I have been trying the comprehensible input method espoused by this site to learn Spanish.
The comprehensible input method seems correct to me, although I admittedly haven’t studied the science that they claim backs up the efficacy of the method. It just “rings true” to me based on my own introspection and knowledge of epistemology and language. The method discards learning grammar in favor of using pictures, gestures, and acting while speaking to make it more like the experience of a child first learning to speak. It also completely discounts speaking a language to learn it. Your are supposed to just gather “comprehensible input”, as that is the only way you are going to truly learn, according to the theory. The input is “comprehensible” because you understand the meaning of the speech, thanks to the gestures and drawings of the speaker, even through you do not understand the language yet.
Something I’ve noticed when listening to native or near-native Spanish speakers is they will mix in certain English words that usually reflects some new technology or imported concept, rather than adopt a specific word for it. Although this can also vary. Spaniards call computers “ordinators”, while Mexicans tend to call them “computeradoras”.
In this video, I noted that the speaker, a Spaniard, called the act of snowboarding, “hacer snow” a few times. In Spanish the substance that falls from the sky would be called “nieve”, so, to his ear, the word “snow” is connected with the concept of snowboarding.
