How hard is it to learn Spanish?

[Moxie]

I'm still trying to figure out my new career since all my kids are all in school.

 

My area has a large Hispanic community. My church has a large, underserved Hispanic community.

 

I don't especially enjoy studying language. I outsourced Spanish when we were homeschooling. But I wonder if this is a step I need to take??

 

Idk. What says the Hive?

[winterbaby]

It's considered one of the easier languages for English speakers to learn, but to develop sufficient oral fluency to really be effective in the community will take real effort. And probably some real money as you would require a native speaker tutor. My experience growing up around a Spanish-speaking community was that most people spoke in an accent radically different from that used in most learning materials. But it can definitely be done.

[Tanaqui]

Can't be that hard. I mean, even babies do it :)

 

But it's going to take some time to get up to a useful level of fluency - and you won't get to that fluency level on ten minutes of Duolingo every day. This isn't something you can just rush or cut corners on. If you're taking this seriously, you have to be serious about it.

[luuknam]

So, what is your goal exactly?

[gardenmom5]

duolingo has a good program to get you started.  they also have "language labs" for spanish, which is readers. 

almost every dvd has a spanish language track. I have a few that have french - so I'd have french subtitles with english audio - or vice versa.

then there are other sites that do online instruction.  each site has their own "angle" - so by studying multiple sites you are getting more exposure and coverage from "different angles."

 

to get true fluency does require immersion.

 

I hope to get to spanish one day . . . .(we too have a large spanish speaking population, and some stores signs are bilingual.)

 

eta: 2dd studied french- but wasn't remotely fluent.  she had a swiss roommate.  so they'd watch movies in french and she could practice with her.  it helped her proficiency.  she spent a year and a half in chile, and is now fluent in spanish.  (she had a *really* easy time learning spanish.   but it could have been the years of french she had.)

 

 

Edited August 1, 2017 by gardenmom5

[heartlikealion]

I still don't know it!! I've taken a few levels in high school, 3 levels in college, done up to level 11 in Duolingo, passed on Michel Thomas, did 14 lessons on Pimsleur.

 

Oh and I'm pretty sure my frenum is physically preventing me from rolling my Rs. So I can't make "pero" and "perro" sound differently. :glare:

 

My dad, on the other hand, is the only one in the family that's not part Mexican and he can speak it pretty well... he's got an ear for languages. Can hold a conversation in a few, has lived in countries where he got to use some of them.

 

I am a visual learner. Most of the things I have dealt with rely too much on auditory.

 

I feel the same way, though. I really want to learn it. I feel like I could help the church communities connect. I think I'm going to sit down with ds and do Getting Started with Spanish with him. He did some before, but it was stuff I already knew.

[luuknam]

I am a visual learner. Most of the things I have dealt with rely too much on auditory.

 

 

Spanish TV with Spanish subtitles. You can do that on Netflix, for example. 

 

(you should do other things too, but having the Spanish subtitles on when watching Spanish TV makes it so much easier than just listening to it)

[heartlikealion]

Spanish TV with Spanish subtitles. You can do that on Netflix, for example. 

 

(you should do other things too, but having the Spanish subtitles on when watching Spanish TV makes it so much easier than just listening to it)

 

I hadn't really thought of this particular combination. I've only seen Spanish subtitles where the show was in English. So yeah, that does make sense. But I don't know if I could keep up with people speaking at a normal pace lol. I will try this. I'm afraid I will lack too many of the words being used, though. I feel like I have a lot of gaps in my knowledge.

 

[luuknam]

I hadn't really thought of this particular combination. I've only seen Spanish subtitles where the show was in English. So yeah, that does make sense. But I don't know if I could keep up with people speaking at a normal pace lol. I will try this. I'm afraid I will lack too many of the words being used, though. I feel like I have a lot of gaps in my knowledge.

 

 

It depends on the tv show, of course. I watched a bunch of episodes from Maria la del Barrio (I don't think Netflix had that one anymore, though not sure) that way after I completed levels 1-5 from Rosetta Stone. I had to look up a few words at first (yay pause button), but after the first couple of episodes I had almost all the words I needed... turns out that some soaps (telenovelas) are really very repetitive in their vocab. 

