Reddit reviews Cajas de Carton: Relatos de la Vida Peregrina de un Nino Campesino (Spanish Edition)

Check out Cajas de Carton . It's Young Adult fiction (10-13 years old) and has been a great stepping stone for me thus far. I am about 1/3 through it. It may be closer to intermediate than to beginner.

If you are torn between the two and the desire is about even, learn Spanish. You will (likely) make progress more quickly and develop motivation more easily. If you are leaning more toward Russian and are resolute that that is where you heart is, of course go that way.

If you do end up going with Spanish, first assess your current ability. If you need a refresher, run through the language transfer Spanish course. It will touch on the basics and hopefully prime your brain for Spanish again.

Then, if you seriously want to start developing your skills and establish a foundation for fluency, find a way to get a hold of the Assimil course. It's got it's quirks, but there is not doubt that it will teach you a metric ton of Spanish. More importantly, it will teach your brain how to aquire Spanish rather than simply study it. Deka Glossai's How to Learn German video details what I believe to be the most effective way to learn with the Assimil method.

After Assimil, start reading and listen to as much Spanish as you can. For listening, try to listen to as many different dialects as possible. Puerto Rican Spanish sounds extrodinarial different from European Spanish which sounds very different from Argentinian Spanish and so on. Getting an ear for the different accents will boost your listening comprehension tremendously. Check out Luisito Comunica. He travels all over the world, discusses interesting things and places, speaks clearly, and doesn't have that grating "youtube personality", if you get my meaning. Study his videos the same way you would an Assimil lesson.

Starting with a graded reader can be a good idea to start for reading. Then you have a few options. A book you already know in English or just trying to find something easy to read in Spanish are common choises. After searching for the longest time, I found a book called Cajas de carton. The language is very simple without being childish and tells a engaging story. Then read El Tunel, a genuine class of Spanish language litterature that would make for a great followup. Both books don't use very complicated language and are under 200 pages. Put new words into Anki, read a page twice, and move on. You will see unfamiliar words again and I promise you will learn best by exposure. Anki works best to solidify things you've already seen rather than trying to do mass vocab building.

Speak, speak, speak. If you don't have people to practice with, do the FSI Basic Spanish course to get you ready for when you do. Then try to do language exchanges on italki.com or anywhere else you can find one. If you do everything I just wrote and you did these things every single day, you'll be at a B2 in two years time, maybe one year depending how much you put into it. I wish I could better direct you for Russian, but I don't doubt Assimil would be a fantastic place to start after learning the basics.

Best of luck.