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False Beginner - Spanish | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| Julia A. Diglot Newbie BrazilRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5352 days ago 8 posts - 8 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, EnglishC2 | Message 1 of 9 15 April 2010 at 5:28am | IP Logged | |||||
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I’m looking for some guidance with my Spanish.
When I was younger, I had an unhealthy obsession with Mexican soap-operas and collected an unbelievable amount of videos. Being a native Portuguese speaker, I didn’t have difficulties understanding them and, after a while, I could comprehend not only the main idea, but pretty much everything that was said. While inserted in this world, I also met several native Spanish speakers with whom I interacted pretty much daily, but only in (badly) writing. When I was about 14 years old I started the mandatory Spanish class in my freshmen year of high school and, even though it provided me with better grammar notions, one can hardly learn a language by spending 50 minutes a week with 20 other students. At the same time, my interest in telenovelas began to fade and I left Spanish behind as a darker part of my past. Recently, I’ve been seriously considering taking another chance. My vocabulary and listening/reading skills are pretty acceptable, and I could easily pass the Professor’s test with a complicated novel in a long flight. But, even though I have an intuitive knowledge, I still struggle with grammar and, therefore, with speaking and writing in the language. Finding the right material it’s being a problem, since the courses for beginners don’t provide any real challenge. Does anyone have a suggestion? Edited by Julia A. on 15 April 2010 at 5:55am 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
 Iversen Super Polyglot Moderator Denmark berejst.dk Joined 6703 days ago 9078 posts - 16473 votes  Speaks: Danish*, French, English, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Swedish, Esperanto, Romanian, Catalan Studies: Afrikaans, Greek, Norwegian, Russian, Serbian, Icelandic, Latin, Irish, Lowland Scots, Indonesian, Polish, Croatian Personal Language Map | Message 2 of 9 15 April 2010 at 7:46am | IP Logged | |||||
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So you have considerable passive skills, but lack some structure and some practical training.
If your problem is grammar then get a grammar (not to big and scientific, but still one that covers the whole thing). Then read it through once just to get acquainted with the book. After that take one section at a time, - not necessarily in the order of the book - and read through some material looking specifically for examples of the thing you have been reading about. If you don't find any examples then you know that the thing may be theoretically important, but it is not something that you have to care about here and now. However things like common morphology and the construction of subordinate phrases (including the use of subjuntivo) will be necessary from the start, and you will also find lots of it in almost any text. Besides looking for examples in the things you read (or listen to) you can also use Google to find examples for closer scrutiny. Try also to get a second grammar and then compare the two of them. Hopefully they agree in the subject matter (but don't count on it!), but often different grammars see things from different angles. Find out which description you prefer. Grammars are not the holy grail, and sometimes they waste your time on considerations that aren't relevant for you at a certain stage. And after that start thinking (or speaking) - not necessarily in complete phrases (that will come automatically along the way). Exercises in books feel to me as unwelcome coercion, whereas selfguided thinking - using some of the forms and patterns you just have been studying - doesn't have that connotation. It is not terribly important that you can't check the solutions,- this exercise is about ruminating, and the activity itself is the purpose, not a sheet of paper with neat sentences you can give to a teacher. There are some that advocate that you start speaking to others from the beginning, - and if you can find some people to speak to then by all means do it. Personally I prefer keeping the whole thing to myself until I can more or less communicate. That's up to you. Edited by Iversen on 15 April 2010 at 7:59am 7 persons have 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 3 of 9 16 April 2010 at 5:34am | IP Logged | |||||
1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| furrykef Senior Member United States furrykef.com/ Joined 6472 days ago 681 posts - 862 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Japanese, Latin, Italian | Message 4 of 9 16 April 2010 at 8:12am | IP Logged | |||||
There's probably a reason it was only $6. ;) I don't have it, but I have Seymour's 1001 Most Useful Spanish Words (apparently an older edition than the one currently on Amazon, though) and its example sentences had several obvious mistakes. Seems to me that a lot of people get the idea that they're better at Spanish than they really are, so they start writing books. I guess maybe they think that since they're teaching beginners, it doesn't have to be absolutely perfect, but my standards are higher than that. Who knows, maybe the book is actually sound. I'm just saying I'm not impressed by what I've seen from this guy so far. - Kef 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Cainntear Pentaglot Senior Member Scotland linguafrankly.blogsp Joined 6011 days ago 4399 posts - 7687 votes Speaks: Lowland Scots, English*, French, Spanish, Scottish Gaelic Studies: Catalan, Italian, German, Irish, Welsh | Message 5 of 9 16 April 2010 at 12:52pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Cheap, small grammars are sometimes the best, because they don't waste space on irrelevancies.
Case in point: I used to have pocket grammar of Spanish by a guy called John Butt. It had an irregular verbs section. To save space, any regular part (no irregular verb is 100% irregular) was immediately tagged "as regular -ar" (or -er, or -ir, as appropriate). It's now out of print, sadly. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| GauchoBoaCepa Triglot Senior Member Brazil Joined 5419 days ago 172 posts - 199 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, English, Spanish | Message 6 of 9 16 April 2010 at 6:52pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Hi Julia....where do you live here in Brazil?
If you need to brush up your grammar skills, obviously you'll have to buy books...however, I don't find it easy...therefore, I've needed to study more and more although I'm focusing on listening to radio to really to improve my listening skills...thank God the good results are coming to surface. If you live in one of the biggest Brazilian cities in which top-notch bookstores like FNAC and Livraria Cultura are truly two paradises for any language student. Saludos 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| victor-osorio Diglot Groupie Venezuela Joined 5432 days ago 73 posts - 129 votes Speaks: Spanish*, English Studies: Italian | Message 7 of 9 17 April 2010 at 3:23am | IP Logged | |||||
I completely agree with you, I can't see any point in speaking until you are able to talk about a certain number of things and with some confidence in the use of connectors. Otherwise, you waste the time of the person who is listening to you, get stuck on the middle of senteces and finally get frustrated. You cannot practise something you don't know how to do, do you? Very good post. Well, grammar can be boring if you try to force yourself to learn it. Usually, grammar is obtained right away from texts, in an unconscious way. Brain is more powerful than one usually thinks, in my humble opinion. But reading about grammar, just out of curiosity, helps in the process of becoming aware of the rules, which is important for you to correct yourself and take decisions while you speak. 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 8 of 9 17 April 2010 at 5:53am | IP Logged | |||||
1 person has voted this message useful |
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