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If I hear "Spanish is easy" ONE more time | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| lynxrunner Bilingual Triglot Senior Member United States crittercryptics.com Joined 5921 days ago 361 posts - 461 votes  Speaks: English*, Spanish*, French Studies: Russian, Swedish, Haitian Creole | Message 41 of 137 01 June 2010 at 12:18am | IP Logged | |||||
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BlondGirl, how far along are you in your Spanish studies? Are you learning Spanish only
for your job or do you honestly love Spanish? I know plenty of people who just can't get Spanish through their heads because they don't like it at all, but then move on to other languages which they find easy because they love. Do you think that your difficulties may have something to do with your feelings towards Spanish? The vibe I'm getting from your post is that you resent Spanish speakers and it seems like you're forced to learn Spanish. My advice is to find something you love in Spanish that has nothing to do with your job. A novel, a children's cartoon, a mindless telenovela, something that will make you want to learn Spanish because it would be fun to do so. Right now, you make feel like a "helpless gringa" who will never get anywhere, but we all go through that phase. Sometimes I'm studying Russian and things are going great, I understand a lot... and then I try to watch a movie and I'm as lost as a child in a Wal-mart, or try to read literature and have to give up because all I see are formidable words charging at me. However, I shake off those negative feelings and think, "Well, when I first started I couldn't understand anything that I was reading and now I'm at this point. Clearly I'm making progress" and so I keep going. Sometimes I even lie to myself (not recommended!) that I've done more words than I really have just so I can stay motivated. I love Russian, and if it were a person I would gladly stay with Russian for the rest of my life. However, I want to deepen my relationship with Russian, understand more, and that is what drives me even when I feel that I'll always be a stupid foreigner. That is the encouragement I need to keep on going when I realized that I stress words completely wrong and that I have no idea how to decline adjectives. That is what makes me tick. I don't know who you are. I don't know how you feel about Spanish. However, if you can find something like this, something that you just honest-to-God love about Spanish, you will make it. Language learning is difficult whether you are learning French or Tibetan. Far too many people quit because they let their inner cynic get the best of them. Give your inner cynic the middle finger. Know that you can do it. Know that many people have gone through this before and that therefore, you can too. [/cheesy motivational speech] Yeah, um, I'll be getting off my soapbox soon... before I derail the topic any further. If anyone wants to discuss problems they have comprehending particular things in Spanish, maybe I could help? I know lots of English speakers don't understand 'ser' vs 'estar' and the subjunctive and things like that, and I'd be more than happy to help explain those sorts of things somehow. 7 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| robsolete Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5384 days ago 191 posts - 428 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French, Russian, Arabic (Written), Mandarin | Message 42 of 137 01 June 2010 at 1:46am | IP Logged | |||||
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One thing, BlondGirl, is that I wonder how many of the people here who are calling Spanish "easy" have been put in your position: asked to translate rapid, panicked, colloquial speech in a work environment, without much support or guidance. Memorizing verb conjugations is one thing--trying to calm or comfort someone else in a foreign language (while translating for an office) is quite another.
