Habla Espanol?

[Ethernut]

So, uh, I have a trip planned to the Cigar Mecca later in the year and want to at least be able to interact with the locals. I believe it will enhance my experience tremendously. Beyond 2 years of high school (which was over 20 years ago) Spanish I'm working from the ground up. Just curious what learning paths you may recommend (or not recommend)?

I've looked at:

Rosetta Stone

Michel Thomas

Duolingo

Fluenz

FluentU

...and a few others. Currently I'm using Duolingo in insane mode and listening to Cuban news/talk radio during my drive times to acclimate to speed and intonation. I must say I can pick out much more than I thought I could but still way too slow. I'm having fun with it though. Any suggestions for learning aids welcome. I have a few months so I should be in at least remedial shape by the time I hit Cuban soil.

TIA

[chris12381]

First off, good for you taking the time to learn and you're right, it will most definitely make your trip more enjoyable.  My background:

Grew up in Rhode Island, 4 year years high school Spanish, 2 years Spanish at Purdue and studied 1 semester at the Universitat de Barcelona in Spain and 2 semesters at the Universidad de la Habana in Cuba.  Here's the deal.  I learned more Spanish in first 2 weeks when it was "sink or swim" in Barcelona than I did in 6 years of classroom Spanish.  It's really a simple as that.  Simple things like going shopping for scale turn into linguistic nightmares and you're forced to use what you know to explain what you're looking for and it's embarrassing, kinda terrifying, funny and glorious.  In every interaction I had, people were thrilled to interact with someone who was doing their hardest to try and learn their language.  

I think you're doing the right thing in your practice and the post beneficial is going to be hearing the Cuban speech prior to getting there.  I would suggest that you watch some TV programs with either Spanish or English subtitles on (depending on your comfort level).

[chris12381]

Your biggest challenge is going to be the Cuban accent.  There's really no way around that one.  It's just really really difficult to understand and take a long time to pick apart the individual words as initially, the seem to be all attached together!   I'd head over to YouTube and see if you can find interviews of Cubans on the street for news stories or other interesting topics and see if you get yourself ready for that accent before you hear it on the street in Havana.    

 

[Ethernut]

Great advice @chris12381. I'm going to continue to listen to Cuban talk radio while building up my vocabulary over the next week or two then will hit YouTube and hopefully get Spanish subtitles on some of them. I tried some videos a day or two ago and it was just too fast for me to keep up. That's where the Cuban radio idea came in. This is the radio station I'm listening to http://www.martinoticias.com. If you have a better suggestion please let me know! Really enjoying the journey. Thanks for the quick response!

[stogieluver]

You may be surprised at how many Cubans know English, but I've wondered the same about the best course to take. Curious to see the answers to your question.

[cigcars]

      Well on my job we get calls in to our centers, and with "Bueno?" as we also make calls to some households. So that I don't just say in English, "We'll get someone who can speak Spanish to call you back!" I simply consulted with our Spanish speaking colleagues and I learned the quickest from their tutelage. They coached me, wrote down the various common sentences I'd need - even improved my syllables so that I wouldn't have that much of an "American" accent when I spoke the Spanish language info to our prospective contacts!  Believe me, I wouldn't have learned that fast from just books or a few classes! And our Hispanic colleagues were more than happy to take the time to coach me! 

[GavLew79]

I listened to the first three lessons of Michel Tomas on my iPod, an hour or two a day, for about a week. It was enough to get by on a trip to Spain. 

It's different to how i learned languages in school though. None of this "Hi, my name is ... And I'm...years old... I like football and guitars..." it starts out with like "it is not necessary for me to do that", which at first is a bit odd, but you learn more words. 

[ShortFatHokie]

5 hours ago, chris12381 said:

First off, good for you taking the time to learn and you're right, it will most definitely make your trip more enjoyable.  My background:

Grew up in Rhode Island, 4 year years high school Spanish, 2 years Spanish at Purdue and studied 1 semester at the Universitat de Barcelona in Spain and 2 semesters at the Universidad de la Habana in Cuba.  Here's the deal.  I learned more Spanish in first 2 weeks when it was "sink or swim" in Barcelona than I did in 6 years of classroom Spanish.  It's really a simple as that.

