Newbie - How's it going?

jaybrown/Jessica, ¡Mucho gusto! : )

This site is great for newbies like me, the reason for me to learn spanish is simple: Im trying to ask a spanish girl out ^^; its very friendly and helpful here, ill stick around for sure.

I was kinda excited for finding this site, didnt finish typing in my last comment. So... Is there a lesson about asking someone for a coffee or tea???

wow, this site is great. i am wondering what's the different between this four link Podcast MP3 (64kbps, 5.92mb) Podcast MP3 (128kbps, 11.71mb) Dialogue MP3 (0.24mb) The Fix MP3 (1.7mb) thanks.

queepan There is a lesson for coffee on top of this window to your right is the search engine, just look for it there.

Hi I have just stumbled across this site, I am moving to Spain in 4 weeks and dont speak a word of Spainsh at all!!!! I am dreading it, can anyone give me some help so I might learn this a little quicker? thanks

Hello oscarrggh, your question is answered in the help section. http://spanishpod.com/help If it's still confusing the spanishpod staff is very helpful as well as us other users. Hasta pronto.

Hahahaha! i really liked my first lesson! Hola, guapos! Is that right? BTW I'm Russian

anastasiaaaa, if you're asking if we are guapos, that is totally right! :) Welcome to SpanishPod!

hi, you said that in some parts of latin america you can greet someone by saying "hola linda"... what parts are they? i'm going to brazil and argentina, rio de janiero and buenos aires. thanks!

performa You can use them in all of them. They will all understand you, obviously not Brazil, but everywhere else is ok, this is commonly used in Argentina.

how about if we are greeting to many people in front of us, like "hi everyone"? is it hola guapos / guapas? the informal and formal way?

You can say "Hola guapos y guapas". "Hola a todos" or more formal then "buenos días" "buenas tardes".

I enjoyed my first lesson it was funny and easy to follow.

Hola, todos. Basically, this is just a "hello", nothing special to complain about or ask. I've been studying Spanish for a while, a few years, but in a sporadic manner –– sometimes really hitting it, and sometimes just browsing the Spanish newspapers or whatever on the web. I do some volunteering teaching conversational English to a man in Iran, and he, by coincidence, is studying Spanish, but is at a much more elementary level at español than in English. He turned me on to spanishpod.com. Word gets around! I'm considering plunking down the bucks for a subscription because it just so happens that I've been looking for a way to knuckle down more with the Spanish, and this site seems quite alive and happy and like it'd be conducive to living with a feeling of growing into the mastery of Spanish. Y, pa' que sepan, sharedtalk.com is a very good place to put your rubber on the road with native speakers.

Estornino Bienvenido a SpanishPod! Great to have you here! Just start listening to our podcast and if you have any questions let us know. I also host a show on cultural issues and we have our very own "telenovela" hope you can catch up! Vives en Iran? Saludos LILIANA

I am so excited about finding this site! I have been trying to learn Spanish for several years now. I am a nurse in Labor and Delivery and it is so hard to have a patient in labor that you cant communicate with. It is so impersonal to have to use the translator lines and in a true emergency there is no time!I recently was in a car wreck and am out of work for a while so I thought what a great time to learn Spanish!I am just getting started but it seems like a great site!

I just found this site and haven't gone through any of the lessons yet because I am at work at the moment. I took spanish for a few years in school and I have basic vocabulary and understanding of the langugage, but my boyfriend is Mexican and I feel like his spanish is an entirely different language because he speaks so much slang with his friends... and those are the people I am trying to communicate with. Are any of these lessons "Mexican" spanish so to speak? I am going down to Saltillo with him in a few weeks and want to get better at that kind of communication.

I am new here. Thank you Liliana for the instructions on configuring the keyboard with diacritics. Using codes for each letter was time consuming. Perdón mis errores como escribo en español. Yo sé un poco, pero espero aprender más aquí a Spanishpod.com. Gracias a todos.

I have one question, how to greet to a guy?

