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Dealing with REAL Spanish | ||
Tags: Colloquial Language | Spanish | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Questions About Your Target Languages |  | |
| Le dacquois Diglot Groupie France Joined 5653 days ago 54 posts - 69 votes  Speaks: English*, French Studies: Spanish, German | Message 1 of 9 21 August 2009 at 8:46am | IP Logged | ||
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I'm talking about the way people REALLY speak, wherever that may be. I'm at the stage where learning materials aren't doing an awful lot for me since I've been studying Spanish for a long time and it's frustrating to not speak and to not listen to real people on a daily basis. I watch TV in Spanish sometimes but it just flies by. I'm not surprised, I've had very little interaction in Spanish. It's annoying that I may know all the vocabulary, but not having exposure to real Spanish is a hinderance for me. I'd like to use VOIP to practise with someone for real but most folks who reply come from South America and the time difference is important for me, it messes up my schedule. I'm busy at night and most Spaniards don't seem to be able to talk during the day.
Before I came to France I had what I thought was a reasonably good command of French. When I got here I learned that people just don't speak like they do on language learning cd's. So, for about 3 months I was in no man's land, shocked, trying to figure out how I could know so little French when I thought I knew it to a decent level. It took me a while to start understanding what people were saying regularly and to speak as they would. Much of language is popular and contemporary and when people are throwing in turns of phrase that seem to be readily ignored in language learning materials you wonder what's going on. Before I came here I didn't know that the word 'truc' would be thrown into just about every conversation, or 'n'importe quoi!', or 'tu rêves!'. All the learning of idioms is also often time wasted if you're learning ones that no one knows or uses in this day and age. I spent so much time trying to memorise hundreds of them only to find out that people didn't understand. I was learning the wrong ones! Then they would come out with idioms which they would use on a daily basis, like ALL the time, but ones which I hadn't seen in any book, et voilà. I don't have the luxury of real life Spanish. It's so very useful to stop someone in mid-sentence and ask 'Hey, what was that word you used?', 'What does it mean?', 'Say the sentence again, please'. Then you repeat it. Then they tell you other ways to say that sentence and even other ways to use the word they used, etc. You don't forget these things and you learn so much faster. I have many memories of me saying something in French and someone stopping me and saying, 'well, you can't really say that because...here's what to say instead...' and as I say you remember these events. Since living in France my French has snowballed and taken on a life of it's own. I don't even think about studying or learning anymore, I just listen to how people speak, the words they use, the syntax, etc, and I use that at a later time when I need it. It all makes sense and I'm understanding difficult grammatical elements this way without having to study the theory, knowing the rules without maybe being able to say what they are specifically. This is basically how most native speakers experience their own language. I want to bring on my Spanish in this way as I did with French. Is finding a native speaker to talk with daily the only way to bring on my Spanish? I've not had much luck on penpal sites. I have a tight schedule and it doesn't seem to correspond with the lives of other Spanish speakers. I can't see how to practise the Spanish I already have, lying dormant, unused and half forgotten in my rusty brain. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| ExtraLean Triglot Senior Member France languagelearners.myf Joined 6000 days ago 897 posts - 880 votes Speaks: English*, French, Spanish Studies: German | Message 2 of 9 21 August 2009 at 10:11am | IP Logged | ||
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Salut le dacquois,
Go to Spain, it's just down south? Check out the low cost flights, I know a guy who got a bunch of tickets with Ryan Air for 1€ each. I've forgotten where you are situated in France but I know that if you go here: you can find a decent amount of Spaniards in Paris to talk to. I myself have been to one or two of the meetings. Just hide the fact that you speak English and it's a blast. Thom. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Le dacquois Diglot Groupie France Joined 5653 days ago 54 posts - 69 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: Spanish, German | Message 3 of 9 21 August 2009 at 1:56pm | IP Logged | ||
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Thanks Thom. I'm in the southwest so yeah, Spain's not far away. The thing is that I can't really go gallivanting down there since my life is here. It may not always be like that and if I want to spend time there it wouldn't be a long journey, but other than going for a week's holiday it could become complicated.
