You can learn to converse in Spanish, but NOT if you keep sabotaging your hard work and progress. Why spend weeks or months, and maybe a lot of money, only to sabotage your development by NOT doing anything with your Spanish for days or weeks at a time? It doesn’t take much to preserve what you have learned, but it does require DAILY CONTACT with the language. Be VERY AFRAID of going even a couple days, and especially NOT a whole week, without doing something.
From what I have read by language learning experts, even 15 minutes a day is enough to preserve your current level until you can find more time to devote to building upon what you know. If you want to keep building on what you know, you should spend at least 1 hour a day, but if you merely want to PRESERVE your current level, 15 minutes a day will do.
If you’re strapped for time and in PRESERVE mode, I recommend listening exercises that are FUN. If you are lacking motivation or just plain tired, studying a grammar book is not going to pump you up. Here are some fun listening exercises you can do to stay motivated and in contact with Spanish:
Pimsleur – The best program available, and you can borrow it from the library. It will help you listen and speak, and it is fun and easy to use.
Destinos – This is also a free program, and available at http://www.learner.org/series/destinos/. What could be easier than watching these episodes? This program will keep your ear tuned to hearing Spanish, and it also includes fun and simple exercises.
LiveMocha.com – I haven’t done much with this program lately, but it is free for the first few levels … and since it is a community of learners, you can make friends with native Spanish speakers who are learning English. Help each other learn … they help you with Spanish, you help them with English.
