How Did You Learn Spanish?

[cbonanni]

My first language is english , and I leaned Italian growing up. While my Italian is not perfect , I am quite fluent. I learned in Liguria , where there is a strong dialect that is very similar to Portuguese. When I travel in Italy , I have to revert to formal Italian , as the other regions do not get my Ligurian dialect. As for Spanish , I have picked it up fine , but often revert to Italian in mid sentence , which always gets a laugh. Or , after too many malbec's (or whiskeys !) I can manage to fumble all three languages into one. Irregardless , I can always make myself understood.

I am also a little deaf , ( too close to Phil's Amps at too many Grateful Dead shows!! )which makes understanding new speakers tough , before I can get used to the accent. Or in a crowded room with many people talking. Sordo !!

 

[GS_Dirtboy]

The first year I was here I had a private tutor. One night per week we would watch CNN Español and my job was to identify individual words, write them down in my note book, and look up the meanings. My street spanish picked up quite a bit that year. Then I went to a half-day class for 3 months while waiting on a new job to open up. That helped me with sentence structure and verb tenses. Now, I read the paper, pick out new words I don't know, write them down in my notebook, and have my kids look up the meaning.

 

[Borracho Britanico]

I had 4hrs a day of group lessons for a month when I first arrived, then didn't have anything for 3months until I started with a private tutor once a week.

I can have a pretty decent conversation and understand bits of TV but I still feel I have a long way to go.

I guess my problem is most people in my work speak to me in English and at home the girlfriend wants to start speaking more English.

I do find it funny how some locals just can't understand me even though (I hope) I'm pronouncing things correctly.

 

[AngelinBA]

I learned by full immersion with a host family in Costa Rica. 3months to understand and 4 months to be able to speak. Which led to some awkward but revealing moments when I realised that my host sister was spreading gossip about me right in front of me.
Anyway, Frenchie I love the French accent in Spanish! I used to watch Betty La Fea (the original Colombian version) and they had someone speaking with a French accent. Very romantic....

 

[syngirl]

Another tricky thing: I used to live on Billinghurst & at first, when taking a cab, I was pronouncing "Billignhurst" rather the English way (Billingheurst), than the Spanish way (Billinghourst). Many cab drivers couldn't understand.

Oh good god. I lived there as well just after arriving and it was torture. I often ended up just telling cabs to drop me at Soler and Bustamante and then I'd walk so I didn't have to say the word.

My french also helped me when I first arrived (I'm anglo and grew up in english Canada, but my anglo-quebecois dad had us learning french from age 2). I took one year of spanish in high school, a year of latin, and I took german and italian in university, though german was torture and my italian was only ever good enough to pass my written translation exams. However the background helped with understanding how languages work. But prior to buenos aires I only consider french to have been my other functioning language.

When I arrived I took one-on-one conversation classes. After about a year I took a couple of the intensive spanish sessions at UBA in the summer. Then another 6 months of conversation. And then I got bored, and stopped taking classes altogether. Now, 8 years later I would actually venture to say I'm bilingual, and truly bilingual, not like my crappy-in-retrospect level of french.

As for Frenchie and your front of tongue / back of throat R problems -- Can you roll your Rs at all (ie independently of making a word?), or is it just that when you're speaking Spanish you still naturally say the R at the back of your throat? I had the lazy tongue that couldn't roll rrrrrr's in high school. Our spanish teacher was a Chilena -- Senora Erikson . She made me sit there and just say the word "butter butter butter" then tter tter tter, then force air through the tter -- she told me to keep practicing for awhile. It was embarrassing, but I have to say it worked. Saying butter butter butter exercises your tongue in the same manner that you need to be able to roll the R.

However, now after all these years of saying my Rs at the front of my mouth, I now have a problem with speaking at the back of my throat when speaking French! Oh dear, I don't know if you really can win at all!

 

[Gringoboy]

I think the Scots may have a distinct advantage for rolling RRR's in Spanish.

 

[Dublin2BuenosAires]

I think the Scots may have a distinct advantage for rolling RRR's in Spanish.

irrrrrrn bruuuuu

 

[Yogur griego]

I used to speak Italian really well, my family taught it to me when I was a teenager and I still know the vocabulary... but that's about it. So, I recently went to Italy for a weekend and my version of their language had become completely ridiculous - Rioplatense sounds mixed with newly acquired Spanish Spanish elements; a combination of muy embarazado-ly pronounced words, sounding mostly extremely Argentine with the right exaggerated intonation, but completely devoid of the subtle details of Italian, that to me is still the most beautiful language in the world (... 3...2...1...Angry Brits incoming). I couldn't even in the least confide to a bus driver that I wanted a ticket, so a random guy behind to back started to yell at me in Spanish. I eventually picked up the right pronounciation of some words, but like some of you guys, I can't get rid of the RRRR and DDDD in particular.

 

[ChristopherArias]

I supposedly learned Spanish in high school. I had four years of Spanish classes, but when I arrived in Argentina, I could not remember any of it. Of course, a few years had passed between graduating high school and moving.

I learned Spanish two ways after I arrived. I signed up for some classes at Ailola Buenos Aries on the recommendation of another Ex-Pat. I spent a couple months going to classes and a few sessions with tutors. The school was great and helped reawaken those four years of classes in high school.

Just as critically, I made friends with some Argentines in my area and started drinking a beer or two with them every evening. This let me practice my Spanish in a very relaxed and fun atmosphere. I still have beers with those guys to help them practice their English, while they help me improve my Spanish. Of course, we spend a lot of time laughing at each other's mistakes, too.

 

[ARbound]

I've been here for 4 months now and my Spanish is at the level to buy stuff at a kiosk, grocery store or electronics store, take the bus and subte, open a bank account, go to AFIP but to try and make conversation is like a vocal train wreck. I took 2 weeks at a language school and did roseta stone on my computer and duolingo on my iPhone for a few months before moving, other than that not much.

I'm best at reading because I can guestimate what something says and look for clues in the text. Next comes listening, I can sometimes understand if people talk slow enough. My worst is speaking.

The thing that always gets me is when I say something correctly that is an English term and it goes over people's heads. Router, Thames, River, etc. It's not like I'm saying a Spanish word or something.

The other confusing thing is when Spanish speaking people literally translate normal questions in to English. Is some thing in v.s. on, do you have any doubts v.s. do you have any questions, what's your question/ok v.s. tell me, etc. It can be very confusing sometimes.