I forgot to say that I started teaching myself Spanish using
www.duolingo.com. I have been using it nonstop for over 470 consecutive days. I use the website at home, and the app on my iPhone.
It is FREE. The perfect peregrino price (PPP).
I typically try to spend one-hour daily practicing online. After many months, I am finally starting to achieve level five, in at least the basic grammar and vocabulary categories. While I do not presume to become fluent, being able to communicate with others is very important to the whole Camino experience. My confidence is increasing, and fast.
If I am traveling, I might only use the app for 15 minutes. But anything is better than nothing.
Plus, at 65, learning a new language is not as easy as it is when one is younger. I learned French for four years in high school, like 50 years ago. I used it intermittently during my professional career, but it has mostly lapsed.
Living in the Flemish region of Belgium for two years, I learned basic Dutch (using Pimsleur CDs) to be able to communicate with older folks and young kids who did not speak English. Most everyone between 16 and 60 spoke very good English. I still have some of it, but would need to have a refresher if I were to need to rely on it.
Walking five Caminos since 2013, and volunteering in the Pilgrim Office each summer since 2014, I have learned the need to speak conversational Spanish. If I do, I can help more people and improve my overall experience.
Besides, learning a new language helps keep my brain young and fit. I try to learn something new every day. Living in South Florida there are opportunities to speak basic Spanish almost daily. Just exchanging pleasantries in a coffee shop or supermarket helps me practice.
Finally, to aid my comprehension and uptake of the new vocabulary, I downloaded a
FREE word scramble game from
IThinkDiff in the app store. This is the developer of the better Spanish and a ton of other language dictionaries. I highly recommend their apps. The word game can be played in English, Spanish or about two dozen other languages, including languages that do not use the Roman alphabet; e.g. Russian, Thai, Arabic, Korean, etc.
Hope this helps.