Best way to become fluent in Spanish in a jiffy?

I’m halfway through a Master’s degree program in education at a certain big-name expen$ive Eastern School ™. While searching for jobs, I came to realize that my job prospects increase exponentially if I become very good at Spanish. Right now my Spanish is merely lame: I can speak it with some competency, but can’t understand it at all. (I have little knowledge of slang and Hispanic folks tend speak too quickly for my dull brain accustomed to Japanese.)

So, what’s the best way for me to become fluent between now and, oh, say, September? I’m thinking about Middlebury College’s summer program in Spanish, but I’m trying to determine if there’s a cheaper and better way. (Middlebury’s info is at http://www.middlebury.edu/~ls/spanish/.)

I’m sure there are other “intense” Spanish courses offered at schools around the country, but will they accomplish as much as Middlebury’s immersion program?

I’m sure this has been discussed before, but I couldn’t get decent results from the search. Also, my particular GQ concerns getting fluent in a relative hurry. Hope I’m not wasting bandwidth…

Well first of all I reccommend you watching Univision (look at your cable thing to see what channle its on)

Spend 6 months in a Mexican prison.

Total immersion, man. It’s the only way to go.

It soo happens that my dear ex was a teacher at a school in Spain, offering intensive courses. Not to do any bashing of Americans, but many of you guys are really terrible when it comes to learning forrign languages.
One American girl, who basically knew ‘gracias, de nada, cerveza y feliz navidad’ got to be fluent enough to discuss world politics in six weeks.
The method these schools are offering - there are quite a few of them - is by not using any forreign language to teach Spanish. From day one, class one, all teaching is in Spanish. There’s no translation. So it’s six hours a day of classes, plus homework, plus activities. The good schools have their teacher take the students out to restaurants, museums, shopping, cinema, to really submerge the student in all aspects and extend not only the vocabulary, but the context of the language.
It really works. Of course, to all Hispanics in the US, you might seem a bit high-brow, with the accent you’ll be toting, but I’ve actually seen the results and they’re amazing.
Tuition is about $1.000 for four weeks, plus accomodation, food and travel, so figure about $3.000 per month.
You might want to check this. It’s the categorized listing in Spanish Yahoo for schools offering Spanish to extranjeros. Have fun.

I started learning Spanish in an immersion program 8.5 weeks, 6+ hours of classroom per day. It is expensive, but effective. However, I’d recommend some type of immersion program in latin america. I lived in Quito Ecuadoe and loved it, but know of no programs. I have been recommended a program in Cuernavaca Mex. Try googling Cuernavac and learn spanish.
eg
http://www.spanishinlatinamerica.com
http://www.studyspanishinmexico.com/

If you intend to stay in NA, you’re better off with an indigenous Spanish, rather than Gauchupine spanish. LA is closer and much cheaper.

The most important thing is IMMERSION. You have to STOP using English and use the Spanish you are learning ALL the time.

I third the immersion idea. My preferrred method would involve falling head over heels for a non-English speaker, but YMMV. Definitely go study in a Spanish-speaking country; even including airfare, it’ll probably be cheaper than Middlebury (and much more fun!).

In the meantime, grab whatever exposure you can get: TV, newspapers, radio…and members of the opposite sex(or same sex, if that’s your thing).

Thanks for the tips, everyone. In retrospect, I probably should’ve posted this in IMHO–the OP works best as a poll asking “What have you heard about immersive Spanish programs?” [Mods, please move it if you see fit.] Extra thanks for pointing out immersive programs abroad which are much cheaper (and possibly more effective) than Middlebury.

fauxpas, I’m curious to know if you’ve had a lot of success with watching Spanish TV. I find that when I watch it, I can read (and understand) any text that flies across the screen, but once Don Fernando starts talking on Sabado Gigante, I get lost. The girls are muy guapas, but that’s the *international language * that they’re speaking, and that may not get me a job. :slight_smile:

I’d like to know that too, Fauxpas, if you don’t mind. I took Spanish for 4.5 years, and while I can understand the commercials and the stuff said in Spanish in primarily English-speaking movies/TV shows, I can’t keep up with most stuff produced in Spanish for a Spanish-speaking audience; they speak quickly because they’re not taking the lag time to translate into account. I’m sure that someone who only took a few years of English would think the same of TV/Movies produced for English-speaking audiences too.

Marrying a Mexican worked for me. :slight_smile:

If you’re trying to translate everything you hear, that’s part of the problem. Just try to understand the foreign language itself.

Television helps. But remember the energy barrier. It is more difficult to watch Spanish language TV than English. I’ll watch El Chavo (best slapstick in the world/good puns) and dream of the day theat Univision shows El Chapulin Colorado. TV helped me a lot – recovering in Ecuador from typhoid, but no substitite for talking in spanish 16 hours per day.

I’ll second sundog66’s assertion – you can’t be “translating” everything you hear; you’ll need to arrive at a point where you understand it naturally.

As per Spanish-language television in the USA, you’re limited if you’re seeking true quality. Discover en Español is pretty good, and HBO has just about 100% seconardy audio enabled. Stations such as Telemundo, Galavision, Univision, and so on are essentially Spanish-speaking equivilents to the WB Network – horrible, horrible programming (quality-wise, not in reference to the hotties :)). I’m not saying that aren’t some good programs, but overall, well, muy, muy naco. Probably the best programs are the ones not produced in the USA. I fail to understand why Televisa or Telemundo couldn’t make a profit with something along the lines of a NBC-quality station. I believe that NBC recently acquired Telemundo, so we could see some positive changes.

Finally, consider renting some DVD’s and watching them in their native languages. “Mujeres al borde de un ataque nerviosa” is entertaining and I bet you won’t recognize a young Antonio Banderas. That’s if you want to learn to talk funny like the Spanish Spanish. For learning to talk Mexican Spanish, my wife constantly nags at me for picking up some of the more colorful vocabulary from films such as “Amores Perros” and “Y tu Mama Tambien.” You know, the words she won’t teach me herself. :slight_smile:

Reported.