Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Thanks. Makes sense--verb tenses can be tedious to learn (in English, too, if it's not someone's native language, or so I'm told).
I'm thinking it had to do with some tenses that we don't have in English and are hard for English speakers to properly grasp completely. However, if you don't want to be fluent it shouldn't be a problem. I've learned the basics of many languages, and Spanish was one of the easiest for me. However, I grew up hearing Spanish all the time, so I do have a whole lot of exposure to the language.
Yes, when I was studying French I could always understand Monty Python sketches that have native English speakers speaking French better than a French person speaking French (in other words French with an English accent).
I'm pretty good with the basics rules of pronunciation (which letters are silent, and generally how to pronounce letters--e.g., I know the word jardin isn't prounced like a combination of the English jar and English din), and yet comphrehension of spoken French is difficult for me. I think it's what someone said about nasal vowels, etc.--it really is a different way of articulating sounds.
I have as an adult been studying Spanish and can't really notice the diff from when I was a teen studying German. I have heard that adult brains are not wired as efficiently and that may be true but I think it just takes a little longer--I don't think it means that you won't be able to learn or will only learn incompletely. I think the key is to get in and speak it as much as you can though. The best book I've seen for learning Spanish is Madrigal's Magic Key to Spanish and it's from the 1950's but you should still be able to find it easily enough.
I'm living in a state where many employers are looking for bilingual (English/Spanish) employees and am interested in people's own experiences about how difficult it is to learn Spanish as a second language as an adult.
I would say I have strong language skills in English but only average aptitude for acquiring a second language (did fine in high school French but am sure it was easy for me because of the overlap with English, which Spanish would fortunately also have; I definitely don't have the "ear" for language that lets some people easily pick up languages with no similarity to English and/or pick up a language just by being around people who are speaking it, without formally studying it).
But I do enjoy studying languages, so would put in some serious time, try to immerse myself by reading novels and online sites in Spanish for fun once I had the basics down, etc.
I would not expect, at my age, to become entirely fluent (to be able to function successfully in a solely Spanish-speaking work environment), but for some of the jobs I've seen I think the employer just wants the person to be able to communicate/obtain some basic info--so some basic conversational fluency plus acquiring some extra proficiency in the language that comes up in that workplace to answer routine questions, and then direct the person to someone else in the company if more detailed, complicated conversations are needed.
I'd be especially interested in hearing from others who have tried to learn Spanish as adults (or who teach Spanish to adults, for instance in continuing ed) because adult brains (again, except for the people who have an ear for language) are not as "wired" to acquire new languages as children's are. (Wondering if at my age I'll have less success learning Spanish compared to when I studied French in high school.)
Thanks!
I have tried it but, gave up. Had 3 semesters in college, study abroad, read books, and tried to watch tv. There are too many different dialects, nuances, and colloquialisms. There's the real Spanish from Spain. Then there's Cuban spanish, Mexican Spanish, Spanglish, carribbean spanish, central American Spanish, and south American spanish...formal spanish, informal spanish. It is too confusing. So, now I just refer Spanish speakers to those who are fluent.
If you have had instruction in one foreign language and you have some type of natural aptitude for this type of thing, you will probably be sucessful learnaing another. It's like learning a new musical instrument. If you have learned one fairly well, it's a lot easier to learn a second, third, and fourth instrument, even if you are older.
Spanisn pronumciation is much easier than French as mentioned before. The sounds are distincly different and you pronounce the plural s and the vowels. In French, that plural s is often silent and you sometimes can only tell if it is plural from the article or a plural form of a modifying adjective. "Miserable" sounds the same as if it is La Miserable or Les Miserables. I have always had trouble with the "on" sound in French which with slight variations could be aient, ient, ent, ont, en, on and their plural fom with the silent "s." I also find it hard to hear the difference between "un" and "en." And those French pronouns make me crazy too. I never got into advanced Spanish grammar, but from what I understand, the verbs can be difficult and they don't have any equivalent in either French or English. For all the years that I have spent using French, I should be fluent, but I'm not. Even though I have had less exposure to Spanish, I find it sometimes easier to understand a conversation in Spanish than in French. I had plenty exposure to German in my early years, so pronunciation wasn't a problem for me, but the vocabulary and the grammar was hard. As Sgt. Schultz used to say "I know nothing" and I remember nothing when it comes to German studies.
