wannalurnspanish

It makes me sad when I hear of people who are in families who know other people in their family who speak the language, but can't speak it themselves. It makes me think of "languages lost" in my own family, and how if everyone just taught their kids the languages to begin with, how many more languages everyone would know. For example, I guess one of my great-grandmothers on my father's side was fluent in Polish. Polish!! That's not a language I'd actively try to learn, but it's sad to think it's been lost in our family because as far as I know, it wasn't passed on to her children, and therefore was lost in our family. On my mom's side, my grandmother is Pennsylvania Dutch, and both her parents were fluent in German, but never spoke it to their 8 or 9 children. Another lost language! I could've grown up knowing these cool languages!! Have there been any languages that have been "lost" in your family throughout the generations? If so, which ones?

So this sounds... interesting. Is it just for phones though or can you use it on a PC? I'm wondering if this would actually keep me on track or just end up stressing me out.

Ah, I totally wasn't getting it. I could translate it all, and figured there was some wordplay, but it totally just escaped me. LOL Sad.

Verbs are my nemesis. I honestly think my Spanish could improve so much by learning the various tenses and their uses. Does anyone know of a good site, method, etc to use for this kind of thing? (Apps aren't a good suggestion though, because I don't have a cell phone.)

This sounds like a good way of doing it. I was just thinking earlier today that if I learned a couple if new verbs a day, or even a week, that'd be a heck of a lot more I'd know after even a few months than before. Then I think back on the years here and there that have passed where I could have been doing this and see all the time I've wasted. I just spent several minutes going through a few of the verb tenses in Spanish. I know this stuff, it's just it doesn't get utilized nearly enough for it to become second nature.

I hear this. The clincher for me though is all those darn verb tenses. I don't know them (as in, was never taught them!) in English, so I have a lot of trouble knowing them in Spanish. I have a GREAT book on it, but it's one of those things that always gets pushed aside in lieu of other things that need to be done.

I haven't joined it, but from reading what it is, it honestly sounds like it's very much like another website with a similar name. I'm not sure if that's really the method for me. I've tried the other one where it highlights words and such, and it just didn't seem like I was getting a lot from it. Is it all free or is there a limit to what's free and then you have to pay later? Maybe I'll check it out when I'm feeling up to trying it, but not really sure if it will benefit my learning.

This happens to me when whatever I'm reading is incredibly boring or something I don't care about. Give me a book I enjoy and I could have it done in three hours. Give me something I don't like (say those boring classics they had us read in school) and I could read the same page over and over again for 30 mins and still not know what it says.

I'd have to go with Spanish as well. Part of the reason why is because so many people already know it. Another reason is because it's what I think to be one of the easier languages to learn (minus those stupid verb tenses!). The other reason is purely selfish. In regards to learning it, I'm at least halfway there and could easily get by! More realistically though, I see a universal language being something more like Chinese.

Well, unfortunately I just spent half an hour answering all your questions, just to have the system kick me out (sign me out) when I tried to post it, losing all my answers... If someone knows if the system does an auto-save or something, let me know. Sorry.

Wow, that looks pretty cool and maybe I'll join. I kind of go back and forth between wanting to learn Asian languages. I think, in the future, Chinese could be pretty useful, and actually tried to actively learn it at one point. Other times I think it'd be cooler to learn Korean since I'm into taekwondo. There are also the times I take a look at all their symbols and then get overwhelmed and think, "Yeah, right." I haven't even conquered Spanish yet! Maybe a special site will boost my motivation!

It makes me sad when I read situations like this, because if I knew more than one language fluently I wouldn't want to let it go! That said, what's done is done and now you want to remedy that, so that's a good thing. Having lived in the US my whole life, like most, I'm not fluent in another language, so I can't speak from personal experience. I have heard of similar stories, though. My best suggestion would be to get to using the language more. Watch Spanish tv shows, listen to Spanish music, read books, etc. I would think that doing some studying of your language would also help you regain the vocabulary and skills you lost in that language. I'm thinking talking with others fluent in the language would also be extremely beneficial. In a place like SoCal (where I live) the opportunity to do this exists everyday as you go out in public. Other locations you're not going to be as lucky, but in this day and age the beauty of the Internet allows this. Live Mocha is a great site to use to find other speakers of a language to practice with and brush up on your skills, though they've changed it a lot since I last used it, so I can't be 100% sure what they offer now: http://livemocha.com/ In a quick search I also found this site. I haven't actually tried it, but it looks like it's worth looking into (though may not be free): https://www.verbling.com/ Check out this one for general lessons and resources: http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/spanish/ I'd also suggesting listening to free podcasts (look on ITunes) and looking for videos on Youtube that meet your needs. Good luck!

If you happen to be in the US, this is an awesome opportunity for your son! If you want to get technical, when the family starts complaining it, bring out the statistics on the rise of the Hispanic population in our country. I think in a very short time, being fluent in Spanish to communicate with a good majority of the people is going to be a necessity. Even now, in different parts of the country, a person who is bilingual Spanish/English will be picked for jobs over those who aren't. I think this type of situation is only going to be more prevalent in the future.

These kinds of stories make me sad. I don't know why parents would completely let their children's other language skills die when they move to a country that speaks a different language. I guess maybe they feel they're doing their child a favor by forcing them to be fluent in the new language, but I really see it as the opposite. It's truly a disservice to the child, and it seems like it would take all that much effort to maintain both languages. Maybe in situations like this they could alternate languages between days spoken at home or something? I guess maybe I'm speaking ignorantly, as I've never been in this situation, but if there was an opportunity for my child to easily become bilingual, I'd act on it.

I'd highly recommend Homeschool Spanish Academy. My son is using this and it has helped him a lot. It's mostly for students, but they have an adult program as well. Basically, you're speaking over Skype with a fluent Spanish-speaker that lives in Guatemala. At the very least, it can't hurt to look into it. You can have the payment broken down into monthly payments, rather than as one big payment, if you choose. They also allow you to take one free trial lesson to try it out before you commit to any of their classes.