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Dyzphagia
June 15th, 2011, 11:56 PM
Well I was looking to learn both of these languages eventually in my life. I have a lot of free time now, so I was hoping any of you may have a website that could start me on the basics.

I'd prefer to get a site for both of them, as I'm going to focus on one at a time.

For the Spanish though, I was leaning more towards Puerto Rican Spanish. The dialect or whatever the difference is.

Please and thanks

DirtyPC
June 15th, 2011, 11:57 PM
http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/spanish/

Dyzphagia
June 16th, 2011, 12:02 AM
Alright thanks.

I'm looking for as many sites as I can get. For either language. I don't mind having 50 sites for each, just as long as I can learn.

user1397
June 16th, 2011, 12:15 AM
Well I was looking to learn both of these languages eventually in my life. I have a lot of free time now, so I was hoping any of you may have a website that could start me on the basics.

I'd prefer to get a site for both of them, as I'm going to focus on one at a time.

For the Spanish though, I was leaning more towards Puerto Rican Spanish. The dialect or whatever the difference is.

Please and thanks
I'm a native spanish speaker, so I think I can provide at least some good advice.

First off, don't focus on trying to learn one specific country's dialect, that won't do you any good. No offense to any Puerto Ricans here, but their dialect or pronunciations of words are among the most cut-off and hard to understand for non-native speakers, a famous example being how they cut off the word 'para' and leave it as 'pa' (not that other countries don't do this as well, but hey).

Instead focus on learning one of the two main forms of regular spanish, namely spanish from Spain or Latin American spanish. Unless you plan on moving to Spain for whatever reason, it is usually better to stick with Latin American spanish because more people speak it. Then again, the only real big differences between the two lie in the use of another conjugate in Spain-spanish (the vosotros) and accents (the way the Z is pronounced is a big one).

Anyway to learn I always recommend to immerse yourself in the language as much as possible (ideally moving to a spanish speaking country and having to basically force yourself to speak the language) but of course that is not always feasible. If you have any friends that speak spanish you can ask them to try to speak with you in spanish whenever you can. Watch television shows and movies in spanish. And there's always formal spanish classes and language learning software, I hear Rosetta is good.

Good luck!

Dyzphagia
June 16th, 2011, 12:17 AM
I'm a native spanish speaker, so I think I can provide at least some good advice.

First off, don't focus on trying to learn one specific country's dialect, that won't do you any good. No offense to any Puerto Ricans here, but their dialect or pronunciations of words are among the most cut-off and hard to understand for non-native speakers, a famous example being how they cut off the word 'para' and leave it as 'pa' (not that other countries don't do this as well, but hey).

Instead focus on learning one of the two main forms of regular spanish, namely spanish from Spain or Latin American spanish. Unless you plan on moving to Spain for whatever reason, it is usually better to stick with Latin American spanish because more people speak it. Then again, the only real big differences between the two lie in the use of another conjugate in Spanish-spanish (the vosotros) and accents (the way the Z is pronounced is a big one).

Anyway to learn I always recommend to immerse yourself in the language as much as possible (ideally moving to a spanish speaking country and having to basically force yourself to speak the language) but that is not always feasible so there's always formal spanish classes and language learning software, I hear Rosetta is good.

Good luck!

Thanks. I would move and do the whole forcing thing, don't have the cash though. Well all I need is a few sources for Italian and I'll be set.

odiseo77
June 16th, 2011, 12:25 AM
Hi,

I have not personally tried this, but someone else suggested me this site (www.livemocha.com) a while ago for learning languages. I'm a Spanish speaker too and I second the suggestion by ubuntuman001 about not focusing on one local type of Spanish, but rather in Latin American Spanish (well, probably I have a preference for this one because I am Latin American too, hehe).

Good luck!

juancarlospaco
June 16th, 2011, 12:31 AM
Hola, yo hablo American Spanish :)

I agree with the guys above.

forrestcupp
June 16th, 2011, 12:33 AM
a famous example being how they cut off the word 'para' and leave it as 'pa' (not that other countries don't do this as well, but hey).

Like in the song La Bamba when they say "pa mi, pa ti"?

juancarlospaco
June 16th, 2011, 12:38 AM
Most of times people dont write things properly, on purpose...

plz xcus my brvity :D

Dyzphagia
June 16th, 2011, 12:48 AM
Alright another site added. Thanks guys. Now I'd just like some more stuff for the Italian. I need as much as I can get. I plan to visit Italy here in four years and I want to be prepared. That and it is a beautiful language

Ric_NYC
June 16th, 2011, 01:15 AM
Colombian Spanish if you want something "neutral".

cgroza
June 16th, 2011, 01:48 AM
Alright another site added. Thanks guys. Now I'd just like some more stuff for the Italian. I need as much as I can get. I plan to visit Italy here in four years and I want to be prepared. That and it is a beautiful language
What would be the definition of a beautiful language and and the definition of an ugly one?

Dyzphagia
June 16th, 2011, 02:13 AM
I suppose it's more of a personal preference. I've always considered Italian a beautiful language.

Macskeeball
June 16th, 2011, 06:14 AM
Audio learning: Coffee Break Spanish (http://radiolingua.com/shows/spanish/coffee-break-spanish/)

They have some Italian learning shows (http://radiolingua.com/shows/italian/) too, but judging by the descriptions those seem much more limited than the Spanish.

lucazade
June 16th, 2011, 07:16 AM
Beside a difficult and complex grammar, especially for declination of verbs, Italian should be easy to learn,
also because what you write is what you read.
English instead is a roulette to get the correct pronunciation if you don't know yet that term. :)

Nytram
June 16th, 2011, 12:37 PM
You may be interested in Spanish and Italian translation software, there are Linux versions on the site below, as well as a simple Spanish Tutor written in Java.

http://marteq.net/

forrestcupp
June 16th, 2011, 04:42 PM
What would be the definition of a beautiful language and and the definition of an ugly one?

German seems like an uglier language than most.