Hola! :) I am new here to. I have been learning over at ChinesePOD.com and I thought I would drop on over here to see if learning Spanish at the same time would be too much for me or not. I think, after listening to this lesson, that my brain should be able to separate them out fairly well and not get confused. It's still a matter of repetition and practise, so I still need to associate words and sounds with meanings. I just need to associate the word or sound with a meaning with a Spanish context. I've had a tiny bit of exposure to Spanish over the years: TV and movies have a lot Spanish; also Sydney is a multicultural city so there are lots of Spanish speakers here; and hey.. can't forget about Sesame Street right? :) haha! I'm assuming that a lot of the "basics" are going to be fairly universal to all Spanish speaking countries just that the elementary and intermediate stuff is where things are going to specialise. Anyway.. I'm sure I'll have just as much fun learning Spanish as I am with Chinese! :)

Hola a todos! I am new to SpanishPod, but I must say that I think it is a fabulous site. Thank you for the innovative lessons. I have subscribed to other Spanish podcasts and they were ok. This however is the site that has convinced me through its contents that I can really learn Spanish. Hey, I've even paid for a subscription! I just could not stand not having my Fix and Lesson Reviews. Keep up the fantastic job!!

Yo diria asi: Yo te agradesco muchisimo por toda su ayuda! O entonces gracias, amigo! Muchas gracias! Muy amable! Eso es todo para lo que tienes que hacer un grande agradecimiento! Jejejeje! Hasta pronto! Besos!

Hola todos! What a fantastic site! I'm addicted. I listen to the podcasts all day on my Ipod while I'm working out in the forest.(probably anyone coming upon me would wonder at my loud spanish conversations by myself ;) ) I would like to have someone to practice with. Maybe someone could message me at rok769@msn.com ? Me llamo Russ y soy "Newbie"

hola rok! trabajas en el "forest"? pretty cool, but what exactly do you do? just curious!

Hola Chillosk, Soy un agrimensor y cientifico de tierras humidas. Y tu?

Hola Russ! Bienvenido a SpanishPod. We are glad you enjoy the site like that. Please fill free to ask any kind of questions here in the conversations section, or you can also write us at spanishpod@gmail.com

For a few months now, I've been listening to (HOURS A DAY) things such as Spanish Pod podcasts; brand X podcasts, Pimsleur I, II, III audio CDs (almost through all of III), and many other audio CDs by using my (new) iPod Nano. Latest one in my ears right now is Penton Overseas's iSync Spanish for the iPod. It has words and phrases and they show up on the ipods screen in english and spanish ($15 for 5 hours). I also tune into my local spanish-language radio station ciento siete punto uno! And I try to get the 'feel' for the pacing and pronunciation of spanish words. (sometimes hard, especially with phone-ins). I find the sunday morning preacher/minister's program to be the easiest to follow along with. He says many words very deliberately and repeats them often. So, it's easier to follow. (and he's very passionate about his message!) I also at times watch univision. Near my bed and in el bano, I have Spanish phrase books, dictionaries, and a grammar book. I'm not sure what more I can do short of enrolling in a class, or actually engaging a spanish-speaker in conversation. But I still find myself very confused with 'short words'. All the "ahh"s, "Ay-yo"s "Ay-ye"s and such seem to blend blurrily together. And my guesses at the use of estar/es vs hay and such is a coin toss in correctness. The biggest problem is present/past tense, etc. For conjugations, is brute force (rote memorization) just the solution? Or, learning the most common usage/phrases of the most common verbs most useful? I have a LOT of vocabulary that has been built over the hours and hours of listening to all of this. But, I have a hard time tying them all together into discernible and understandable complete sentences and thoughts. Not sure that's ultimately important, though. If I POINT a lot! :) I also find that my brains fills up. After about 1.5 - 2 hours of straight audio listening. I have to take a break. My desire to 'keep learning' usually prompts me to pop the iPod back on within 45 minutes or so, though. And since I have no (current) plans to visit any area/place where Spanish is spoken, my family thinks this is odd. :) So, should I keep going? Slow down? Do more pen-to-paper work? Enroll in a class? Start going to Mexican restaurants to talk? (though, I usually don't to stay trim) And I love Spanish Pod and wish I could afford to visit a good friend of mine in Shanghai with the possibility of stopping by SpanishPod studios! (though I'm a boring visitor)

This was very helpful. I've learned a lot more Spanish at work than I ever did in school. I think because I was applying what I've learned from my hispanic coworkers. And I came to this site because while I have a good Spanish vocabulary, I have a problem with pronunciation.

