I want to learn Spanish!!

[driver8]

I live in Southern California and have been thinking about taking some Spanish classes at the local Junior College. My 5 year old daughter just started Kindergarten and is in a "Spanish Immersion" program -- 90% of her day is taught in Spanish and 10% in English. The kids in this program are fluent by 3rd grade.

The local community college offers a "conversational Spanish" class that I am thinking of taking. Does this sound like a good place to start? What kinds of classes should I look for? I've got plenty of people at work that I can practice my Spanish with, and I know that will help a lot.

Thanks for the advice.

[BuddhaGirl]

1. I think conversational spanish sounds like a good start!

And how fortunate your daughter is to attend a school with such a great program!

I would like to study Spanish as well...I have been checking into the Rosetta Stone programs. My local library has it so I could study it for free. I have had several people tell me that they found the Rosetta Stone program very effective.

Buena Suerte!

[driver8]

2. It is a great program. When my wife and I toured the school, we looked in on

a third grade class. The class was having reading time and half the class was reading books in English and the other half in Spanish!

Our daughter is VERY precocious and is reading on about a fourth grade level already -- we are hoping that this will help keep her interested in school. We are planning on sending our son there, too!

[BuddhaGirl]

3. That school sounds amazing!

I am in the Bay Area, and recently I read of a Chinese immersion school in San Francisco in which many of the students were black. The story profiled a kindergarten class who progressed from knowing no Chinese at the beginning of the school year to being able to converse simply by the end. One little boy told of being able to speak to a Chinese business owner, when his mom and the business owner were having trouble understanding each other, and how much fun it was. Very cool story! Your daughter is very fortunate!

Where are you in L.A.? I am originally from S. CA.

[driver8]

4. Wow! Chinese immersion! Now that would be a useful language to know!

We live in La Crescenta right next to Glendale. The school my daughter goes to is in the Glendale School district.

My wife's parents live in Arcadia -- the San Gabriel valley is about 50% Chinese, so that Chinese immersion program would be amazing for kids down here.

[NoodleBoy]

5. just a tip if you don't already know some spanish:

Something my teachers didn't get around to explaining to me is that written and spoken Spanish are much closer than written and spoken English-- ie, there are no useless groups of letters no one's pronounced in five hundred years (light, night, height, knife), so pronouncing Spanish words you've only seen written and never heard spoken isn't hard at all once you know the basic sounds in Spanish.

Kind of nerdy, but useful. It's so pervasive that if you ask a native Spanish speaker how to spell something they'll most likely just say it a little slower (pin-tu-ra instead of P-I-N-T-U-R-A).

hope that made sense.