I'm sure you will do fine learning Spanish, but I don't know if you can become fluent enough where it is accepted by native speakers or could follow every word in a conversation. I don't see how anyone can become fluent without total immersion for a period of time. I don't wish to hijack the thread, but would love to hear about recommendations for foreign language immersion programs, including study abroad, for older adult learners.
Easiest way is to immerse yourself in daily activities in Spanish. I took some in college and never used it and lost most of it. As an adult I did the Rosetta Stone program, but could not use it in conversation worth a darn, so every night I would watch at least 30 minutes of Spanish programming and you would be suprised at how much faster you pick it up.
I'm living in a state where many employers are looking for bilingual (English/Spanish) employees and am interested in people's own experiences about how difficult it is to learn Spanish as a second language as an adult.
I would say I have strong language skills in English but only average aptitude for acquiring a second language (did fine in high school French but am sure it was easy for me because of the overlap with English, which Spanish would fortunately also have; I definitely don't have the "ear" for language that lets some people easily pick up languages with no similarity to English and/or pick up a language just by being around people who are speaking it, without formally studying it).
But I do enjoy studying languages, so would put in some serious time, try to immerse myself by reading novels and online sites in Spanish for fun once I had the basics down, etc.
I would not expect, at my age, to become entirely fluent (to be able to function successfully in a solely Spanish-speaking work environment), but for some of the jobs I've seen I think the employer just wants the person to be able to communicate/obtain some basic info--so some basic conversational fluency plus acquiring some extra proficiency in the language that comes up in that workplace to answer routine questions, and then direct the person to someone else in the company if more detailed, complicated conversations are needed.
I'd be especially interested in hearing from others who have tried to learn Spanish as adults (or who teach Spanish to adults, for instance in continuing ed) because adult brains (again, except for the people who have an ear for language) are not as "wired" to acquire new languages as children's are. (Wondering if at my age I'll have less success learning Spanish compared to when I studied French in high school.)
Thanks!
I have learned and forgotten Spanish at least 4 times, each time it is a lot easier to relearn (remember is probably closer to the truth) but...I am a good mimic, a fairly good part of learning a language is being able to mimic the sounds you hear. I refuse to speak French, a week in Paris disolved any interest I had in ever learning anything more about "the french" the rudest country I have ever had the bad luck to experience. I strongly believe that "french culture" is probably confined to "petri dishes". Efik was a bear of a language, because, properly speaking it is not a "spoken" language, rather it is "sung" the language is sung in five different keys, each change of tone also changes the definition of the word. Efik is an African tribal language, I spent about a year in Nigeria, in the rainforest. Once, while speaking to a group of people from a small village, they broke out laughing. Somewhat confused, before I could ask, it was explained to me. "No, we were not laughing at you exactly, but....this is the first time we have ever heard a white man "Mbakara" speak Efik with an Ikot Ekpene accent. I had to laugh, in learning the language I had also picked up the accent of those who taught me.
Thanks for all the helpful, interesting responses!
I had forgotten that (as someone just mentioned) there is a choice of which dialect to learn with Spanish. Does anyone know which is most useful, especially in the U.S.?
Do most of the instructional materials you can buy here all teach the same dialect? I just looked at a set of CDs I bought a while back and the disks themselves just say Spanish (maybe the box I threw away to save space was more informative about which dialect).
What's important is your level of interest and dedication.
I teach people English every day, and they do a great job learning.. majority of the students are all 30+ and business professionals.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