[heartlikealion]

It depends on the tv show, of course. I watched a bunch of episodes from Maria la del Barrio (I don't think Netflix had that one anymore, though not sure) that way after I completed levels 1-5 from Rosetta Stone. I had to look up a few words at first (yay pause button), but after the first couple of episodes I had almost all the words I needed... turns out that some soaps (telenovelas) are really very repetitive in their vocab. 

 

You can make a whole English show into a Spanish show, but I don't know if you can do that and make it have Spanish subtitles. I might prefer that than forcing myself to watch soap operas lol. Not sure how well they do their conversion, either. We have accidentally put an American show in French, for example.

 

[luuknam]

You can make a whole English show into a Spanish show, but I don't know if you can do that and make it have Spanish subtitles. I might prefer that than forcing myself to watch soap operas lol. Not sure how well they do their conversion, either. We have accidentally put an American show in French, for example.

 

 

I think soaps are more likely to have relatively simple and repetitive vocabulary though. I'm not 100% sure, but I think you probably can change a show into Spanish with Spanish subtitles, assuming they're both available. You could put a notebook next to you and jot down words and translations you've looked up so you can quickly look them up again (faster than searching through a dictionary or unlocking electronic device and entering word into their translator), but ymmv. Of course, you do need enough basic vocabulary or this will take too much looking up and be quite a painful exercise... you might want to try different shows and see which one seems to be easiest for you, because some are much harder to follow than others. 

[gardenmom5]

It's considered one of the easier languages for English speakers to learn, but to develop sufficient oral fluency to really be effective in the community will take real effort. And probably some real money as you would require a native speaker tutor. My experience growing up around a Spanish-speaking community was that most people spoke in an accent radically different from that used in most learning materials. But it can definitely be done.

 

there are definitely different "flavors" of spanish.   just as british english and american english - you have spainish "spanish" - and the americas spanish, and mexico spanish.  each spanish speaking country has their own quirks and accents.  all languages that have separate groups have distinctions like that.  german they teach hanover.

my spanish teacher friend had her immersion experience in Uruguay.  she's gone into detail about castillion spanish and some others and their differences. and the groups  that are encountered - but whose "style" isn't formally taught to english speakers.

 

one advantage is dd found it MUCH easier to understand (and glad she choose) the spanish speaking tour guide at macchu piccu than the english speaking ones she overheard as they wandered around.

she also had an easier time understanding my columbian ex-sil.

[fralala]

I can't answer as to the difficulty of learning Spanish-- er, I may be one of those 10 minutes of DuoLingo a day people-- but I can say that there are many opportunities to work with the large Latino community in my area that don't require Spanish language skills. However, a lot of this is volunteer work-- not a career. I would not study Spanish in my area with the hopes that it would help me in a career as the large Latino community means that there are also plenty of bilingual people whose Spanish skills I can't hope to ever match, not to mention their ability to navigate cultural differences.

[Wilma]

Read "Fluent Forever" by Gabe Wyner - it's amazing and totally changed the way I approach foreign language acquisition.

[Audrey]

I'm still trying to figure out my new career since all my kids are all in school.

 

My area has a large Hispanic community. My church has a large, underserved Hispanic community.

 

I don't especially enjoy studying language. I outsourced Spanish when we were homeschooling. But I wonder if this is a step I need to take??

 

Idk. What says the Hive?

 

Any of the Romance languages are easiest for English speaking people to learn. Spanish and Italian have the added ease of simpler spelling that more closely resembles the spoken sound than does French, for example which has more complex vowel clusters.

[extendedforecast]

It depends on the tv show, of course. I watched a bunch of episodes from Maria la del Barrio (I don't think Netflix had that one anymore, though not sure) that way after I completed levels 1-5 from Rosetta Stone. I had to look up a few words at first (yay pause button), but after the first couple of episodes I had almost all the words I needed... turns out that some soaps (telenovelas) are really very repetitive in their vocab.

My cousin learned Spanish from watching novelas on telemundo. It took about a year for her to become fluent. The funny thing is she picked up idioms and other language specific stuff too.

[Lanny]

How hard is it to learn?  How can one answer that question?   On the other hand, if you live in an area with a large Hispanic population, if, with time, you can become reasonably fluent in Spanish, if you want/need to work to earn money, it will enhance your chances of getting a job.  In Miami,  one of many examples, if one is not Bilingual, it is extremely difficult to get a job.