Jennyoh23 Thanks for your comment y bienvenida a SpanishPod. Any lessons request or questions let us know! Saludos!

Purdue- I just finished reading your long entry above and I had to say hello. Your efforts sound almost exactly like mine - and the reaction of family, LO MISMO. Sometimes I feel like I have made great leaps forward, at other times - especially when I hear a rapid Spanish chat salted with all those "little words" - I think it is all in vain. Dictionaries, grammars, interlinear translations, yellowing editions of La Prensa and El País that I picked up at Borders months ago, 10% studied.... and the everlasting feel of headphones. No more music on my iPod - no room for the Spanish stuff (French too - adding to my woes). And all because there isn't an hispanohablante within ten miles of me (at any rate one who doesn't collect a professional salary for imparting his idioma). The emergence of the podcast has given me rekindled hope. And I am also considering joining the Peace Corps. That's how much all this means to me. I want to be multilingual at last. Maybe I'll just refuse to speak English and stare mutely at family and friends.

havint chryed et yeat

I would really like to be able to download an whole group of study lessons to my pc so I could study them anytime.

Hola Me llamo Talore, Yo estoy a "newbie"! I go to Spanish classes but i need to learn more! You all seem very smart in this language! I know weather how to say the date and a lot more! It is el dos en el mayo!

Perdue y strelikov1960, And I thought it was just me that was obsessed with learning Spanish. I've done all of that and then some. I tell people in the bank, post office, etc., "Estoy aprendiendo espanol. Por favor, puede hablarme en espanol?" They are happy to help. Me gustaria escribir a una persona para mas practicar, tambien. Me encanta spanishpod.

Hey,,, buenos dias... A proposito, Hay perder una palaba en la ultima ejercicio?

Hi

buenos dias

Hola Jesssica... sorry I missed you... New to this..How is your day going.. Did you have a comment about my question on the excercise or just to talk,,?

Hey - I noticed the comment about the spanish accents...What is this diacritics? I try to use the International key board,, typing "'" before the vowel, etc but it does not work all the time.. á- It seems to work in this site.. Is the diacritics easier to use?? thanks..Cindy

dear ctran48, we are working to improve the exercises, thanks.

Purdue and Strelnikov,

Hola.  I can completely relate to what you have stated.  I sometimes feel elated because I have really understood and/or communicated in Spanish.  At other times I listen to conversations and just shake my head wondering when if ever I will get to be more fluent.  In our are we have groups called Meetups.  We have two Spanish Meetups within 40 minutes drive from me.  I dont know if you have these available, but if you do it does give you a cool way to practice with others who are desiring the same thing.  You get together at restaurants or other areas and everyone speaks spanish to each other.  There are various level speakers and always dictionaries at the table to help.  You can check out if you have one in your area.  Go to Meetup.com and put in spanish as your interest area.  Great way to practice all you are learning at Spanish Pod!  Hope this helps.

Iamacat1122, as you can tell from my picture that I'm not chinese.  However, there are many chinese learners on this site.  Here is a spanishpod lesson on the spanish rr.  Click here: How to trill the Spanish /r/

I disagree with you....you are NOT hopeless.  You're just like the rest of us - just trying to get better.  Buena suerte (Good luck)

hola todos

para aprender un lengual, se necesita hablar sin miedo a hacer eguivocaciones.

si  es alog error, por favor correctarme.

muchisimas gracias!

Hola Khin, Bienvenida a Spanishpod! Encontrarás muchos amigos aquí a spanishpod. Nosotoros todos intentamos ayudar uno al otro.