Learning Spanish Part Nine : Still Looking For That Horse
What do we know so far? We found the best approach to language learning is to learn Spanish the very same way you learned your native tongue. Lots and lots of intensive listening without speaking comes first. This is how you learned your native language. This is how children instinctively approach learning a second language.
By the time speaking comes, you will have mastered the fundamentals of the target language. You will know how to use parts of speech before you know what those parts of speech are even called. You have got to find a way to mimic this process. You have to find a way whereby you can learn Spanish in the same manner in which you learned your native language.
This is what it means to start with the horse and not the cart. To start with the cartthe traditional way in which foreign languages are taught in the United States (and virtually all over the planet)will make you a good interpreter of written text but you will not develop speaking skills. To start with the cart could possibly short-circuit your speaking ability forever.
So how does one start? Does one go back and become...