Fluent In Spanish - How Fast?

[dv8]

only problem with minovio (language wise) is that he has no patience, as a teacher he fails miserably. his family talks to me in spanish, i understand most, even his sis, who's speech is like a series from AK.
but poor minovio... no... his talk is not even one long word, it's more like one long sound of a meal being chewed up WHILE trying to talk...
then i ask him to repeat, he mumbles, i ask him to repeat again and he shouts (i still do not get it).

tv is broken so no telenovelas, sadly

i can get around, of course, shopping is no problem, so is a little chat with workers in out condo, who obviously think (rightly so) that i am a stupid gringa and they have to talk to me like to a child.

despite all the promises i have not touched grammar, i never even learn english grammar that much, i hear, remember and use. rules never made sense to me, even when i had classes on grammar at the uni i hated it. i have to learn from hearing/using.

but a friend is bringing me spanish grammar book so i guess my philological knowledge has to be dusted and re-used.

i find cinema helpful, i go to see english movie, and look at the subtitles, having things instantly translated is very useful.

thank you guys for giving me hope, i know i have a long way to go but having learnt english i also know that once you learn basics and feel comfortable the good knowledge of language follows, may take a year or two but I WILL LEARN.

 

[ustilagor]

Dv8

Snuffy is right - talk with educated people if you can and you will be surprised of how much you understand this is assuming IF you have been studying grammar during your time here or previously.

On the other hand if you don't have that opportunity you will have to make do with what you have. Therefore, your mate will be of utmost importance to helping you. If he/she speaks English, have them stop and only use Spanish. Also, try to find a neighbor or maybe a person who hangs out a lot at the local colmado who will be patient enough to speak with you. Patience is the key word - most Dominicans in my experience don't have enough when it comes to talking to gringos who are at the early stage of learning Spanish,

At this point(6 months) assuming that you have studied grammar and know how to conjugate the verbs etc you probably find that speaking is a lot easier for you than understanding. Don't worry, this is normal and it will probably be some time until the hearing ability passes the speaking ability. Also, you should be able to communicate on a sufficient enough level to go to the store, etc. and ask for stuff you need.

Your situation was very similar to mine 7 years ago. If you do what I recommend and also watch as much TV and listen to the radio as possible EVEN THOUGH YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND IT this will be very crucial to the learning process. A baby listens to the spoken language around him even though they understand nothing at the beginning and volia they start speaking. LISTENING will accustom and teach your brain the Spanish sounds and you don't even have to consciously think about it. Don't be intimidated when a Dominican speaks that it sound like one big long word - that will change.

A couple of final points, please don't be embarassed too much when you make mistakes - have confidence! Also, remember you will have GOOD and BAD Spanish days like everyone - if you don't believe me ask Hillbilly. Sometimes the brain will automatically "switch back" to the native language. Sometimes when I'm tired I hear Dominicans talking and it sounds a lot like jibberish until I focus and then I understand - NO MATTER how fast they talk.

Good Luck!

sounds like good advice....I should be further along with my spanish than I am....worked at it pretty hard for a while but now have gotten a bit lazy about it....I live in Tampa where there are lots of spanish people around and live with a woman (for 10 years now) who is fluent in spanish and english so I have no excuse for not knowing more spanish than I do...

I have noticed however that the point you make in your last paragraph seems to be true....I seem to want to be able to speak PERFECT spanish and am fearful of making mistakes when speaking spanish...I have observed that many of the spanish speaking people here in tampa who just speak English without trying to make it perfect do much better at learning to speak English....also seems with married couples one will learn English very well while the other does not....and many times the children will interpert for the parents....have seen many spanish women at the Super Market have the children interpert for them (even tho lots of Super Markets here in Tampa have lots of Spanish speaking people working in them which makes it easier for non english speaking people to exist without knowing english)...I am just a bit too timid about speaking I suppose....course being 64 and an old fart probably has something to do with my learning ability also....LOL

 

[ustilagor]

"despite all the promises i have not touched grammar, i never even learn english grammar that much, i hear, remember and use. rules never made sense to me, even when i had classes on grammar at the uni i hated it. i have to learn from hearing/using."

point well taken dv8, yeah I took spanish in HS and in college and failed or barely passed the courses I took ....back then (in the 50's and early 60's) was all about conjugating verbs and etc not much about speaking Spanish, heck I had trouble with verbs and sentence structure in English so not surprising I had trouble with verbs and sentence structure in Spanish...LOL

 

[dv8]

i have no problem with embarrassment, which i know is the biggest drawback for people who start to speak another language. i am ok with being corrected, and ok with making a fool of myself pronouncing innocent words so they sound like from perv's dictionary.
if i do not make mistakes i will never learn, mistakes are good.
i no not chase "perfect spanish", i have no hope for it. i've been learning english 15 years and i still struggle with hip-hop lyrics....
good spanish is good enough for me...

 

[ustilagor]

LOL....well I gave up on trying to say "I am hungry" "Tengo Hambre" first time I tried to say that in spanish someone thought I was saying "I need a man" "Tengo Hombre"....just cannot seem to get the sound of the difference between Hambre and Hombre.....so I just say "Tengo Hungry" that usually gets a laugh or two...

 

[Kyle]

like casado and cansado....i still carry around my spanish book and i'm not afraid to pull it out when i need to....it makes for interesting conversation with the locals...

 

[ustilagor]

LOL Kyle, yeah for sure....I looked up both words in Spanish to English Dictionaries online....whoa....found about 100 or so words that begin with "casa" and probably more than that that start with "cans" now learning all of those words would be a real challenge....so to satisfy my curosity what to casado and cansado mean?...I will make those my two new words of the day...LOL