Similar situation...I did three years in high school and three years in college and learned more in six or so months from a girl I dated who spoke Spanish fluently.  Hearing and speaking it on a daily basis made learning it much faster and easier

[Ryan]

I've used Duolingo. I have found it the best of all the self-learn apps. I have conversational spanish now, not fluent by any means but certainly enough to get by. Duolingo, towards the end of the course, is good with tenses, where I was hopeless. I still try to practice with it for 10-15 minutes every day. I also spend some time reading Cuban news outlets online, in Spanish.

As others have said, nothing beats being immersed in the language and having to use it.

While I'm not recommending alcohol, it helps! Not that it will make your spanish better or help you remember your vocabulary, probably the opposite, but what it does is lower your inhibition towards using what you know, that can make all the difference. 

Before going to Cuba or any other spanish speaking country, get a hold of and translate some menus. It's where travellers often have the hardest time, and something you'll need probably twice a day. Many restaurants will have translated versions of their menus but the translations are often more confusing than the spanish. I've seen "pope's holes" on a menu in Spain, I presume it was something to do with potatoes.

Very few spanish language apps will teach you camarones, cordero, conejo, pulpo, frijoles, ternera, chuletas, rape, al ajillo etc.

Quick edit. For anyone who wants just a few phrases, in my experience the most useful phrases have been.

Cuanto Cuesta? How much.

Mucho gusto. Pleased to meet you.

Un poco mas despacio por favor. A little more slowly please.

And these days in Cuba where there are more and more places where smoking may or may not be allowed, "Hay cenicero por favor" (do you have an ashtray please) works better than "Puedo fumar?" (Can I smoke?). People are less likely to say no.

[Ethernut]

This thread is already exceeding my expectations thanks to you fine folks. Great advice here. 

@cigcars I'm from the southern US so it's hard enough for me not to sound like a redneck ? much less a native! But Im giving it a noble shot.

@GavLew79 thanks for the tip on Michel Thomas. I have that app, looks to not be very pricey. I've listened to a piece of it and his style already has bits sticking in my mind.

@ShortFatHokie everything I read says immersion is the best way also. Thus listening to Cuban radio for now. 

@Ryan thanks for that mate! I already recognize a few food words, great tip on the menu! Will do! Appreciate the common phrases also! Popes Holes, that's funny! 

 

[ElReyDel757]

Rosetta Stone is excellent, but I find Duolingo to be the best by far.  Babble is also quite good, but to me, Duolingo by a long shot.  Last I used it, it was completely free.  It is quite comprehensive.

[Ethernut]

Thanks @ElReyDel757 I've tried several and keep coming back to Duolingo. The thoughts of several here confirm my suspicions on Duolingo. It's surprisingly good for it's price. It's almost like, something so good shouldn't be free thus it challenges the legitimacy of it. At this point I'm glad I haven't pulled the trigger on an expensive software package.

[Corylax18]

@Ethernut The software helps, Immersion is the best. Keep at it, thats the key. If you have already seen progress, just wait, the more you understand, the more you will start to pick up as you go. I worked construction in southern Arizona for about 8 months and learned more Spanish than I did during 4 years of classes in High School.

Tons of websites are available in multiple languages these days, pull up a site twice and read through it a few times in each language. Translation are rarely perfect, but it helps in picking up sentence and paragraph structure. I actually booked my Cancun to Havana Ticket for November on Interjets Spanish language website. Buying the flight in Pesos instead of Dollars saved me 11% on the ticket!

[ElReyDel757]

I completely agree, Duolingo combined with immersion from radio, movies, print, websites and native speakers are far superior to any paid software.  There is literally no reason to purchase such software, IMHO.

