I work at a place where most people speak Spanish, and I want to be able to hold conversations with them. I’ve watched a couple of YouTube videos, but I haven’t been able to retain the information. I need to write down flashcards and notes. I’m wondering, and I don’t mind if it’s proprietary, what is the best and fastest way to learn Spanish?
The only way that has worked for me long term is taking a language course, doing the exercises in the corresponding workbook and learning the words using flash cards (I always used the Leitner system).
Workbooks also often come with an audio CD for listening exercises, so if you don’t have the time or money for an actual language course you might be able to make do with that instead.
What hasn’t worked for me is apps that teach you random words and sentences without explaining all of the basic grammatical rules of a language.