On paper, Spanish is "easy" enough. En la calle, it's a different story, and unfortunately I think the unfair expectations of your job are creating negative associations with the language. I think the above advice is golden: find something Spanish-related that has NOTHING to do with your job. I'm about to subscribe to LoMasTv.com, a fantastic resource--maybe you could try that out? There's plenty of evidence that suggests when people are under stress, their long-term memory suffers. It's possible that your stress association with Spanish is making it harder to remember, and if you built some more positive assocations you would have an easier (and much more rewarding) time of it. 3 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| furrykef Senior Member United States furrykef.com/ Joined 6471 days ago 681 posts - 862 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Japanese, Latin, Italian | Message 43 of 137 01 June 2010 at 2:49am | IP Logged | |||||
Frankly, if you're reading claims of superiority into our responses, especially mine, you have issues. How about reading what we say at face value instead of jumping to conclusions about our motives? Your post here was a hundred times as rude as mine ever was. Edited by furrykef on 01 June 2010 at 2:50am 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| quendidil Diglot Senior Member Singapore Joined 6311 days ago 126 posts - 142 votes Speaks: Mandarin, English* Studies: Japanese | Message 44 of 137 01 June 2010 at 8:03am | IP Logged | |||||
Hey furrykef, I have to agree with you here. BlondGirl, what do you want? A bunch of other people having difficulties with irregular verbs coming here and moaning about how hard it all is? You will face obstacles when learning any language, what's the point of "sharing" them? The internet is littered with blogs and forum posts by expats complaining about the difficulties of Chinese/Japanese/whichever language is spoken in the country they're in, these people seldom get anywhere by "sharing". Personally I don't think much of the idea of using internet fora as support groups for finding motivation or whatever. If you have a specific difficulty, post about it and see how others have dealt with it. Use fora for learning techniques or getting past blocks, you don't need motivation (or its opposite) to come from a bunch of faceless strangers. Edited by quendidil on 01 June 2010 at 8:09am 3 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Siberiano Tetraglot Senior Member Russian Federation one-giant-leap.Registered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6492 days ago 465 posts - 696 votes Speaks: Russian*, English, ItalianC1, Spanish Studies: Portuguese, Serbian | Message 45 of 137 01 June 2010 at 2:26pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Spanish is easy.
And Spanish irregular verbs are not a big deal. 3 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Tyr Senior Member Sweden Joined 5781 days ago 316 posts - 384 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Swedish | Message 46 of 137 01 June 2010 at 3:06pm | IP Logged | |||||
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its totally fair to say Spanish is a easy language.
However the last word is of course key- its a easy language. A easy language is like a nice nazi. Very relative. To say Spanish is easy right off though then yeah, you're wrong. 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| TheBiscuit Tetraglot Senior Member Mexico Joined 5922 days ago 532 posts - 619 votes Speaks: English*, French, Spanish, Italian Studies: German, Croatian | Message 47 of 137 02 June 2010 at 5:24am | IP Logged | |||||
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If Spanish is the first foreign language you learn, it will seem difficult as would any other language in its place. If Spanish is your third, fourth or fifth language, then it's a different ball game.
2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| tracker465 Senior Member United States Joined 5351 days ago 355 posts - 496 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Spanish, Dutch | Message 48 of 137 02 June 2010 at 7:13am | IP Logged | |||||
You have a point here, that no matter what the language is, if it is the first foreign language that you are learning, it will be more difficult than others. For me, however, it becomes incredibly annoying to hear so many people claim how easy Spanish is, when there are other languages which are constantly overlooked as being easy. Spanish may not have cases to deal with, but it makes up for it with the large number of verb tenses and conjugations. Once, my Spanish professor told the class that Spanish was easy and logical compared to many other languages, but my counter argument would be to ask how the verb conjugations are logical. Sorry I do not know how to make the accent marks on this computer, but are the following really so logical and easy: hablar: -o, -as, -a / -aba, abas, aba / -e, aste, -o / etc. Sure many of the verbs follow this pattern or with -er and -ir verbs their respective patterns, but the tenses and person numbers are designated merely by some random letters tacked onto the end of the word. I studied Latin for 3 years, and it was difficult. Just becomes Spanish dropped the cases does not make Spanish, or "sloppy Latin" as easy as some people like to imagine it to be. On the contrary, I always hear Dutch people telling me that their language is so difficult to learn. I cannot understand why, as the language is comprised of simple spelling rules, simple conjugations, etc. Norwegian and Swedish also have very simple grammars, yet for some reason Spanish is always crowned as being such an easy language to learn, when in reality, I think some of these other languages would be much easier for a native English speaker. Hence why I become annoyed when I hear Spanish being hailed as "the easy language" for English speakers to learn. 3 persons have voted this message useful |
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