I'll give photobucket a go, will that mean I can show larger pics?
Hi Agatha, Not fluent by any stretch, but I can certainly speak more Spanish than Brits who've been here for 8 plus years. I can probably have a two hour conversation with a Spaniard before I start running out of Verbs!
Everyone learns at different rates and via different mediums. What could be a total breeze for one person could be a complete nightmare for another. For example, I learnt all of my Spanish from listening to Michel Thomas, over and over and over and over (repeat several more time) until it really sank in, my other half really doesn't get on with his methods and uses a different medium, and she's a teacher.
Some people need to listen to it, some need to write it and some need to live it before they can learn a new language. My advice is to not limit yourself to just one book/cd/course/teacher etc etc, but try a few different ones until you find the one that works for YOU.
What I will say is that VERBS are the key to Spanish, without a doubt. If you learn how their verbs are conjugated (I, he, she, it, we, you all) all you need to do is add the infinitive and you're good to go. Just adding a new verb infinitive (To Have, To Want, To Need, To Speak, To Call, To Eat etc etc) to what you've learnt will automatically increase your vocab by another 8 or 9 words.
If anyone has a language question but would prefer to pm me I will keep it private. I'm not too proud to admit that, before I started to learn Spanish 3 years ago I didn't really know what exactly a verb was and once I understood everything just became a whole lot easier, the penny dropped so to speak. So please, anyone, don't be embarrassed, ask away I'll help if I can.