I've been here a year and a half and have my little chats with the taxi drivers everyday, going to and from work, but I just can't seem to get up the motivation to truly learn Spanish well- either on my own, or with a teacher. Not speaking Spanish at a sufficient level cuts me off from the best thoughts of the local, non-English speaking people, but every time I try to get going on this project, I quickly lose momentum, and the progress is slight. Anybody else having that struggle?
learning spanish I hear you loud and clear. Its so frustrating for me. I want so bad to be part of conversations and just cant seem to get a grasp of it. A few of my mexicans friends think I am lazy and stubborn but in reality I am scared and afraid I will never get it. LIke I told them hell I almost flunked english in school. I would have been so much better if no spoke any english-then I would be forced to try harder.
Well, I DID flunk English in HS... AND I got a withdrawl failure from Spanish. So I am as pathetic as it comes. Learning Spanish has really been a struggle here.. even with the lessons. And it doesn't help everyone pretty much speaks English
I think most of the expats who manage to learn the language to any decent degree are those who are immersed in a Spanish speaking environment every day, such as at work or school or those who have non English speaking partners. When you work in an English speaking environment and/or spend 90% of your social time with English speakers then it's not surprising if you dont pick up a language you rarely use or need. I know I had high hopes of becoming passable at Spanish within a couple of years of moving here. Six years on, although my Spanish isn't non existent and I can get by socially or in the supermarket, it's still pretty poor. The reason is I dont need it and I stopped worrying about it a long while back.
I speak fluent Spanish, but as Steve pointed out, it's because I was immersed in an all-Spanish, all the time environment for 4 years. (I didn't make any native English speaking friends here until last year!!) When I came here, I spoke fluent, but very formal Spanish. At university, I had to learn slang in order to deal with classes and group situations. With grades and a social life on the line, I learned pretty fast! That's motivation haha I think many here are embarrassed to try. They shouldn't be. In my experience, Mexicans LOVE to teach about their language and culture. I hate to think how many times my classmates had to repeat themselves, give me a definition, spell something out, or explain a cultural reference for me. After 4 years with me, they never once got tired of it. Don't be afraid Mexicans are always proud to teach Spanish, and they're incredibly patient.
Spanish I'm waiting to see if the world ends in 2012......I don't want to waste my time learning something I can only use for a couple of years.:wink3:
I'm with Tom on this one... :biggrinbandit: ... anyone who is able to become truly fluent in a second language after growing up and living most of their lives in a single language environment (like many Americans) always has my admiration. Those who are lucky enough to grow up among many languages will always have the advantage over the monolinguals who have to start leaning that second one at an older age...
I think Steve covered a lot of it, if you don't need it, you won't use it. You also need to be brave and willing to make mistakes. Obviously we're accustomed to being not only functional in English, but witty, intelligent, funny, expressive. It's much harder to get to the point where we feel confident expressing our feelings or even telling a good joke and thus we feel stifled by the limited Spanish we have when we can't be as literate as we are in English (at least that's how it is for me, I speak functional Spanish, but the fine details elude me still). So, confidence, spit it out, the more it's on your lips, the better you'll get. Two, see movies in Spanish with Spanish subtitles (or English subtitles if your reading isn't up to snuff yet). Three, talk to children! You might not feel so embarrassed and they WILL CORRECT you! Children's books and movies and internet sites can help a lot (at least it has with me, I do Max's homework with him everyday and it's clarified a few things for me). Four, read out loud. Kids' books, newspapers, magazines, whatever, just say it out loud remembering the basic pronunciation rules. Pronunciation is easy when you realize that each vowel only has one sound, never changes, "a" is always "a" (as in "aha!"), "e" is always like "eh" (good Canadian sound, eh?), "i" is always like "ee" (as in "keep"), "o" is always like "hobo", "u" is always like "hUla". Each vowel is pronounced individually, "fiel" (fee-ell) (meaning "faithful"). The accents just tell you which syllable gets the stress. Basically, just keep at it, not as "work" but as something entertaining and fun. If it's "work", you won't get there (at least I didn't!)
For many people, they've just never taken on a task that requires the total quantity of learning that learning a new language does. It's not just words, but grammar, co-locations and the many situationally appropriate things that you must learn to say. I know, because language teaching is my business. I even know how to go about it, but it's still painful to contemplate, knowing what's ahead. Thus far, I've been content to defer that pain....
