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Why would you learn Spanish? | ||
Tags: Reasons for study | Spanish | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| Matheus Senior Member Brazil Joined 5081 days ago 208 posts - 312 votes  Speaks: Portuguese* Studies: English, French | Message 1 of 46 06 August 2011 at 11:30pm | IP Logged | ||
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Hi, how are you?
I've been thinking about studying Spanish, because it is a very important language. But, here is the thing, I'm not even a little interested. I don't know if it is due to my native language Portuguese, but I don't listen to Spanish as I would listen to another foreign language, maybe because I understand more than half of what they say, It's a strange situation, it looks like a wrong Portuguese (I really don't want to offend anyone, I know both are different languages and very important ones), this is the impression in my brain everytime I read or listen to Spanish. I'd like to be fluent because it would be a piece of cake, but I don't have motivation. Could you guys tell me why would you study Spanish or why did you start studying? I need motivation, hope you can help me. It seems like I'm wasting a good oportunity to speak a foreign language (which is important) very well, but I don't feel like studying it. I'm also not into the sound of it, I find it a little harsh compared to Catalan for example, which I find very pleasant. I would post a video song in Catalan, but I think it is not allowed on this forum. You guys might know how it sounds, anyway. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Belle700 Senior Member United States Joined 5696 days ago 128 posts - 143 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, French | Message 2 of 46 06 August 2011 at 11:57pm | IP Logged | ||
I would learn Spanish because it is an extremely important language in the United States, so it is very, very practical. It is a beautiful language as well, but regardless of what you think of how it sounds or looks, Spanish is widely spoken, and therefore useful in many countries. It also opens the door to other Romance languages and would be an easy language for you to learn, since you already speak Portuguese. If you don't like the sound or look of the language, that will certainly dampen your motivation for learning Spanish. I began learning Spanish because I grew up and live in the US and so as an American, Spanish is extremely important for me to know. In terms of business, Spanish is a great language to know for communicating with customers in the United States. It opens up a whole other market. According to the MLA language map, out of all of the languages spoken in the US, at least as of 2005 (yes, the data is six years out of date, but still close enough to be relevant) 62% of that population spoke Spanish. That's more than half of the non-English speaking population in the US. So yes, Spanish is good to know. It is important to consider your reasons for taking up the study of a language. Does your work or schooling require it? Think about how and why you would use Spanish, as well as how it could help your education or career, and maybe that will affect your motivation. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| espejismo Diglot Senior Member Russian Federation Joined 5051 days ago 498 posts - 905 votes Speaks: Russian*, English Studies: Spanish, Greek, Azerbaijani | Message 3 of 46 07 August 2011 at 12:38am | IP Logged | ||
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If you want reasons to LIKE Spanish, perhaps you can start with music?
Here's some from different times, places, and genres. Teresa Berganza - Las tres hojas Spanish zarzuela, performed by a Cuban singer Mercedes Simone - Milonga Sentimental Argentine Ray Barretto - No me molestes mas Puerto Rican Salsa La Lupe - Puro Teatro Cuba Thalía - Piel Morena Mexican pop Los Kumbia Kings/Selena - Baila esta cumbia Luz Casal - Piensa en mi Spain, originally written by a Mexican Estrella Morente - Volver Spain, Tango + Flamenco Edited by espejismo on 07 August 2011 at 1:19am 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| FireViN Diglot Senior Member Brazil missaoitaliano.wordpRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5229 days ago 196 posts - 292 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, EnglishC2 Studies: Italian | Message 4 of 46 07 August 2011 at 12:42am | IP Logged | ||
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I face this same problem. Spanish does not attract me at all, and it bugs me all the time. I know that it would be really easy to learn and it's a very important language, but... I don't feel that I want to learn. Maybe in the future.
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| iguanamon Pentaglot Senior Member Virgin Islands Speaks: Ladino Joined 5262 days ago 2241 posts - 6731 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Portuguese, Haitian Creole, Creole (French) | Message 5 of 46 07 August 2011 at 2:35am | IP Logged | ||
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To the Brazilians who aren't interested in learning Spanish, all I can say is that my life is infinitely richer in many ways for having learned Spanish. Now, I am learning Portuguese and I am really enjoying the new access to the Lusophone culture I am gaining.
Before I started studying Portuguese in earnest, I had thought that it would be "a piece of cake" (very little effort) to learn the language because of the similarities between the two and I was wrong! It does take effort to get it right and not speak portunhol. They are similar yet different languages. At this moment, I can communicate but I am far from where I would like to be in Portuguese. I will indeed get there, soon, hopefully. There is a group of Brazilians in Rio de Janeiro, affiliated with the Cervantes Institute there, called Los insistentes who have a passion for the Spanish language and Hispanic culture. They have a great blog written in Spanish that I would recommend to anyone, regardless of whether or not you speak Portuguese, who is learning the language. Scroll down to the article dated martes 1 de febrero de 2011- "El español, un amor maduro" por Bianca Stamato and read about her embarrassment at not being to communicate effectively as a Portuguese speaker who had not studied Spanish when she visted Chile, Argentina and Uruguay. Then click on their home page for more fascinating and enjoyable reading about Spanish and Hispanic culture! Learning Spanish will make you more familiar with your closest neighbors and a more effective citizen of the Americas when you can speak a language that is spoken from Tierra del Fuego in the south to the US border in the north. Spanish, like English, French and Portuguese is a world language. Edited by iguanamon on 07 August 2011 at 3:15am 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| outcast Bilingual Heptaglot Senior Member China Joined 4949 days ago 869 posts - 1364 votes Speaks: Spanish*, English*, German, Italian, French, Portuguese, Mandarin Studies: Korean | Message 6 of 46 07 August 2011 at 4:10am | IP Logged | ||
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I can't say I can give Portuguese speakers motivation to learn Spanish, but I faced a bit of the same dilemma with Portuguese.
