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Intercambio - means 'exchange' - it's highly effective if you want to improve your ability to speak Spanish. What's great is that there are many native Spanish speakers who want to practise their English, so it is very easy to find people who would like to have conversation exchange with you. It's free, fun and effective - what more could you want? The format is to make contact with someone who wants to learn your language, then meet in a suitable place and jump right in. You'll go through the usual topics of course: how long you have lived here, what you are doing, your occupation or the subject you are studying, what you like to do in your free time, current events in each country. And this is perfect as a way of broadening your knowledge and fluency in the language you want to learn. Very likely you will make friends this way too. How to find someone? If you are in or near to a big city in a developed country, try craigslist.com and post a message there in the 'community' section saying that you would like to exchange English for Spanish conversation. In the UK another good place is gumtree.com. You'll probably receive several replies within a couple of days. Should you live in a smaller or provincial location, put an ad in the local paper. There are Spanish speakers even in what you might think are unlikely places, and typically they enjoy sharing their language. I lived for a while in northern Canada, a very small community at least an hour's drive from a larger city, yet the Spanish course run in the library was fully attended. Why? Because many of the residents would head out when the snows came and spend the winter in Mexico. That was their motivation for learning Spanish. Once you have exhausted the initial topics of conversation, a good way to make progress is to take a newspaper or magazine and pick an article to discuss. This will help you build vocabulary about current affairs or your personal interests. Take notes as you go. You'll find yourself making plenty of them. Naturally it helps if you look these over from time to time, the repetition will make the new words sink in. There is an automatic advantage to this approach, the words that you struggle for and perhaps have to look up in a dictionary, will be the ones you need in the conversation you are having, so they are relevant and useful. Contrast that with the random lists of vocabulary which it is usual to be forced to learn at school - the intercambio way is clearly superior. One thing to be aware of is that Spanish has many regional variations of words, phrases and pronunciation. The difference between Castillian and Central or South American Spanish is significant and you may get some surprises. It's led me to have some friendly arguments with other Spanish learners about what is the 'correct' way to pronounce some words. Ultimately it doesn't really matter, since my principal objective is to be able to communicate with people, which you can do whatever the accent you acquire. For really good progress, look for all the additional learning sources you can find; try reading magazines or newspapers, listen to a Spanish station on the radio, watch Spanish films on DVD or at the cinema. The multiplicity of sources can only help. A really good way to keep up the momentum is to make use of what would otherwise be lost time, for example, when you are travelling and could easily be bored you can listen to a Spanish course on a personal stereo or mp3 player. I recommend this one - you can get a free 6-day trial, which itself is useful in picking up words and phrases you will need in everyday conversation. If you are in your car, you can repeat the exercises out loud, that's best. You'll get some strange looks if you do this in the bus though.
Another way to meet people for a language exchange is through www.meetup.com. This is a world-wide network which helps people with a common interest get together. Look it up on the web, you'll be surprised just how comprehensive it is. There are several Spanish Meetup groups near where I live. They usually choose a cafe or bar as their venue and what is particularly nice is that the mix of Spanish learners to native speakers is about 50 : 50. People of all levels in the language come along, so it's easy to find someone to exchange conversation with. You'll enjoy an intercambio, give it a try. Have fun Diviértate Robert
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