I'm trying to come up with a plan to learn Spanish. I have always wanted to be able to fluently speak Spanish but unfortunately they haven´t invented a Spanish chip I can implant in my brain and I've married into a Spanish speaking family so I need to get serious about learning. In the words of Nike I need to ¨Just Do It¨. I took 2 years of Spanish in High School and a quarter or 2 in college but that was a while ago. I know enough to listen to a conversation or read something and understand the general idea of what is being said. I know a lot of nouns but I am horrible with my verbs which makes me really hesitant to try and speak it. I'm learning to get over this especially after how thankful I was in Chile when people tried to speak English to me. I didn't care how bad the grammar was and paid no attention to it. I was just happy they were trying to communicate with me.
S bought me the entire Rosetta Stone collection for Spanish. Does anyone have experience with Rosetta Stone? I'm still on the first level and I know that the premise is learning through immersion but I'm starting to wonder how people with no background in Spanish learn this way and wondering how much I am learning. 95% of this first level has been very easy for me so far and very boring but still something I have to go through. One thing I'm realizing more now than I had before when studying Spanish is that you need to think in the other language instead of trying to translate from your native language. I think the Rosetta Stone method does help with this.
Everyone thinks that S is too easy on me because he doesn't force me to learn it. I think he would really like it if I could speak but he doesn't push me at all. Some people have said that we need to have entire periods of time that are solamente Español. That would be a fun weekend of us either staring at each other or me answering questions ¨si" o ¨no". I've talked to S about him mixing in some Spanish into our everyday conversations. I think this might be the better option for him to mix English and Spanish and maybe I'll start to pick some up. I know the last time I was in Chile for 2 weeks I really started to pick up more and my ear was becoming more tuned to it. I know that the best way/only way to really learn a language is to spend a good amount of time there but I don't have that option right now.
So, I need a plan.....I'm trying to decide how many times a week and how long I should be studying. I've read that shorter amounts of time more often are better than spending long amounts of time. If you have any input or tips for learning a language, how much time should I be devoting to studying, types of studying, things that helped you etc. PLEASE let me know :). GRACIAS!!
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ReplyDeleteRosetta is awesome, my mom used it to learn Chinese and she's gone pretty far with the program.
Talking to Seabass for short periods of time is a good idea, but hard because once you establish a relationship in one language it's difficult to switch over.
And my S.'s got a lot better when he started watching English TV with English subtitles. Something about the visual and audio reinforcement really helped him.
Thinks that's all that I said the first time around :)
I've heard great things about Rosetta Stone. A friend used it to learn his family's native language because he was born and raised in the US, but wanted to be able to converse with other family members from back "home". It's expensive, but if you put in the time, you will reap the benefits.
ReplyDeleteLearning another language is never easy. I'm sometimes embarassed to tell Chileans that I've been studying Spanish for 8 years, I have a degree in it, and well I still speak like this, but it's a process. Maybe someday, I will have that cute, not annoying, accent and understand everything that sometimes still eludes me, like pluscaumperfecto....gawd.
I would recommend talking with your husband. Sometimes, I get sort of shy about speaking Spanish with someone if I think that their English is waaaaaaaay better than my Spanish, but I'm getting over my need to be 100% correct every time I open my mouth.
Oh, and when I started dating my boyfriend (who does speak English) we also spent lots of time staring at each other and me answering si and no. Luckily, now the conversation flows better.
I guess the moral of this novel I'm writing, is that it just takes time, so be easy on yourself and enlist the help of your live in teacher.
Just a question? Does your son speak Spanish? Maybe it could be a family thing.
Saludos ;)
I think the best way to get a lot of exposure to the language whilst living outside the country is through music (and podcasts)... whilst commuting, cooking, doing housework or whatever, you can be getting a feel for how sentances are formed, new vocab... It really helps move you on from the stage where you understand individual words and phrases but can't put them together. Then when you watch TV, or your husband speaks to you in Spanish, it will be easier to understand because it won't sound like one overwhelming run on sentance... also sit down and do grammar/exercises (daily!).
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