The FIRST reason I started to learn Portuguese was to spice up my language learning: I had been seven months on a HARDCORE German self-teaching project. While I never lost momentum in my German learning, which is why in "only" 8 months I could read and watch German TV without much problems, it did start to get boring (the repetition needed to master vocabulary and structure). So, I made sure I had the basics of German completely internalized, and then started with Portuguese. The exitement of a new language propelled my learning for the first month; after that I started to get bored (much, much faster than with German). I assume it was because both languages are so similar and I get a high out of mastering new grammatical ways to put together thoughts and ideas (German is certainly ideal for that). While there are some significant differences between specific aspects of Spanish and Portuguese (mainly object placement and some tense usage variations), it became really hard to muster the enthusiasm to learn what in many cases where minor (yet important) differences. The languages at times look so alike I asked myself ''why waste the time on such little nuances?'' Then something happened. I read an article on ''Old Spanish" and as I was reading it noticed something remarkable. Examples: - Old Spanish had not changed the F to H: fablar, ferido, ferramenta, fierro. - Old Spanish used the cedilla: coraçon, lança - Old Spanish had not radicalized so many verbs: podo, encontro, dormo, ofreço (and many more!) - Old Spanish placed pronouns after verb when verb started sentence: Daréselo (Instead of ''Se lo daré."), vieronte (Te vieron) - Old Spanish still used the future subjunctive colloquially (though some people in Spanish still used it in in a conscious statement, myself included, and it is use in legal writing) - Old Spanish spelling of many other words: acetar, dexar, estava, oevo. Old Spanish looked A LOT like modern Portuguese!!! Given my love for the development of languages (its phases and how they changed), it was exactly what I needed; I have been hooked ever since. I like the sound of Portuguese so that helps too, but it was really that discovery that has kept me excited to learn ever more vocab and more grammar. To me, learning Portuguese has become a bit of a time machine, to how Spanish used to look like (not exactly of course, but as I wrote above there are amazing common points). Perhaps you guys could make Spanish as the ''Portuguese of an alternate universe"? If you are into sci-fi. Pretend you are in another universe that looks quite like your own, but with some really ''weird'' differences in how people talk... hahaha. Sorry, I know I am mentally strange. 7 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| nway Senior Member United States youtube.com/user/Vic Joined 5415 days ago 574 posts - 1707 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Mandarin, Japanese, Korean | Message 7 of 46 07 August 2011 at 4:30am | IP Logged | ||
Heh, I'm a native English speaker, and I think of Spanish the same way — obviously not because of the similarity to my own language, but rather because it doesn't feel "foreign" the same way any other language would. In short, I'm tired of Spanish for the same reason that I'm tired of English (even though I don't speak the former). Anyway, I'm learning Spanish because I have to—I'm currently a medical coding and billing technical assistant, but on occasion I'll be expected to fill in for the receptionist and take calls from people who either don't or choose not to speak English. It's a shame, because I'd love to learn Portuguese (ever since I learned a bit of Portuguese, I've subsequently likewise looked at Spanish as a less ideal version of it), but now that I'm learning Spanish and already have several other target languages, I really just don't have any time to learn another Latin American (or Iberian) language, especially when they're so similar that I'll end up confusing the two, as I had already started to do when I first learned some Portuguese. As a native English speaker, I suppose the congruous situation would be if the United States shared the North American continent with nine Dutch-speaking countries surrounding it, and there were a handful more Dutch countries extending into South America. (Also, there would be no Canada. ^^) Edited by nway on 07 August 2011 at 4:31am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Matheus Senior Member Brazil Joined 5081 days ago 208 posts - 312 votes Speaks: Portuguese* Studies: English, French | Message 8 of 46 07 August 2011 at 9:56pm | IP Logged | ||
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I have been thinking for a long time, and I think I know the reason.
It's not that Spanish is easy, but being Portuguese native speakers, our passive skills are around B1-B2, sometimes C1 by nature. But, we can't speak if we don't study, that's the point. It's like, if you read this in "fake" English text below, you will have the impression that I have when I am learning Spanish. "Helo, how arey yu? I an bery wel. It est a beautifool day" You understand, but you don't speak, it seems like learning to speak your own language in a different way. I remember when I was at school, maybe five years ago, me and my friend were reading a book about Chess in Spanish (we hadn't studied Spanish), and we occasionally needed a dictionary to translate some words, but after the first 80 pages it wasn't that necessary anymore. Every Brazilian can do that, then in your mind you think, why am I studying something that all people from my country already understand? The answer is simple, just to speak, to have active skills, but then you remember that some years ago you didn't understand a single word of English, and started studying to understand little and simple texts, getting the feeling of being rewarded. But with Spanish it sounds like an obligation to learn to speak/write to be able to use the language, while you already understand most of it. Maybe Chinese speakers feel a little bit like it when reading written Japanese. Then you are not really attracted to Spanish culture, the sound is not as pleasant as other languages (English, Japanese for example), are interested in just a few countries and the only reason you are learning is because it is important. A point in favor is that Spanish speakers that I found, from Venezuela, Uruguay, Argentina, Spain, Mexico, were very friendly, but all of them spoke English at the same level as me (maybe because I found them in an English speaking country). Spanish is not so easy to speak and write correctly, it would take maybe 4 or five months, but I don't know, I'm still looking for motivation to learn it. It's not like learning a foreign language, it's just adapting the way you speak to be understood by them. Edit: Spelling Edited by Matheus on 07 August 2011 at 10:07pm 1 person has voted this message useful |
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