I was taught a second language during my school days but never took it seriously. As far as I was concerned, it wasn’t really important to me. After all, English was more popular and I could get along anywhere in the world with my knowledge of English language, right?
How dead wrong I was.
I realized my mistake when I went to Ecuador on a vacation. I felt a little like a fish out of water. Everywhere I went, everyone was speaking Spanish. Finding someone who could speak English in the smaller centers that I prefer to visit was like finding someone in Canada who could speak Russian. I did pick up a few phrases in Spanish by listening and observing, so I could greet people, order coffee and ask how much something cost, but I felt my skills were very inadequate.
Even though I really felt lost, language-wise, I really loved the people and the country. The scenery was magnificent, and everyone was friendly. So, I made a silent resolve to learn the language, since I was definitely going to be returning to South America.
Being a lover of audio books, I went right ahead and bought a Spanish audio course (Learning Spanish Like Crazy) over the internet, loaded up my Ipod, and practiced while exercising, any time I was in the car for an extended time, and any other time when my hands were busy but my mind was free.
I listened carefully, and repeated the words, sentences and phrases faithfully. Right away, I found phrases I could use, and vocabulary that was memorably presented. What really helped were the translations to English for any word spoken in Spanish, and the way of listening and repeating. Even more appropriate, the speakers were from Latin America, and I was learning the correct pronunciation for that area.
This really confirmed what I had read sometime ago about the power of listening. Just listening is powerful enough to learn virtually any language. After all, isn’t that how we learn as children?
Gradually I picked up and was able to speak a significant amount of Spanish after just 6 weeks.When I eventually went back to Ecuador 3 months later, I was no longer “a fish out of water”. It was incredible, but I was able to achieve this without taking any classes, without hiring any private tutor, without reading any “tutorial” books.
All of this was possible within 3 months from just listening Learning Spanish Like Crazy‘s audio lessons.
Do you know what was most intriguing about this? I did this all in my “free” time. I didn’t commit any special time to this, but the same time I had wasted (or not made full use of) in the past. My favourite was to listen and learn while I went for my daily walks. Each lesson is about 45 minutes, which matched up perfectly with the usual length of my walk!
If I could do this within 3 months, I am certain anyone else can do it too.If there is any language you would love to learn, follow my footsteps and you will be pleasantly surprised what can happen in just 3 months, with the power of audio books.
There are several audio book versions of many leading foreign language study courses that you can get on the Internet.Start your search from www.HearSayBooks.com directly, or via the search engines. Simply type in the phrase or particular title you are interested in and you will be presented with the best results… within seconds.
