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 Language Learning Forum : Members profiles |  | |
| Gringo3000 Newbie United States Joined 4050 days ago 2 posts - 4 votes Speaks: English* | Message 1 of 5 30 August 2013 at 6:23pm | IP Logged |
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I have been a lurker for quite sometime but have finally decided to join the forums.
I have always wanted to learn to speak another language fluently. From junior high school through college I studied French. Unfortunately, and I'm sure many have had similar experiences, taking formal classes did not help me learn how to hold even a basic conversation in French. I also took a couple semesters of Modern Hebrew in college and I learned just a bit. As a result of these classroom experiences I discovered that one of my strengths as a language learner is listening comprehension. Even if I may not understand the exact words or phrases, I still am able to get the "gestalt" and general meaning. I have been a victim of wanting to learn tons of languages, not being able to decide which one(s) to focus on, and buying tons of books, CDs and programs for various languages that have ended up untouched and collecting dust on the shelves. I've finally decided to study Spanish seriously. The reason I chose Spanish is because it is probably one of the most important languages to know for a U.S. citizen. Even if I never end up traveling the world, there will still be plenty of opportunities to converse with Spanish speakers. It could also be a potential resumé booster (assuming I take and pass some of the Certification of Proficiency Exams). Lastly, I am someone who often suffers paralysis by analysis. I'm always looking for the "right" way, the "best" way, the most "efficient" way etc. But I've finally realized that I just have to jump in. I plan on using the FSI materials. Although I still need to browse the forums a bit more to determine if I should start with FSI Basic or Programmatic. Anyway, sorry for such a long introductory post but I thought it'd be nice to give a bit of background instead of "Hi, I'm learning Spanish!" 3 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Lakeseayesno Tetraglot Senior Member Mexico thepolyglotist.com Joined 4279 days ago 280 posts - 488 votes  Speaks: English, Spanish*, Japanese, Italian Studies: Esperanto, French | Message 2 of 5 30 August 2013 at 7:32pm | IP Logged |
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Hello, Gringo!
(...I never thought I would say that to somebody from the other side of the border. Feels weird.) Glad to see you finally jumped in! Don't worry about the lenght of your introductory post. If lenght of contents were the units through which knowledge were measured, then HTLAL would probably be made of a thousand dissertation theses. :P As a suggestion, keeping a log or a blog helps keep things grounded and accounted for, in order to make you focus more on the studying and less in the materials. Looking forward to seeing you participate! 3 persons have voted this message useful | |
| iguanamon Pentaglot Senior Member Virgin Islands Speaks: Ladino Joined 5207 days ago 2241 posts - 6731 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Portuguese, Haitian Creole, Creole (French) | Message 3 of 5 30 August 2013 at 7:51pm | IP Logged |
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Welcome to the forum, Gringo3000! I second Lakeseayesno's advice about starting a log. I'd also have a look at other members' Spanish logs, lots of good insight there. The best advice I can give you is to be consistent and persistent with whatever method or methods you use to learn Spanish. Also, sometimes, there is such a thing as "good enough". You don't have to be perfect just try to do the best you can.
The best way to not succeed is to get bogged down in minutiae, not be consistent and persistent and get distracted by all the fun everyone else is having. Keep your eyes on the prize. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Gringo3000 Newbie United States Joined 4050 days ago 2 posts - 4 votes Speaks: English* | Message 4 of 5 30 August 2013 at 9:33pm | IP Logged |
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Thanks Lakeseayesno and iguanamon for welcoming me and for the advice. I'll start taking a look at some of the Spanish logs and will be starting one myself.
1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Theycalme_Jane Diglot Newbie United Kingdom theafrikaanschalleng Joined 4070 days ago 28 posts - 48 votes Speaks: German*, English | Message 5 of 5 02 September 2013 at 12:46pm | IP Logged |
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Welcome Gringo!
I've had very similar experiences to you! In fact so much so that I've never really taken a liking to classroom learning, even though I tried a good handful of languages taking proper lessons. I did, however, keep up learning some languages beyond the class room, because I found emotional reasons / motivation to stick with them other than just practical reasons. I think joining a forum is a good start. I personally chose to be a bit more radical still, because I'm so good at not keeping the learning up. So now I've got a public blog and I committed to uploading videos of my progress. This works really well for me at the moment and I'm learning all kinds of new approaches to learning a language in general as I go. I do agree that you just have to dive in and you have to learn how to take pleasure in it. :-) 1 person has voted this message useful |
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