I suppose being not far from the border (maybe an hour, hour and a half) means there are perhaps some native Spanish speakers who live here. I could maybe consider putting an ad in a newspaper or something for a language exchange. I think I'll have to consider some real life interaction because working with media seems good at the beginning but as you go on it gets one-dimensional since there's very little interaction. I've got some friends in Spain, so I might take that holiday before the year is out, we'll see. Thanks. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Aeroflot Senior Member United States Joined 5608 days ago 102 posts - 115 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French | Message 4 of 9 21 August 2009 at 7:14pm | IP Logged | ||
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You could always try watching some Pedro Almodovar movies to get acquainted with more natural Spanish. Just turn on the subtitles and lets the words be absorbed. Of course if you can find some real live, walking and talking Spaniards, then that would be better.
Not sure where you hail from, but Spain Spanish is a lot, lot different from Latin American, I don't care what anyone tells you about them being the same thing. Spaniards use many different words and expressions. While I was beginning to understand Mexican TV, I got a craving for Spanish movies and turned them on and everything flew over my head. haha. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| datsunking1 Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5591 days ago 1014 posts - 1533 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: German, Russian, Dutch, French | Message 5 of 9 21 August 2009 at 7:18pm | IP Logged | ||
I completely agree with the movie idea, I watch dvds with Spanish subtitles to pick up slang, idioms, and many other phrases. When I encounter a Spanish speaker, it's normally not formal talk. There's a lot of slang and idioms used that they would NEVER teach you in school. "Street Spanish" is a slang/idiom dictionary that sells for about 7 dollars (thats what I paid) there's thousands of words and phrases in there that you will never here in a classroom or book course that people in Spanish speaking countries use EVERYDAY. The best way to learn real Spanish is speaking with a native. I honestly learned more in one month than I did in years of classes. -DK1 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| jpxt2 Triglot Groupie United States Joined 6737 days ago 46 posts - 52 votes Speaks: English, Spanish*, French Studies: Mandarin, Catalan, Portuguese, German, Italian | Message 6 of 9 23 August 2009 at 1:11am | IP Logged | ||
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I would load up my iPod or MP3 player or whatever with podcasts and audio ripped from DVDs, and just listen everywhere you go.
@Aeroflot: To me, they are virtually the same, the only differences being some vocabulary and expressions, and I can tell you this as a native Spanish speaker. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| TheBiscuit Tetraglot Senior Member Mexico Joined 5929 days ago 532 posts - 619 votes Speaks: English*, French, Spanish, Italian Studies: German, Croatian | Message 7 of 9 23 August 2009 at 6:16am | IP Logged | ||
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How about concentrating, as suggested through movies and podcasts, on one variety of Spanish? I learnt Mexican Spanish but I can understand other varieties. The vocab and idioms may differ a little but if you have a very good grasp of one Spanish, you'll be able to understand, through context, many others. In doing this you're also lightening the workload as you don't have to worry about 'abarcando todo'.
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
 Hencke Tetraglot Moderator Spain Joined 6900 days ago 2340 posts - 2444 votes Speaks: Swedish*, Finnish, EnglishC2, Spanish Studies: Mandarin Personal Language Map | Message 8 of 9 23 August 2009 at 2:21pm | IP Logged | ||
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Yes, some films and also some TV-series will use a lot of colloquial language that you won't come across too easily in language learning material. Many of the TV-series are even available on Youtube. Try "Aquí no hay quien viva" which has been recommmended before here on the forum, and I know large parts of it can be found on Youtube. It is a lot of fun to watch and it provides a total immersion in an everyday colloquial way of using the language, including slang. You might be struggling to follow it at first though, but then it needs to be a little challenging or it wouldn't be effective.
As for the Spain/LA differences I don't know if it really applies here, since the OP seems to be aiming for Castillian Spanish, but the differences are of course greater the more informal and colloquial you get. Edited by Hencke on 23 August 2009 at 2:26pm 1 person has voted this message useful |
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