Can you learn a language through osmosis (SLEEPING)?

[DerekG]

I am going to learn Spanish, and in addition to using various books, I'm interested in purchasing any one of the myriad tapes and CDs which promise to improve the potential for a person to acquire Spanish as they sleep.

Is there any evidence that learning through this method HELPS one become more fluent? Any suggestions, links, or personal accounts? I am looking at this as an aid, so please don't post any diatribes telling me to study, study, study.

Replies would be greatly appreciated.

[SlavesandBulldozers]

1. study

study study. but more than study, speak it - and put yourself in a position when you must speak it. comprende?

the sleep thing won't work.

[Frangible]

2. No, this is a fraud

But the good news is Spanish is a relatively easy language to learn, and a rather useful one.

[Langis]

3. yo hablo espanol muy mal

=)

[MissMarple]

4. When I was in eighth grade I put my science text under my pillow.

Honest! It didn't work.

A friend of mine teaches college level Spanish. She says total immersion is the way to go. Alternatively, if you can't go to Spain or Mexico for several months, she suggested watching Spanish TV programs (soaps) and listening to Spanish songs. Apparently the sung Spanish is easier to understand.

Good luck!

[Westegg]

5. Yep, total immersion

I studied French for seven years, in high school and college, but didn't learn to speak it or understand it properly until I spent a summer in France, living with a French family.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

6. I agree, too

It's helpful to have a little formal instruction Stateside so you're not totally lost when you arrive in the foreign environment, but think of it this way: each waking hour in the foreign environment is 16 hours (over 3 weeks) of class.

The ideal system is to find a program (and for Spanish, there are several in Mexico, Guatemala, and Costa Rica) where you live with a local family AND have a couple of hours of class a day. Otherwise, if you pick up the language entirely by ear, you risk becoming "fluent" in an ungrammatical version of Spanish with a poor vocabulary. (I've seen this in Japanese with returned AFS students.)

If you can't travel, try getting in touch with some of the local Latino population, or, if that's not feasible, watch Univision or Telemundo. You won't understand most things at first, but it's exciting to understand even one sentence. TV is great for practicing your listening (the skill that students tend to ignore), and you can also learn new words in context and see how people interact with one another. And no, the people on TV are not talking "too fast." They're talking at normal speed. Any newly arrived visitor from a non-English speaking country will tell you most emphatically that Americans talk "too fast." If you keep listening, you will find that the Spanish on TV no longer seems "too fast."

You can also rent movies from Spanish-speaking countries, and many of them would hold honored places in my "Movies for Democrats" master list. Men with Guns was made by John Sayles, but it's almost all in Spanish. The Official Story is about the aftermath of the Argentine rightwing dictatorship. The Holy Innocents is about Spanish peasants under the Franco regime. With over twenty Spanish-speaking countries, you have an almost unlimited choice.

Good luck!