Any Spanish speakers on this board?

[basketcase]

I am interested in learning Spanish, and am curious to know who else has taken up the language as an adult. And I have some questions.

- What was the most challenging aspect of the endeavor, and how did you deal with it?

- Are there web sites you know if that can assist with pronunciation and vocabulary acquistion?

- What other tips can you pass along to help someone who is linguistically challenged?

Thanks, as always.

[Cal]

Rick,

I am a Spanish speaker, originally from Puerto Rico. You want to learn Spanish? First of all go to an adult education class so that you may learn basic pronunciation and grammar.

After that it is practice practice, don't be afraid of mis-pronouncing words or commiting grammatical mistakes.

Practice with your local Spanish speaking population as part of your daily routine, your skills will improve very fast by doing that.

Doing it this way you will learn practical Spanish which will help you in case you go to any country.



Cal Garcia
Sarasota, Florida

[kbasa]

Tina wants to learn to speak Spanish and they suggested she do exactly that. Get some basic familiarity and then go somewhere like Costa Rica and get immersed for a couple weeks.

[wilhelmggw]

For that practice after you get the basics, go to a BMW event in Mexico or somewhere else in Latin America. Here's a great place to start, right in this forum:
Convención Internacional BMW de México (http://www.bmwmoa.org/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1368)

[DesertRider]

Originally posted by RickM
- What was the most challenging aspect of the endeavor, and how did you deal with it?

I'm a native Spanish speaker, so learned Spanish the easy way :-). I can only comment on the basis of how I learned English and later French.

The main thing I've learned about learning languages is that there is no substitute for immersion. Learn the basics of the language (community college, learning tapes, whatever), but once you have the basics find some way to immerse yourself in the language for a while. A two week stay with a family in Mexico that doesn't speak any English will do wonders for speeding up your learning, and will particularly help with your understanding of the language.

If you can't do that, try watching Spanish-language television, which is available in just about every major city in the U.S. The Spanish heard on TV broadcasts is excellent, easier to understand than the sloppy pronunciation and accent of most everyday people (true with Spanish just as much as English).

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All that aside, I have to tell you that learning Spanish you have it much easier than people trying to learn English. Spanish, just like French, is a very rule-based language where most things follow some basic rules about conjugation, etc. English, on the other hand, is a mish-mash with few rules, many, many exceptions, endless irregularities, and is very colloquial, which means that even if you understand the meanings of the words you may not know what the sentence means. (Example: When someone says, "Yeah, right," the meaning is exactly the opposite of what the words would suggest.) People who have learned multiple languages besides English will tell you English is about the hardest language there is to learn.