The Great Wall of Spanish

In a class I recently attended, the topic was Spanish indirect object pronouns, a heretofore difficult subject for me - and one of my fellow students spoke of her time in an immersion program in San Miguel de Allende. Her teacher there described the inability for English speakers to understand them as "The Great Wall of Spanish" - those students that got over the wall and understood how to use them, were basically on their way to full conversational fluency in Spanish. I want to climb that wall. Quiero subir aquella pared.

I'm not quite to the top yet, but I've found myself using them more, and hearing them spoken. I get it: Darme isn't some new word I haven't seen or heard before it's dar-me: give me. Puedo hacerlo! ¡Démelos, por favor! ¿Tengo que practicarlos más, verdad?

ME to/for me
TE to/for you
LE, to/for you, to/for him, to/for her
NOS, to/for us
LES, to/for upu (plural), to/for them

Verbs that require indirect object pronouns are easy to spot - if you can say "to" or "for" after the verb in English, it takes "le" in Spanish. por ejemplo:
I spoke to him: Le hablé.
I sang to her: Le canté.
I bought for him: Le compré.
However it doesn't sound right to say:
I visited to her.
I invite to him.
I kissed to her.
So these types of verbs take "lo" or "la", not "le".
I visited her: La visité.
I invite him: Lo invito.
I kissed her: la besé.

Test the verb: if you can say to/for with it, then it take LE.

Another aspect about using LE is that in Spanish you must use both the noun and the pronoun with verbs that take "le". Por ejemplo:
I wrote to my mother: Le escribé a mi madre.
Literally you are saying "To her I wrote to my mother" notice that the "a" is a personal a and not "to".
It works the same when asking a question.
¿Le compró una camisa a su primo? Did you buy a shirt for your cousin?

Things get a bit more complicated when you combine pronouns, ¿pero bastante ya, verdad?

The Personal A in Spanish

Use of the personal a is unique to Spanish and is not included when translating into English (or another language). It is only used to refer to a person, and can be thought of as a more respectful way to acknowledge another person - that is to say that an individual is more important (to you) than say their house.

Por ejemplo:
Yo amo a Lucy - I love Lucy
Yo amo la casa de Lucy - I love Lucy's house.
Buscó a mi hermanas - He looked for my sisters.
Miramos a Jorge lugar fútbol - we watch George play football.
Miramos una película anoche - we watched a movie last night.

Excepciones:
Spanish does not use the personal a with the verbs ser (to be), tener (to have), or hay (there is, are):
Jose es columbiano - Joe is Columbian.
Tengo tres tios - I have three uncles.
Hay una chica en la casa - There is a girl in the house.

You do not use a persoanl a when the direct object is an unspecified person:
Espero un amigo bueno - I'm waiting for a good friend.
Necesito un trabajador concienzudo para ayudarme - I need a hard worker to help me.