Hola! I’ve just started with SSiS and having a blast. Although, I should come clean - I’ve heard all of the lessons before anyone else, as I’m the audio guy behind the scenes at SSi. However until recently, I’ve been busy learning Cymraeg. But the time has come for me to actually learn Spanish, and not just try to absorb it by osmosis, so here I am!
3 Likes
Hello Jeff, welcome , croeso and bienvenido
I’m surprised to read that you hadn’t started learning Spanish. Or do I misread your message and you had learnt Spanish but not with SSiSp?
I’m interested to hear how it goes for you. I think that it is harder to do lessons after having read the script. Or rather, it’s easy to do the lesson, but it doesn’t stick as it normally does. What do you think?
Really looking forward to hearing how it goes for you, hombre! 
Brigitte - I naturally picked up a few things while working on the production of the lessons, but this is the first time I’ve actually tried to learn the language. My experience so far is very similar to Level 1 of SSiW - which is to say - great! I’m able to correctly respond almost all of the time, and never use the pause button. I feel pretty confident that the material is sticking - even though I’ve already seen the script. Probably helps that I’ve already got some French tucked away deep in my neurons from school days. But the best part is that I’m able to have simple, but amusing conversations with my daughter, who has gone the traditional classroom route (she’s in her fifth year of Spanish at school).
2 Likes
Bienvenido Jeff! I’m sure you’ll whiz through it all in no time 
1 Like
First Brain melt in Challenge 13. Doing great up till the introduction of dijera. “he wanted me to tell you” - you’ve got two objects (he/me) and two verbs (wanted/tell) to keep track of instead of the usual one object and one verb (fortunately, there’s only one new thing in there). And just when you’re starting to get a handle on it, Aran throws in “diga” as well (with similarly complex phrases!). Whew!
1 Like
I remember that lesson well. I thought my head was going to explode. I remember thinking Aran must have had a really bad day when he wrote tht lesson and decided to take it out on anyone who was learning Spanish for some reason! 
1 Like
I do have my vicious moments
Although I suspect that one was more about the subjunctive making life a little more complex than you’d expect from the English structure of the course.
No pain no gain and all that, though…
Interesting … stirrings among the dust of my old learning made me wonder if that was a subjunctive.
The nice thing about the SSi approach is to realise that you don’t really have to care what it is.
1 Like
This jogged me to give an update. I finished Level 1 a couple weeks ago. It was pretty smooth going for the most part. The one thing that I always had trouble with was keeping all the different ways of expressing enjoyment or having a good time sorted out in my head. That and the difference between quiere and quisiera, or is it between me gustaría and quisiera - I really haven’t a clue
Now I’ve started Level 2. I’m a few challenges in, and it’s getting harder to come up with the responses in time, but I’m still doing reasonably well. So far, so good!
This reminds me of when I first started using SSiW… I was a pause addict. It took a long time to get through each Level. But now I just roll with it. If I’m stumped on a response - no biggie - just move on. I guess you naturally worry that if you don’t get a response, that you’ll start falling behind, and eventually be lost, but that doesn’t seem to be the case - even the stuff that I miss is eventually getting stuck in there somehow!
I’m finding that the Aran Approved Tactic ™ of pushing on to the next lesson until you really feel it’s just all falling apart is working wonders with Level 2. Going back 4 or 5 lessons for a second run up it feels like “what was all the fuss about?”
I think this is the first chance I’ve had to try more than one or two completely new lessons in a day. I’ve done lessons 10 to 13 so far today, and whilst I’m started to lose it a little toward the end of 13, it feels great.
1 Like
That’s a huge step forward - once you internalise that through experience, I think you’re very well set up to become an addicted polyglot