Learning Spanish And The Joy Of Verbs

[johnw100]

Hey all

I`ve been with my spanish teacher for around a 18 months now, i have one or two lessons a week and she is particularly strict on verbs. And to put it bluntly, its doing my f**king head in. I can pretty much get by with the present tense, but shes doing past, future, Preterite Tense, you name it tense and i`m getting confused.
My Argentine wife thinks shes doing it on purpose to keep me going to lessons, and say it takes years to understand verbs and people will understand you regardless of the tense. I kind of agree with her as often my verb tenses are all over the place but people get the idea what i`m saying.
I`m just wondering how other people are getting by learning Spanish, I feel like I should just be learning simple things, situationaly spanish ie asking for directions,etc but my teacher is obsessed with me not sounding like some kind of Tarzan trying to talk spanish. I can see her point, but I dont feel like i`m getting anywhere fast. Doesnt help when you have a full time job and a family to look after, and study was never my strong point.

Any suggestions on how to learn the language would be appriciated,
Have tried books, music, software/apps and not enjoying it.

Thanks

 

[internationalguy]

Get a teacher who is familiar with your learning style. We all have different learning styles, some are visual, some auditory, some are kinesthetic. The teacher should also take into consideration your priorities. Don't get me wrong, some people would really appreciate the grammar bombardment, it's clearly not your case. I hope you have told her this. As a teacher, one must think of the student's needs and preferences, not your own. If you have told her what you want and what you don't want and she keeps ignoring it you need to find someone else. Based on my experience I wish all language teaching could be done in settings that take into consideration the people's strengths and styles, but it often isn't possible in group settings. You're paying for private lessons and if the person providing them doesn't meet your needs find someone else.

 

[syngirl]

There's nothing wrong with at least trying on another teacher for size... 18mos is a long time if you're not happy with the direction. Have a look through here for some teacher recommends and try 2-3 sessions with one of them, just tell your current teacher you're not able to come for a week or so and try someone else out. I have some sources for online resources bookmarked on my computer, I'll pass along (I'm on my phone right now)

 

[syngirl]

There's nothing wrong with at least trying on another teacher for size... 18mos is a long time if you're not happy with the direction. Have a look through here for some teacher recommends and try 2-3 sessions with one of them, just tell your current teacher you're not able to come for a week or so and try someone else out. I have some sources for online resources bookmarked on my computer, I'll pass along (I'm on my phone right now)

 

[nikad]

Being married to an Argentine, and after 18 months of Spanish classes you should be fine already. In all honesty, a big percentage of locals are horrible with verb tenses, not to mention spelling. As long as you can do Simple Present, Simple Past and Future, you have it 80% solved. Interact with locals more frequently, take some random class, watch TV in Spanish, etc and cut down on the classes for a while, see how it goes.

 

[estebandepraga]

wise advise from nikad! although grammar is important. if this is your first foreign language learned, which I feel it might be, at an adult stage it is more difficult although Spanish is so much easier than many other languages. I had to learn from scratch Czech at 35 yrs old and I can tell you Czech is no easy language to learn!

 

[johnw100]

internationalguy - I did try a couple of other teachers, one I liked actually but then she had to cancel as she found another job. So perhaps its time to look elsewhere. This one I use now is via skype and I`m feel its too remote compared to 1 to 1 in the same room, partily due to the connection quality aswell.

nikad - Actually me and my wife never speak Spanish to each other. Mainly because she wants our kids who are very young to learn English so we only talk in English at home, and shes not a very good teacher anyway. I spent months say "Es bien" to people with her until she said one day , oh its "Esta bien" not "Es bien".
The other issue is having the time, I work 8 or so hours a day, on top of trying to complete a house we have built, day to day things with kids,etc its difficult.
Hopefully things will start calming down as our house is pretty much done and my work is reducing.

 

[johnw100]

estebandepraga -

wise advise from nikad! although grammar is important. if this is your first foreign language learned, which I feel it might be, at an adult stage it is more difficult although Spanish is so much easier than many other languages. I had to learn from scratch Czech at 35 yrs old and I can tell you Czech is no easy language to learn!

Spanish is much easier? Ah god, I dont think i`m made for learning languages. I`m definitely more of a visual person, so perhaps I need to learn some techniques for studying. I`m 46 now and its certainly more difficult to remember things these days.

 

[Rich One]

I want to insist on what I said before, Forget the subjunctive.
Work with a local on the ALPHABETsounds, most expats mispronounce the Basic letters and are not understood by locals. Do role plating in Spanish emulate the body posture and diction and intonation, find a Spanish diction coach ! Pay special attention to the phonetic aspects tongue position, lips, t Work on colloquial phrases with your mate Over and Over until 100 perfect-

 

[Meri]

I had a similar kind of teacher at the beginning and she also did my head in - I was overthinking everything and too afraid to open my mouth on the street and just practice for fear I was sounding rediculous (when in reality no one even cares if you're making mistakes). I think branching out is essential. When I joined a small group class at a school I felt so relieved when I got a teacher who was more my style and also watching how other students - especially the Europeans - just went for it and spoke freely, errors and all, really helped me. Then when I got my puppy I got a ton of speaking practice as we walked down the street because every third person wanted to stop and say to him. So bottom line is that I would start to mix it up and speak other people. I'm sure you know tons more than you even think - it's just lying dormant in there waiting to come out!