How to brush up my own Spanish so I can help teach my own children...

[Allearia]

One of my ideals for homeschooling is to do foreign language and hopefully help my children become fluent. Spanish is probably the most practical language that I could help with with my background. I am thinking of having them do tutoring/classes as I can afford it with native speakers but to practice more conversationally during the week.

 

My background: I had 3 years (I think - sad I can't remember for sure!) of extremely mediocre high school Spanish, 1 semester of mediocre community college conversational Spanish, then a year abroad in Brazil where I became conversationally fluent in Portuguese but with no grammar study except a few things I picked up in some English learning texts my host parents had. In college at UC Berkeley I had three very good semesters of French, the third semester was reading and writing in French, and a semester of Portuguese.

 

Portuguese is so similar to Spanish I think I could become fairly fluent with conversation in a short time, with just practice and separating the Spanish from being confused with French and Portuguese. Unfortunately the language I learned the most grammar in was French. I am interested in real grammar study etc. but with time/money constraints would probably work on that along with the kids.

 

Hopefully some of that was helpful :001_smile: So my question is, what should I be looking for? A conversational Spanish class? A tutor for myself? How do I figure out what level I need, is my main concern with a class. Or would a "real" college level Spanish class be best to get me where I want to go? Anyone ever have this situation and succeed? :bigear:

[LynnG in Arizona]

I had a fairly strong background in Spanish (high school and college), but it faded with time. What really helped me brush up on things is going through the Destinos program.

 

Destinos is a G or mild PG-rated soap opera in Spanish. You can watch the videos on-line for free and just order the accompanying workbooks/textbooks from Amazon. (I personally found the workbooks to be much more helpful.)

 

Destinos is fun and was specifically designed to teach Spanish. All of the actors are native Spanish speakers from various parts of the Spanish-speaking world. It helped me enormously, and could be done in my home at my own convenience. I think you'll enjoy it . . .

 

HTH. :)

[Jennefer@SSA]

I had a fairly strong background in Spanish (high school and college), but it faded with time. What really helped me brush up on things is going through the Destinos program.

 

Destinos is a G or mild PG-rated soap opera in Spanish. You can watch the videos on-line for free and just order the accompanying workbooks/textbooks from Amazon. (I personally found the workbooks to be much more helpful.)

 

Destinos is fun and was specifically designed to teach Spanish. All of the actors are native Spanish speakers from various parts of the Spanish-speaking world. It helped me enormously, and could be done in my home at my own convenience. I think you'll enjoy it . . .

 

HTH. :)

 

I had forgotten about this resource. Thank you very much for sharing!

[Kareni]

While you are pondering a more formal approach, I'd recommend seeing if your library has books in Spanish available (particularly books that are accompanied by tapes or CDs). You could start with children's books and then move on to adult level books. I think it would be great practice to read along while listening.

 

Regards,

Kareni