 

Watch the News on a Spanish language channel. You will have an idea about what is going on, from the video and can listen to the audio.  CNN en Español probably has some on screen talent from Colombia and Colombians are the easiest Spanish speakers to understand, because of the pronunciation and grammar being so close to "pure" Spanish. Anyone who understands Spanish can understand Colombians, probably even Spaniards.  

 

The Spanish spoken in Spain is not something I would suggest you learning, if you are in the USA where the majority of Spanish speakers are from Mexico or other countries in Latin America.  

 

The textbooks will probably be based on Mexican Spanish. Each country has some  different usages and slang. For example, my DD (we live in Colombia) ran across the use of the word "llantas" in her Spanish book,  about 6 months ago that was very puzzling to her. Apparently, In Mexico, if you go into a store and ask for "llantas"  you get Bubble Gum. Here in Colombia, you get tires...  

 

However, most of the words are the same and one can travel from the Canadian border to Patagonia and be understood.  In Brazil they speak Portuguese and we have difficulty understanding or reading that, but we have the general idea and they probably can do the same with Spanish.  

 

Spanish is a Phonetic language, so once you understand some basic rules, if you hear a word, you can probably spell it correctly. With English that's impossible. English is a very hard language to learn as a 2nd language.   There is a lot of memorization involved in learning English, that those of us who are native English speakers do not remember doing when we were toddlers.  

 

If you are interested and if you want to do it, I encourage you to begin. It is not something you will do overnight, but if you learn one word each day, in one year you will know 365 words.  

 

Being able to organize those words into sentences with correct grammar, sadly, is not something I have learned how to do, but I usually have about 95%  comprehension when listening to the radio or a conversation.  

 

Good luck learning Spanish as a 2nd language!

 

Listen to Spanish language radio stations also!   

 

BTW, Latin Americans will not care that you are murdering their language when you speak. They are not like the French. They will be SO happy that you are trying to learn their language and trying to communicate with them in their language.  Well, that may not be completely true.  My wife told me, very recently, that she was told that in the HOA meetings  I have excellent comments, but am murdering the language and take a long time to get my thought across in Spanish.  It was suggested to her that I speak instead in U.S. English and if necessary, someone can translate for me...  She relayed the message to me...

[Pam in CT]

Compared to other languages, Spanish is comparatively straightforward -- same alphabet, close to 1-1 letter-sound correspondence, comparatively logical grammar structure, a good number of English cognates, etc.

 

Compared to other people, language acquisition comes far easier to some than others.  One of my daughters has a jaw-dropping capacity to pick up language -- she studies Chinese and Hebrew and Spanish (3 totally unrelated written and grammar systems) far beyond what any of the rest of us have ever managed to retain in any second language; and wherever we go she effortlessly picks up common phrases of other languages just by overhearing them.  

 

I plod along with Spanish, listening to podcasts, using a teeny bit with my ESL students before and after class, doing immersion courses in Latin American countries every couple of years.  After literally years of off-and-on effort, I still sound like Tarzan... I have a lot of nouns and verbs, and no grammar.  I sound perfectly ridiculous, but by and large people are very patient and give credit that I even try.  It's well worth it IMO to try.

[Guest]

I can't answer as to the difficulty of learning Spanish-- er, I may be one of those 10 minutes of DuoLingo a day people-- but I can say that there are many opportunities to work with the large Latino community in my area that don't require Spanish language skills. However, a lot of this is volunteer work-- not a career. I would not study Spanish in my area with the hopes that it would help me in a career as the large Latino community means that there are also plenty of bilingual people whose Spanish skills I can't hope to ever match, not to mention their ability to navigate cultural differences.

The school my kids attend has inherited a large group of Spanish speaking students. The kids are bilingual, most of the parents aren't. Being able to speak some Spanish would make me a better volunteer and it wouldn't hurt my chances of ever working in the school.

[JumpyTheFrog]

My kids and I enjoy watching the cartoon Pocoyo in Spanish on YouTube. It is available in English, Mexican Spanish, Spain Spanish, and I think even Italian. Sometimes you can find episodes in Spanish with Spanish subtitles. Since it is a kids show, the vocabulary is more limited and most of it is in the present tense.

[alisoncooks]

The school my kids attend has inherited a large group of Spanish speaking students. The kids are bilingual, most of the parents aren't. Being able to speak some Spanish would make me a better volunteer and it wouldn't hurt my chances of ever working in the school.

