Learning Spanish and hitting a plateau

[citygirl]

Just wondering if anyone else has experienced this. I'm happily comfortable chatting in Spanish & using the simple tenses & moods (subjunctive, etc) but having gotten to the point of my studies where we are working in compound tenses (present perfect/past perfect/future perfect/past anterior) in addition to the regular ones, I find my mind is all a jumble and inevitable, I'm using the wrong tense.

Tell me it will get better. Or does anyone have a suggestion in how to get beyond the plateau. I love my professor and its a me issue, not a teaching issue.

 

[YohoYoho]

Hey citygirl,
I feel your frustration. I know it doesn't help now, in my experience, teaching (english) and learning (spanish), the frustration is a good thing. It means you are still learning. It is when you stop being frustrated that you have hit a plateau.

Unfortunately, the only cure I have found, for this is repetition.

That is my 2 centavos.

 

[bsas]

yeah, repetition. you'll get to the point where stuff just 'sounds right' eventually. In the meantime, reading out loud to yourself will help soften your accent and listening to things like music and tv shows in spanish will help train your ear.

 

[Lala]

here´s another vote for music...print out the lyrics and go over them with your teacher - it´s a great way to break out of the traditional methods and inevitably, you will learn new things and have a built-in memory link to them. Also, maybe ask your teacher to prepare some lessons with printed lyrics with words or phrases missing that you can fill in by listening to the song (sometimes, over and over and over till you get it). All the better if she can find songs that address the tenses you are struggling with right now.

I think that sometimes taking a step back from labeling all of the tenses and thinking so methodically can work wonders. Just try to concentrate on making sense of the language in its natural environment, so to speak. Your brain will figure it out eventually, especially since you already have a grammatical foundation. In no time, you will be saying things and wondering "where did that come from"? In a good way...

Good luck!