How many times have you had a question about something to do with your attempts to learn Spanish and have had no one to ask it?

It happens to me all the time and sometimes it is frustrating when I let this one question be the barrier to moving forward as I learn the language. Occasionally the issue blows up out of all proportion and it almost seems insurmountable.  The stumbling blocks have so far included:

• The English translation of a word I have heard in a podcast
• The spelling of a word I have heard on a podcast
• How to pronounce a word I have plucked out of one of the online dictionaries
• A point about grammar

Ideally I’d have someone sitting on my shoulder ready to answer all these questions but of course that is not practical and anyway I’d be worried about being followed by a stranger all the time

Well in a moment of frustrating despair I discovered an amazing source of help, advice, support and encouragement that is free and accessible 24/7.  I say discovered but what I really mean is reminded because if I had sat down and thought about it, I’d have come up with the same answer.

And that answer of course is Forums and Discussion Boards.

You and I are not the only ones learning Spanish (although it may seem like that sometimes!).  In fact there are hundreds of thousands if not millions of people out there who all want to be able to speak this beautiful language.  And the great thing about that is that there are hundreds if not thousands of them who are willing to help fellow Spanish learners in their quest.

I am not sure what the motive is for all this great help - collective learning, a shared responsibility, showing off what they know, a genuine desire to help others - but the fact remains that if you have a question about something you are trying to get to grips with in Spanish, then there is someone out there who not only knows the answer, but is likely to give it to you in just a few hours of you asking.

In trawling through the various forums I have browsed I have seen questions ranging from the basic - "What is a verb", through the intermediate - " How do I conjugate the verb tener in the 3rd person?", to the advanced - "Can someone help me with the progressive tense?"  I have also seen some bizarre questions but I think they were just written by aliens!  So the important thing is that I’d imagine that pretty much every question you can probably think of has been asked.

Now in terms of answers I have seen everything ranging from one word responses to 5 page essays with full explanations, examples, links to resources and even audio file attachments with pronunciation demonstrations.  The level of expertise available and the generosity with which it is shared is truly staggering.  You have at your finger tips an amazing amount of help and support.

So I’d recommend that you start surfing the forums if you need to get any help on any aspect of learning to speak and understand Spanish.   Where do you being?  Well there are many forums and discussion groups out there and you’d need to spend a little time to find one that you like and enjoy and that has enough activity to be of any use.  However you wouldn’t go far wrong if you checked out the Spanish Forums at About.com.

I like this forum because it is spam free, extremely well moderated and run by people who seem to know exactly what they are talking about and the content is really good.  There are others but try this one out first.

Let me know if there are any forums or discussion boards that you use.