Is El paso a good place to learn Spanish? (schools, live)

[Quadcore]

I guess there are a lot of Spanish speakers and spanish language schools. Spanish is becoming one of the most important languages in the world. I hope I can learn a little bit Spanish.

[malamute]

There are better places to learn Spanish -- you have to know enough Spanish to know what's Spanish and what's Spanglish -- because learning here could be confusing. You'll at least learn a lot of "border Spanish" here. You'll learn what "esta working" means or learn to read signs like "sebende la troca".

[HIGH!Lonesome]

Any place is a good place to learn spanish, spanglish is spoken in alot of Mexican/American households anywhere in the country, there is also a Spanish language dialect spoken in El Paso, it's called Calo, sort of slang to the left but they got some out of this world "words invented out of the imagination".

[peggydavis]

So, if someone studied Spanish from a cd or tape first, or even took a formal class in Spanish first, that would be better? Then in El Paso you can learn the dialect?

When I have been in border towns, after a day or two I can start to read signs and understand just a tiny amount of Spanish, but after I leave I seem to forget it all!

[HIGH!Lonesome]

I would think that a formal Spanish class would be a better way to learn Spanish but cd's or tapes can only teach you and give you so much details and you are very right when you said it is easy to forget, I once taught a caucasian freind alot of Spanish El Paso style that is,that we could actually carry on in conversations in Spanish, then a few years down the road we had'nt seen each other for a while and he forgot everything I taught him.

[malamute]

I would think El Paso is a good place to learn a type of Spanish depending on where you will be speaking Spanish. If you want to learn the Spanish of Spain then studying in Spain would be better, or if you wish to use Spanish in Mexico then study in Guadalajara or Puebla -- but learning Spanish only in classrooms won't get you too far for normal conversations. To understand Spanish speakers -- you have to learn what they are saying. If you learn formal Spanish then you won't know what "las brecas" in a car are or what a "oagoncita" is -- but then if you learn those words then you might not always be understood in Spain or South America or even in Mexico.

But what's kind of interesting -- there are people who lived here forever -- even in the segundo barrio who learned very little Spanish so it's not a sure thing.

[peggydavis]

The tapes and CD's I have had are more for tourists and only go so far. I had one that was apparently for airline stewardesses and that was pretty funny in places. I have tried to learn Spanish just because I would like to speak another language, and I figured Spanish is one of the easier ones to learn. I'm just not around many Spanish speakers.

[WildWestDude]

Originally Posted by Quadcore

I guess there are a lot of Spanish speakers and spanish language schools. Spanish is becoming one of the most important languages in the world. I hope I can learn a little bit Spanish.

Yes, you can probably pick up on spanish faster in El Paso.
I speak pretty good spanish since I spend five weeks in an intensive spanish program in Spain and lived with a nice familiy in Andalucia, but refuse to speak it within our borders.
When I travel to latin america, I don't expect somebody to speak to me in english so I speak spanish. Same should be true for anybody coming over to the US, the should adopt english.
It is funny and ridiculous to watch travelling spanish speaking people around the world trying to speak their language, where others throughout the world have been taught ENGLISH to communicate with foreigners. Other people's reaction? What the heck are you speaking?
Spanish will only prevail in the New World, south of the US minus Brazil, and Spain .
Want to do business around the world? About all learn and communicate in english. Have been and always will............

[Steve Hazzard]

Originally Posted by Quadcore

I guess there are a lot of Spanish speakers and spanish language schools. Spanish is becoming one of the most important languages in the world. I hope I can learn a little bit Spanish.

Any location where the predominant language is other than English is a good place to learn that language. Languages, including English, have many forms,e.g. formal, informal, business, street level, dialects, etc. I was an over the road trucker fro 12 years, ran all 48 states, the border areas of the southwest and Texas, I was not permitted to drive in Mexico past the 20 mile transshipment area, and I drove in all provinces of Canada. I learned both Spanish and French out of the necessities of my job, especially in the French Province of Quebec where all official business is transacted in French, including customs.

For some reasons, I retained my knowledge of Spanish but very little French, possible because Quebec is the only predominately French speaking Province in Canada. On the other hand, I had the opportunity to speak Spanish any time is was on the southwestern US border. The Spanish spoken in the border towns of the US-Mexican border can be best described as a bastardized version of Spanglish. It isn't English or Spanish but a unique dialect that's spoken predominately in the border towns. I currently read and write "true" Spanish (Latino version as opposed to the Hispanic (Spainish) version of western Europe) fair to good, but I speak Spanish poorly and understand spoken Spanish only slightly better.

The only method by which a non-Spanish speaker will become proficient in the language is through "immersion". This is a process by which you mind is forced to learn and process the non-native language. As a native English speaker (or whatever your native language), your mind will always revert to you native language. With immersion, the only language you hear is the learned language, unless you count conversations with yourself. Your mind must be forced to thing and process in the learned language, you can not process in one language and translate to another language, this is absolutely self-defeating. I tried learning Spanish by the conversion method, it was totally counter-productive.

So, yes you can become proficient in the Spanish language, but no you can not become proficient by internal translation.

[Quadcore]

Originally Posted by Steve Hazzard

Any location where the predominant language is other than English is a good place to learn that language. Languages, including English, have many forms,e.g. formal, informal, business, street level, dialects, etc. I was an over the road trucker fro 12 years, ran all 48 states, the border areas of the southwest and Texas, I was not permitted to drive in Mexico past the 20 mile transshipment area, and I drove in all provinces of Canada. I learned both Spanish and French out of the necessities of my job, especially in the French Province of Quebec where all official business is transacted in French, including customs.

For some reasons, I retained my knowledge of Spanish but very little French, possible because Quebec is the only predominately French speaking Province in Canada. On the other hand, I had the opportunity to speak Spanish any time is was on the southwestern US border. The Spanish spoken in the border towns of the US-Mexican border can be best described as a bastardized version of Spanglish. It isn't English or Spanish but a unique dialect that's spoken predominately in the border towns. I currently read and write "true" Spanish (Latino version as opposed to the Hispanic (Spainish) version of western Europe) fair to good, but I speak Spanish poorly and understand spoken Spanish only slightly better.

The only method by which a non-Spanish speaker will become proficient in the language is through "immersion". This is a process by which you mind is forced to learn and process the non-native language. As a native English speaker (or whatever your native language), your mind will always revert to you native language. With immersion, the only language you hear is the learned language, unless you count conversations with yourself. Your mind must be forced to thing and process in the learned language, you can not process in one language and translate to another language, this is absolutely self-defeating. I tried learning Spanish by the conversion method, it was totally counter-productive.

So, yes you can become proficient in the Spanish language, but no you can not become proficient by internal translation.

Thank you very much!Honestly,I even don't expect to be proficient in Spanish. I'm not that kind of person who has language talent. A little bit Spanish will be enough.

The reason why I think El paso may be a good place is that El paso has lots of Spanish speakers. Is El paso a place where English is still predominant language?I've heard that you can't even get a job in the south if you can't speak some Spanish.