How Did You Learn Spanish?

[Jaredberryman]

I lived for a summer in Guatemala. I had a couple of weeks of classes, and then lived with a family. After that, I lived in Mexico City for a year and a half. After about 3 or 4 months in Mexico, I had a pretty good start and could communicate almost anything. By the time my time in Mexico was finished, I was pretty fluent. I really don't recommend classes as I don't think they are the best way. The best way is to completely immerse yourself in the culture and talk with nearly everyone. Buy yourself a grammar book and read through it. Spend everyday, all day talking with people. Spanish is a fairly easy language, so you can pick up the basics in about 6 months or so if you do that. The rest will be perfecting it.

My beef is to learn how to write well. My writing is improving after having lived here for years, but does anyone have any recommendation on how to learn to write well? It is a challenge.

 

[Rich One]

b
You know what really gets me, ... is when you watch the Spanish subtitles for all kinds of swearings, it doesn't matter WTF is being said, they all translate to ONE word: "maldicion" .... why is that?

To qualify for under 16 w/out parental guidance.... Swearing makes it for adults. Also if translating swear words in Spanish may not be understood all over LATAM and Spain... ! For insrance " me cago en Diez" Would be in Porteño ??

 

[Rich One]

Total immersion is the answer ..... at work and home.

I grew up bilingual...!

My 2 cents.... to communicate in Spanish

• Master the vowels, many advanced students do them wrong A as in Pat, E as in Denver... etc
• Practice the phonetics; if the mouth, tongue and lips are not in the right position forget it. mimic your instructors
• Emulate the rhythm of the sentence....!!!
• Speak up to be heard

 

[Rich One]

I lived for a summer in Guatemala. I had a couple of weeks of classes, and then lived with a family. After that, I lived in Mexico City for a year and a half. After about 3 or 4 months in Mexico, I had a pretty good start and could communicate almost anything. By the time my time in Mexico was finished, I was pretty fluent. I really don't recommend classes as I don't think they are the best way. The best way is to completely immerse yourself in the culture and talk with nearly everyone. Buy yourself a grammar book and read through it. Spend everyday, all day talking with people. Spanish is a fairly easy language, so you can pick up the basics in about 6 months or so if you do that. The rest will be perfecting it.

My beef is to learn how to write well. My writing is improving after having lived here for years, but does anyone have any recommendation on how to learn to write well? It is a challenge.

Learnig as a teenager IS NOT the same as learning as an Adult.....

 

[khairyexpat]

To qualify for under 16 w/out parental guidance.... Swearing makes it for adults. Also if translating swear words in Spanish may not be understood all over LATAM and Spain... ! For insrance " me cago en Diez" Would be in Porteño ??

Argentinizing the hard core to cater to 16 years, compromised my full potential as a Retiree! Could have been fluent by now.
There must be some good translators out there ... the stuff is not that difficult to understand.

" me cago en Diez" = "shit in my pants" ... easy

 

[internationalguy]

Learnig as a teenager IS NOT the same as learning as an Adult.....

Actually that's completely true, almost completely. There are studies that say that learning a second language before your brain is fully developed (20-24) rewires your brain in a way that makes learning more languages very easy. This could explain why so many Europeans are multilingual and why it's so hard for some people to learn a second language for the first time. Obviously some people have it easier than others, some people are better than others, and pretty much anyone can at some point learn a second language if they try hard enough and do the right things.

 

[ajoknoblauch]

I learned German as a teenager and, though my vocabulary and grammar have declined because I rarely use it, I still have a native speaker's accent. My Spanish, which I learned as an adult, is very fluent but my accent is a hybrid that varies depending on whether I'm in Argentina or Chile (where I learned most of it).

 

[Lulu-Kyoko]

I studied French and German in school (ages 10-18) and German and Spanish in university. I live in Quebec but my French is actually quite horrible, all things considered, and I've been studying Spanish somewhat intensively over the past year and a half. I have no illusions about ever being fully bilingual (or trilingual, considering I'm still studying French). My problems seems to be that I am never fully immersed-- I spend half the year in Montreal where I teach philosophy in an English college. And I spend half the year in Argentina, mainly writing a dissertation in geography, but this is also done in English for an English university (even if the source material is in Spanish).

Note: when I say "English," I mean it in the way that Montrealers mean English-- referring to the language, not the nationality.

 

[Lamb]

To qualify for under 16 w/out parental guidance.... Swearing makes it for adults. Also if translating swear words in Spanish may not be understood all over LATAM and Spain... ! For insrance " me cago en Diez" Would be in Porteño ??

it would definetly start with la putaaa

 

[Lamb]

Total immersion is the answer ..... at work and home.

I grew up bilingual...!

My 2 cents.... to communicate in Spanish

• Master the vowels, many advanced students do them wrong A as in Pat, E as in Denver... etc
• Practice the phonetics; if the mouth, tongue and lips are not in the right position forget it. mimic your instructors
• Emulate the rhythm of the sentence....!!!
• Speak up to be heard

Couldnt agree more on the first thing. One of my uni teachers always said 'Remember there are only FIVE vowels in Spanish and they ALWAYS sound the same', as Dutch has about 25 sounds for vowels and most people here try to do the same to the Spanish ones. It will always sound foreign.