  It comes back at times when I'm sitting in big groups because I can't really hang out in Spanish yet.  It's kind of funny because there is a big delay in my brain which is by the time I have heard what was said, translated it in my head, and tried to think of something to add and translate that into Spanish, the conversation topic has changed.  It's a bit frustrating and I often feel muted while sitting in a large group and saying close to nothing.  However, that's just how it is.  Like a curious three year old that knows what you're saying, listens, but can only mumble nonsense or change the topic by making a request, "Pásame el pan, por favor", or asking a question "¿Quieres más cerveza?".  Okay, it's not that bad and three year olds don't talk about beer but perhaps you get my point.  I hope by April I can hang especially to the point of understanding the jokes.  I miss laughing about nonsense.

Anyway, because it's the holiday season I'm in the mood to give.  In my quest to learn a new language, I have encountered some great, fun, and effective online language learning tools.  They are all free.  I'm not going to preach why learning a new language is important (in this post) but I will say that I'm sorry I didn't start sooner.

So here you go:

http://www.spanishdict.com/learn
Videos on grammar, exercises with vocabulary and chances to write and speak.  A great place to start especially if you want to understand the structure of the language.

http://www.duolingo.com/
You get a base line assessment and then you go from there.  You can choose from many different languages not just Spanish. 

and my newest favorite.....

http://www.lyricstraining.com/
Watch a youtube video of a song in another language.  Watch it again and try to type in the missing lyrics.  The song will stop if you don't manage to type the lyrics in time.

Enjoy!

I went to Germany to meet Andreas at his grandmother's 90th birthday.  He took this photo and I love it.  It makes me think; seize the moment: to take a photo, go for a paddle in an ice cold river, catch the sunset, be curious about wildlife, or learn a new language perhaps.  This has been the year of  now or never decision making for me.
No regrets!