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If I hear "Spanish is easy" ONE more time | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| furrykef Senior Member United States furrykef.com/ Joined 6475 days ago 681 posts - 862 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Japanese, Latin, Italian | Message 33 of 137 31 May 2010 at 5:21pm | IP Logged | |||||||||||
I've actually found irregular verbs in Spanish have presented next to zero difficulty for me. I practiced them for a week or so and then I pretty much had the forms memorized and I can learn new irregular verbs through osmosis. It's true that Spanish is a lot harder than some people make it out to be -- and, in particular, that somebody who speaks no foreign languages probably has a different idea in mind when they say Spanish is easy than when somebody who does speak it says Spanish is easy -- but I don't think irregular verbs is really the reason. (It helps that many irregular verb patterns pop up pretty frequently. For example, the pattern of the preterite of "estar" pops up in the verbs "andar" and "tener" as well.) And I do think it's probably easier than any other foreign language an English speaker can learn. For instance, cognates with English are probably going to be a lot more evident in Spanish than in French, because French has "corrupted" (for lack of a better word) Latin words to a much larger extent than Spanish has.
Actually, it's responsabilidad. For whatever reason, the spelling/pronunciation doesn't quite match the English word. This sort of thing is one reason that foreign languages are easier to read than write, and it applies to Spanish as much as anything else... 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||||||||
| Wise owl chick Senior Member Ecuador Joined 5321 days ago 122 posts - 137 votes Studies: English | Message 34 of 137 31 May 2010 at 6:45pm | IP Logged | |||||||||||
I agree with furrykef: irregular versb aren't difficult, you have to find them, remember and every time when you read, you must see them. For me in the foreign languages, the more problematic things are the grammatic structures which I didn't know from my other languages, syntax - word order, and the things associated with the cases like the different articles' and adjectives' endings. Dolly, at which level is your Spanish?
This a/i hasn't influence at all on the trasnparency; I find tracker's example is good,further examples : ENG possibility - ESP la posibilidad - GER die Möglichkeit ENG probable - ESP probable - GER wahrscheinlich ENG exact - ESP exacto - GER genau ENG correct - ESP correcto - GER richtig Edited by Wise owl chick on 31 May 2010 at 6:50pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||||||||
| jnmandal Diglot Newbie United States Joined 6101 days ago 7 posts - 8 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: Swahili | Message 35 of 137 31 May 2010 at 7:30pm | IP Logged | |||||||||||
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As an English speaker that has been exposed to both French and Spanish all throughout my
education (since preschool), I find Spanish much easier to understand and learn. The reason has nothing to do with irregular verbs or conjugations; its simply a matter of aural comprehension. Though I speak French decently, I often still have trouble with the language while Spanish is easy for me to pick up and understand even though I haven't truly studied the language in five or six years. 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||||||||
| tractor Tetraglot Senior Member Norway Joined 5456 days ago 1349 posts - 2292 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, English, Spanish, Catalan Studies: French, German, Latin | Message 36 of 137 31 May 2010 at 7:39pm | IP Logged | |||||||||||
If these workbooks are intended for the beginner, they are bound to be easy. If you get a more advanced grammar, like Butt & Benjamin: A New Reference Grammar of Modern Spanish, you'll see that Spanish grammar is not as easy at it first seems to be. 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||||||||
| BlondGirl Groupie United States Joined 5560 days ago 49 posts - 101 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 37 of 137 31 May 2010 at 7:53pm | IP Logged | |||||||||||
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I can't help to see each of the responses that focus on "Well, for me it IS easier!" to continue to be snobbery. If someone is frustrated with something, how does it help to proclaim your superiority? Simple, it doesn't. It is just rude. Snobbish. Downright mean.
