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How I became fluent in Spanish 4 MONTHS | ||
Tags: Time to learn | Spanish | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Learning Techniques, Methods & Strategies |  | |
| Gusutafu Senior Member Sweden Joined 5317 days ago 655 posts - 1039 votes  Speaks: Swedish* | Message 73 of 77 04 January 2010 at 1:17pm | IP Logged | ||
Well, something tells me that the original poster won't go to Cambridge. However, I think that you could condense the poster's story, as far as it is intelligible, to two very good points: 1. Immerse yourself 2. Don't worry about mistakes PS I am pretty impressed that he managed to come up with a new spelling of Pimsleur each time it was mentioned, none of which would even be pronounced anything like "Pimsleur". Edited by Gusutafu on 04 January 2010 at 1:17pm 4 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| daveyboy Newbie Spain Joined 5078 days ago 33 posts - 46 votes Studies: Spanish | Message 74 of 77 23 July 2010 at 10:43am | IP Logged | ||
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Fluent In 4 months..?
Is your real name Merlin [ the wizard ]..lol.. I think you can probably speak and understand some Spanish but Fluent..? in 4 months ..? no way. The Romanians that come to live here in Spain don't even become fluent in 8 months never mind 4 and to me these guys learn the language very very fast. Romanian is a romance language like Spanish so they find it easy to learn, but still it will take them nearly 1 year or more to become fluent. Your Idea of watching / listening to the tv over and over again is very good for the comprehension of the Spanish though. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| michaelmichael Senior Member Canada Joined 5053 days ago 167 posts - 202 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French | Message 75 of 77 26 July 2010 at 8:44pm | IP Logged | ||
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hmm i watched thousands of hours of Japanese anime... nope don't know japanese :/. I don't think your method is efficient or effective for beginners, this is basically called the sink or swim approach (well even worse because you weren't completely immersed in it.). While i am a bit skeptical of your story, congratulations to you, many people would love to be able to learn without trying. Edited by michaelmichael on 26 July 2010 at 8:44pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Random review Diglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5579 days ago 781 posts - 1310 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Portuguese, Mandarin, Yiddish, German | Message 76 of 77 26 July 2010 at 11:51pm | IP Logged | ||
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Hmm, I think the important thing to take from the original poster is the obvious love he had for the language, the people, and the process itself. As for fluent, I believe him, I've seen people do it in that time, but invariably (at least in my experience) their grammar sounds awful (e.g. no adjective agreement/ subjunctive etc, random use of imperfect and preterite and so on), and (unlike their vocabulary) doesn't really improve over the years. From the standard of his English I would bet this is the case with the original poster. And yet in the short term (and maybe even the medium term!) these people can express a lot more than people like me (I'm still far from fluent, though that has not stopped me from sharing things on this forum that I've learnt along the way, why on earth should it?). In my experience Spanish and Venezuelans quickly get bored and end the conversation if you don't communicate fluently (they are really not bothered about how correctly you speak it, they will talk to you if you are interesting, but as far as they are concerned they are not there to teach you Spanish); whereas Columbians will respect the fact that you are trying to learn their language CORRECTLY and make allowances- can't speak for other nationalities, and would be interested to know other people's experiences!
I figure there has to be a way to take the best from both approaches, but blowed if I know how. Edited by Random review on 26 July 2010 at 11:54pm 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Journeyer Triglot Senior Member United States tristan85.blogspot.c Joined 6664 days ago 946 posts - 1110 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, German Studies: Sign Language | Message 77 of 77 27 July 2010 at 5:44am | IP Logged | ||
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I also feel that it's possible that the OP (does that stand for "original poster?) could have achieved fluency in four months. A couple of things to consider: fluency is an ambiguous term, so part of the debate is probably based in different peoples' ideas what he's talking about. One poster wrote in Spanish that if he can't read, he's not fluent in the language, but personally I don't think that's fair, considering how there are plenty of illiterate native speakers of languages around.
The OP had a passion to not just learn the language, but to live it as much as he could. This certainly speeds up learning time. People saying that they've studied languages for years either alone or at school and still can't speak fluently ought to understand that there is more than one way to learn, and learning in classrooms especially can slow one down in language learning. I myself learned Spanish in about six months and was probably fluent in nine, but this is while I was living in Mexico. If I had been more interested in the language though and worked harder at the language, ie not just tried to let my brain soak things up like a sponge, but read more and do active exercises to compliment my immersion, I'm sure I could have sped things up. I understand the skepticism, but to me this guy strikes me as being honest rather than trying to "sell" an idea. I don't know to what level of fluency he would be at, but enough to converse well and express what he wants is almost certainly doable in the time he stated. Also, off the topic a bit and I'm not sure I should mention it since other people have as well, but cordelia0507, I feel the Swedish text you wrote was really beneath you and had no place on this forum. Edited by Journeyer on 27 July 2010 at 5:45am 3 persons have voted this message useful |
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