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Spoken Spanish

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JacobTM
Groupie
United States
Joined 5598 days ago
56 posts - 67 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: Spanish

 
 Message 25 of 59
19 March 2010 at 4:57pm | IP Logged 
datsunking1 wrote:


I was actually thinking about moving there, not kidding :D

Spanish speakers seem to be very friendly to people that are either learning or know their language. Can you back this up?

Do you enjoy living there? How's the quality of life and everything?


I recently got back from studying in Cuernavaca, Mexico for 4 months, and the people there were much friendlier/warmer than I was used to in the US. That may just be pro-gringo bias.

I think if you're mostly meeting people who're professionals like yourself, you'll probably find a ton of English speakers/learners who'd love to hang out with you so that you can both practice the others' language. If they're fluent in English and you're just learning, expect them to kinda force English conversations on you for the sake of ease. You have to try to fight that if you want to learn.

As an Engineer, you'll be in the upper crust of Mexico's economic hierarchy, but you'll still have to worry about the usual problems of getting mugged if you're walking around alone too late etc.
1 person has voted this message useful



IronFist
Senior Member
United States
Joined 6437 days ago
663 posts - 941 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: Japanese, Korean

 
 Message 26 of 59
19 March 2010 at 5:42pm | IP Logged 
duschan wrote:
(spanish is hard and I can't understand the Spanish spoken by regular people even tho I know all the words used in the sentence) (paraphrased)


That's exactly how I felt about Spanish after studying it for 2 years in high school.

Our teacher had a tape that she would play that would read some of the dialogue in our Spanish books. I would see the sentences and know every word and know what they mean, but I couldn't understand it when it was spoken.

Spanish tends to slur everything together, especially when one word ends with a letter and the next word begins with the same letter. Even tho I understood this, my brain wouldn't process it.

"Habla ahora" is pronounced "ablaora". Since "habla" ends with an A and "ahora" begins with an A, it get shortened to a one-count "ah" sound.

I have similar difficulties with Korean, although never with Japanese.

Edited by IronFist on 19 March 2010 at 5:44pm
1 person has voted this message useful



robsolete
Diglot
Senior Member
United States
Joined 5385 days ago
191 posts - 428 votes 
Speaks: English*, Spanish
Studies: French, Russian, Arabic (Written), Mandarin

 
 Message 27 of 59
19 March 2010 at 7:36pm | IP Logged 
Not to draw out any old debates, but while Spanish can be tough with the word slurring, I find it a DREAM compared to French, which sometimes seems to have letters and sounds just dropping in and out willy-nilly (much like English I suppose).
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GauchoBoaCepa
Triglot
Senior Member
Brazil
Joined 5419 days ago
172 posts - 199 votes 
Speaks: Portuguese*, English, Spanish

 
 Message 28 of 59
19 March 2010 at 7:43pm | IP Logged 
Well, I have a chatroom on MSN Messenger....we talk about the language itself and mainly Latin Music...if you're keen on joining it send me a PM, ok?
1 person has voted this message useful



IronFist
Senior Member
United States
Joined 6437 days ago
663 posts - 941 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: Japanese, Korean

 
 Message 29 of 59
20 March 2010 at 2:34am | IP Logged 
Do you guys think this is part of the reason why some people recommend listening to a language for hundreds of hours before beginning to speak it?
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Johntm
Senior Member
United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 5422 days ago
616 posts - 725 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: Spanish

 
 Message 30 of 59
20 March 2010 at 5:01am | IP Logged 
datsunking1 wrote:
TheBiscuit wrote:
datsunking1 wrote:
TheBiscuit wrote:
duschan wrote:
I would like to hear from learners of Spanish if anyone has actually mastered the
spoken language, and if so how long it took and what they did to get there. After two
years of study, I've come to the point when I'm thinking about stopping any further
study, because I don't know how to continue. I've come to the point when I can
understand any newspaper article, no matter how complex it is, or read Nobel prize
literature in Spanish without any major difficulty, but at the same time unable to
understand a relatively simple conversation.

Here's my journey through Spanish, perhaps it'll be of some help.

I came to Mexico about 5 years ago with no Spanish. The only thing I had studied was an MT course. For about the first 6 months to a year I just listened, observed, paid attention to what was going on around me, read the newspaper sometimes, watched TV etc. I didn't take any classes or force myself to speak at that point.

I started speaking about a year or so after being here. I spoke before but by this I mean I began to express myself, participate in conversations more. I think the key to speaking for me was learning how to interact/converse in Spanish. Getting my listening up to high level was important as I couldn't contribute (well) to a conversation I couldn't follow. When I could follow any conversation effortlessly, I found speaking with people much easier. It's a slow process at first but you'll find it gains pace at a terrific rate and before you know it you're fairly fluent, as I was after about 2 years or so. I've found that the higher your listening skills are in one kind of Spanish, the easier it is to understand others. I haven't found the need to study endless books of idioms etc. in order to understand Argentine or Peruvian Spanish.

It's only in the past year or so that I've got into the literature, kind of the reverse of your process. I would say push the listening but also find some way to interact with native speakers. It's depressing at first, especially if you have a high level in other areas but I think it's worth it.


Why did you come to Mexico? :) I just think it would be interesting to hear how you got there, I would love to have to move to a foreign country for business or whatever :)

Well, it's a long story. I just came for a month to see if things would work out... and that was 5 years ago! Now enjoying life in the last free country in North America!


I was actually thinking about moving there, not kidding :D

Spanish speakers seem to be very friendly to people that are either learning or know their language. Can you back this up?

Do you enjoy living there? How's the quality of life and everything?

Mind me asking, but what do you do for a living? (I know it's a rude question to ask, so you don't have to answer if you don't want to, I just want to know what job I can go into to move :P) I'm going to be an engineer :)
And how lax are some of the laws compared to in the US (if you know our laws). Like freedom of speech, gun control, etc. I know guns are very prevalent though.
1 person has voted this message useful



Johntm
Senior Member
United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 5422 days ago
616 posts - 725 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: Spanish

 
 Message 31 of 59
20 March 2010 at 5:02am | IP Logged 
JacobTM wrote:

As an Engineer, you'll be in the upper crust of Mexico's economic hierarchy, but you'll still have to worry about the usual problems of getting mugged if you're walking around alone too late etc.
Carry a knife/gun. Problem solved:)
1 person has voted this message useful



Volte
Tetraglot
Senior Member
Switzerland
Joined 6439 days ago
4474 posts - 6726 votes 
Speaks: English*, Esperanto, German, Italian
Studies: French, Finnish, Mandarin, Japanese

 
 Message 32 of 59
20 March 2010 at 5:32am | IP Logged 
Johntm wrote:
JacobTM wrote:

As an Engineer, you'll be in the upper crust of Mexico's economic hierarchy, but you'll still have to worry about the usual problems of getting mugged if you're walking around alone too late etc.
Carry a knife/gun. Problem solved:)


Idiotic advice. A knife/gun escalate the situation, and won't help much against a group, or anyone who's also armed and more prepared than you are.

Safety isn't that simple, and glibly offering incorrect advice on it is something I don't condone.



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