[Ryan]

I remember hearing some time ago that Duolingo makes money by selling translations to Google Translate. If that's true, it's a great idea.

[puromaniac]

Some writing wag once said that verbs are the juice of the sentence. Or something like that. There are many excellent books on Spanish verbs that I have found helpful, not only for learning useful verbs, but verb tenses. You don't have to memorize them all, but learning a few common verbs and their tenses can be helpful. Even just present, past and future tense makes you a better speaker. I copied many I use into a cheat sheet which I review before I travel.

[JohnnyO]

Like all other Spanish cultures Cuba has idiomatic expressions (slang) that no one else uses in other countries. Too many of them in fact and many expressions are a play on words so as not to offend the establishment. Many hand signals to describe a situation without saying the exact word they would like to say. Having a English-Spanish dictionary app would not be a bad thing to have on hand. Learn all of the words you might use at a restaurant; fork, knife, spoon, plate, glass, bathroom, beer, salt, bread, water, etc. Some in Cuba get offended if you don't say good afternoon/morning as you meet someone for the 1st time. It is standard for men and women to kiss each other on the right cheek when meeting for the 1st time, handshakes are common if you don't know that person well. In touristy areas you will find Cubans that speak English but sometimes not that well. In the airport most of them speak English, if not there is someone nearby. Most of the radio stations for me talk too fast like an infomercial disclaimer. Radio Enciclopedia has the slowest talkers but that might not be to your liking as it is mostly instrumental music but the are on the internet. As Ryan said just chug Buccaneros it will all come to you. John 

[Ribeye]

Use whichever you feel comfortable with, but also realize that there will be a tremendous difference between the educated and the un-educated people.  It takes significant effort to understand the un-educated.....but when you hear the language spoken properly it will sound like music to your ears. 

[Ethernut]

1 hour ago, Ribeye said:

Use whichever you feel comfortable with, but also realize that there will be a tremendous difference between the educated and the un-educated people.  It takes significant effort to understand the un-educated.....but when you hear the language spoken properly it will sound like music to your ears. 

I sense that already - at times on the Cuban Talk Radio they'll interview someone that I cannot understand at all.. It'll be mas despacio for me at the point fo sho!

[Danimalia]

When I went to Cuba in 2005, I found that many Cubans spoke impressively good English. I can't recommend any of the software/online programs, but I think any would be sufficient for learning some basics.

 

They speak quickly, too, so you will definitely have to say mas despacio, por favor!  

 

 

[El Presidente]

I have always loved the theory that languages are best learned in bed, preferably on location. 

.....significant others do not always agree with that theory 

[BMWBen]

Good call with the duolingo suggestions, I've been using it the past couple days and it has been working great. I'm surprised how easily the Spanish I learned back in high school is coming back to me

[scap99]

Might look up some of the local slang....

For example, saying "Cola" in the US is an acceptable word for a soft drink, but in some Spanish speaking areas it is slang for female anatomy.

 

 

 

 

[Fuzz]

30 minutes ago, scap99 said:

Might look up some of the local slang....

For example, saying "Cola" in the US is an acceptable word for a soft drink, but in some Spanish speaking areas it is slang for female anatomy.

 

 

 

 

Was in a diner years ago and the waitress asked if I wanted a Coke. I said sure, but then she asked me kind. I replied, "I'll just have a Coke". She got really annoyed and said, "What kind?! You want lemon, orange or cola?". Told her I always thought Coke meant Coca Cola. Never knew some places use "Coke" to mean any kind of soft drink.

[scap99]

4 hours ago, Fuzz said:

Was in a diner years ago and the waitress asked if I wanted a Coke. I said sure, but then she asked me kind. I replied, "I'll just have a Coke". She got really annoyed and said, "What kind?! You want lemon, orange or cola?". Told her I always thought Coke meant Coca Cola. Never knew some places use "Coke" to mean any kind of soft drink.

Coke is universal, in Texas, for everything but Dr. Pepper.