I know that every time I have seen a single comment like that, it has only discouraged me a little more. If it really is so easy for you, how about offering some encouragement instead? "You can do it." "This is a trick that helped me..." Ï was amazed when I understood <subject> that had tripped me up for a while." "My own personal comprehension was best improved by... See--it's not so hard. Here's my own. While I don't think Spanish is easy at all when I am listening to (and trying to comprehend) anyone speaking, I've have found that focusing on memorizing vocabulary to be one of the best helps so far. I am not having to slow down to translate so much (or just try to figure from context) when I have already internalized the word. Mnemosyne is my best friend for this along with Wordsgalore. 3 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||||||||
| Metamucil Groupie United States Joined 5878 days ago 43 posts - 51 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German | Message 38 of 137 31 May 2010 at 8:55pm | IP Logged | |||||||||||
regarding multi-syllable words: many one syllable (and sometmies two) words are from the German or cognates between German and English hound, cat, ship, boat, milk, table, murder, coma, compass, debut, dozen, drink, curve, grass, dumb, drug, era, gulf, honey, house, jade, karma, life, kiss, music, nylon, object, octet, oil, ox, ozone, pearl, pirate, pound, race, respect, round, sack, salty, scandal, shrill, sock, son, vage, verb, volt, vulgar etc..... where the french/spanish/latin/greek influence generally comes into play is when you have 2, 3 or 4 syllable words. Generally but not always. having said that, there are many, many 3 or more syllable words in German that are cognates in English accorion, alcoholic/ism , aquarium, astronaut, antenna, balcony, broccoli, bungalow, cabinet, candidate, cannibal, caribbean, carneval, commentary, communism, criticism, crocodile, discussion, dynamite, equator, eskimo, fabrication, fantastic, generation, generalize, gyroscope, helicopter, hematoma, humanism, identical, intelligent, isometric, kerosene, labyrinth, legitimate, literary, luxurious, military, nautical, negative, neutrality, nuclear, objective, observation, obsessive, obscenity, opposition, patriot, pathfinder, pedagogical, penicillin, pessimism, platonic, quadratic, radius, reservation, romantic, sabotage, sadistic, salamander, sarcasm, serenade, vatican, ventilate, visual, vitamin, vocabulary, etc..... I guess I just wanted to show that there are many more cognates in German than most people realise. and with gender,(der , die, das) there is a method to the genders and even the plurals. Most of this is covered in beginning textbooks. Some day I'm going to write a post in defense of the German language as it relates to gender, plurals, and cognates! 3 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||||||||
| Wise owl chick Senior Member Ecuador Joined 5321 days ago 122 posts - 137 votes Studies: English | Message 39 of 137 31 May 2010 at 9:56pm | IP Logged | |||||||||||
I'm very sorry if I upset you, truly i didn't want to do this at all. Sorry. i don't think that Spanish is easy, or other languages but that Spanish's easier for the English-speakers (and French, Italian, Portuguese speakers) as for example Latin, Ancient Greek or maybe German, although like other people have said, German is close also (English I mean). I didn't know that you were frustarted with Spanish. I hope that you will better understand it soon. I make many mistakes in all my foreign languages excepted my best one. I didn't proclaim my superiority, or if I did this I'm sorry because I'm not superior at all. I hope that you're ok. Wise owl chick 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||||||||
| BlondGirl Groupie United States Joined 5560 days ago 49 posts - 101 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 40 of 137 31 May 2010 at 10:24pm | IP Logged | |||||||||||
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Wise Owl Chick,
Thank you for your response but I was not targeting you specifically--but the repeated comments in general seen on this site --for example:
Wow, that is so encouraging to everyone. That is really going to encourage the OP and others with their difficulties. The OP seemed to be venting about her frustration and others have mirrored that same sentiment so this is obviously not an uncommon issue. In my profession, with so many people who have lived here in the US for many years yet don't speak enough English to even identify in the most basic speech what the problem is or the adult that brings in her 11 year old child as a translator for things that are very inappropriate to be discussing with any child, especially one that mom has lived here with in those years, but hasn't bothered to learn the language of this country at all. I HAVE to learn to communicate with these folks to be able to do my job. I have been studying on the job for many years with , "Qué es esto?" but can't understand the rapid fire, panic information that comes rushing at me. I feel an urgency to learn to comprehend the spoken language and have been working for years. With each milestone that is tackled and beaten, the margin of error and potential problems decrease. Sadly, my Spanish is terrible and I know that I am all but useless in almost all situations--yet I am called to translate on a regular basis. I suppose that what I am hoping for, and I suspect others in this thread also are hoping for, is encouragement as opposed to bragging. While I hope I can be able to conquer this, after my reading here on this board (not just this thread), I am so discouraged that I do not really believe I will ever be anything more than just some stupid gringa who uses messed up Spanish and who won't ever be anything more than just a tourist as far as my abilities go. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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