I'm glad you started this thread. I've been meaning to explore the same idea, for similar reasons. (Before having children, I taught in a public school with a very high Spanish-speaking population; I did not speak more than a few handy phrases and communicating w/ parents was often challenging.)

 

I look forward to more responses.

[gardenmom5]

How hard is it to learn?  How can one answer that question?   On the other hand, if you live in an area with a large Hispanic population, if, with time, you can become reasonably fluent in Spanish, if you want/need to work to earn money, it will enhance your chances of getting a job.

 

depends what you're doing.  I thought for sure spanish fluency would help 2dd, she's in health care in DFW, lots of spanish speakers.  it's on her resume, but they didn't care enough to ask her about it.

 

Compared to other languages, Spanish is comparatively straightforward -- same alphabet, close to 1-1 letter-sound correspondence, comparatively logical grammar structure, a good number of English cognates, etc.

 

Compared to other people, language acquisition comes far easier to some than others.  One of my daughters has a jaw-dropping capacity to pick up language -- she studies Chinese and Hebrew and Spanish (3 totally unrelated written and grammar systems) far beyond what any of the rest of us have ever managed to retain in any second language; and wherever we go she effortlessly picks up common phrases of other languages just by overhearing them.  

 

I plod along with Spanish, listening to podcasts, using a teeny bit with my ESL students before and after class, doing immersion courses in Latin American countries every couple of years.  After literally years of off-and-on effort, I still sound like Tarzan... I have a lot of nouns and verbs, and no grammar.  I sound perfectly ridiculous, but by and large people are very patient and give credit that I even try.  It's well worth it IMO to try.

 

I have one of those.  language is a toy.  math is a language.  music is a language,  computers (in addition to sql) are a language.  japanese is a language, elvish is a langauge. . . french, german, attic greek, classical latin .  . . etc. are languages,  language is a toy.

 

eta: i must be making progress.  I see "toy" - and automatically see "spielzeug"....  or if I'm doing a french lesson (I am doing it with dudeling so I can stay ahead of him to help him. french and german are better for verbal SATs than spanish) ... . I'm supposed to translate something . . . and I automatically think of the german . . . .

Edited August 1, 2017 by gardenmom5

[heartlikealion]

Jobs, yeah, it depends. I worked at one retailer and had no idea you could make like an extra buck/hr if you spoke Spanish. That would have probably been most helpful say, at our cell phone service area or customer service desk, where you tend to need to hold a conversation with a customer.

 

I have a couple sites bookmarked for ds. I don't know if they would appeal to adults or not. Like the Salsa videos. http://www.gpb.org/salsa/term/episode
I printed off some of the transcript/vocabulary in the past. I don't know if those are still on the site.

 

I don't think it's included with Prime anymore, but I did try out the "little Pim" videos (made by daughter of the guy who released Pimsleur cassettes/cds). I wanted to hit my head against a brick wall. It might be good for a toddler. That's who I think they are aimed at. My problem was the pacing. I can sit through Dora and lots of other shows, though. Maybe I should translate Dora into full Spanish. dd loves that show.

[Matryoshka]

You can make a whole English show into a Spanish show, but I don't know if you can do that and make it have Spanish subtitles. I might prefer that than forcing myself to watch soap operas lol. Not sure how well they do their conversion, either. We have accidentally put an American show in French, for example.

 

Just don't try this with Harry Potter. Apparently completely different people translated what was dubbed and the subtitles (like completely different words and phrases are used), which makes for a rather disorienting experience. Yeah, found that out the hard way...

[Ottakee]

I am in a similar situation. Not so much for getting a job (although it would have helped) but for communicating better with our Hispanic students parents and people in our community.

 

Our church does a once a month combined service and potluck with the Hispanic church----we use their building at 10, they at noon so once a month we do an 11 bilingual service.

 

Right now I am doing Duolingo and Quizlet about 15 minutes a day and then using Getting Started with Spanish. The latter is excellent for explaining some grammar and is very step by step. It is easy to use and I listen to the free lesson commentary and pronounciations.

 

I am no where close to fluent at all and can read, listen, and translate much better than I can speak but I can now pick up much more than when I started.

 

I hope to either find a local Spanish tutor (native speaker) or find someone that wants to learn English for an exchange.

 

I will likely never be fluent but I can improve a great deal.