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wannalurnspanish

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Posts posted by wannalurnspanish

  1. 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?

  2. The tomato asks the pear how long a have you been waiting (´cuanto tiempo espera´?)

    The pear thinks he's saying how long have you been a pear.

    Es pera and espera.

    A pear. And waiting.

    In Spanish they sound the same if you don't say it right.

    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.

  3. 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.

  4. Everything.

    Naw, kidding. I just have problems keeping up with staying fresh on my studies.  I took four years in school but haven't really devoted time to studying since.  It's kind of a shame since I still feel like I know so much, I'm just so rusty from letting it stagnate.

    I think I need to go find some reader books so I can at least do that when I need to read a novel while waiting somewhere.

    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.

  5. 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.

  6. 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.

  7. 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.

  8. 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! :)

  9. 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!

  10. As I talked about in my introduction post, I have a seven-year-old son that is enrolled in a Spanish Immersion Program at his school. What this means for him is that he spends half of his day in a classroom where they speak only Spanish and half of the day in a classroom where they speak English. I really do think that this is a great program because it gives the children the opportunity to learn more and be challenged more.

    However, his being enrolled in Spanish Immersion has become an issue within the family because my husband's family doesn't feel like it is right to start a child learning a second language when they are very young because they really haven't had the opportunity to master their first language.

    I know that everyone here is like me and learning second languages and beyond and therefore I thought this would be the perfect place to find out what other people think about a child learning a second language when they are very young.

    I will point out that my son in a year and a half knows almost as much Spanish as I learned in school, taking classes from 7th through 10th grade and a little bit in college as well. He really is like a little sponge with it.

    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.

  11. I think it definitely depends on how well you knew the language as well as how long you haven't used it.

    Both my parents are Chinese so as a child I did speak a lot of Chinese to family. However when I was young, we moved to an English speaking country where I only ever spoke English as my parents spoke English to me as well. As a result of speaking only English for years I did forget basically all the Chinese I knew.

    However as I was learning the language I found that I was not completely relearning it. I tended to pick up the language faster than my peers as I did still have some basic knowledge in the back of my mind.

    I think if you were completely fluent or close to fluent in Spanish and it hasn't been too long since you've used it I do think it is probably lying dormant in your mind. However it would be a great idea to try speak some Spanish once in awhile to practice it as well as refresh your memory.

    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.

  12. 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.

  13. Hi everyone!

        Have you ever given up of learning a new language after a few days or weeks? I get used to it. I had a plan to study Chinese three years ago, and I worked hard on this. However, I had no more motivation after 2 weeks, then i gave it up. It happened so many times like until now. Right now, I am also working hard on Chinese again. I hope i won't give up again and able to make my dream come true.

     

    Yep, Chinese was the language that did it for me. 2 or 3 weeks in and....nothing. I was thinking, "Why did I want to learn THAT?" I'm sure I'll be motivated to do it sometime in the future when I actually have time, but for me it's not really a priority, so it's one of those things that gets pushed to the back burner.

  14. The hardest language I have ever tried to learn is Chinese. Chinese is so difficult for me to learn because of how different it is from English. The letters are no where near similar to English.

    Yeah, I hear that. I bought a computer program for it and thought I was doing okay, but it's just so difficult. I think I lasted maybe two or three weeks and grew tired of it. I thought I had the basic numbers down pretty well, but I can't remember any of them now. It's just one those things my brain can't process properly I think.  :laugh:

  15. The best way to fit language study into a busy schedule is probably to get Anki or Memrise or any of the other flashcard apps for your smartphone (or even just physical flashcards, if you're so inclined) and use them to study whenever you have five minutes while waiting for the bus, at the dentist, etc.

    It doesn't sound like much, but if you make it a habit to use your downtime for something useful, you will be surprised how much time it adds up to.

    And this is not just for vocabulary, you can create cards to practice grammar like declensions or conjugations, too.

    Oh! Well that does create a bit of a problem there. I know I'm the odd ball of this world, but I HATE cell phones. I don't now, nor ever plan to, own one, so I guess that idea is out! I guess I could get into the habit of carrying around flashcards or a book or something, although that can be a bit of an inconvenience at times.

  16. I want to learn it simply for the love of the language. In school I wanted to take French (I wanted to visit France one day), but my mother said Spanish was way easier and convinced me that French was not a language worth learning (I'm not sure why.) I ended up sticking with Spanish all through high school and totally loving the language. I somewhat slacked off in Spanish my senior year though, which was a big mistake, and I think I lost a lot of ground in learning verbs by doing that.

    Because of my location in the US, it also wouldn't be a bad idea to learn it for the practical reason of being able to communicate with a good percentage of the people I come across in public places everyday. I think those who choose to not learn Spanish are going to have various problems and issues to deal with in several years, both here and in other parts of the country, because of the rise in the Hispanic population in the US.

  17. If you live in an area where there are book stores like Barnes N' Nobles, if you go to their learning sections, they have some awesome workbooks on how to learn Spanish. I bought one of them a few years ago, and though it was a bit expensive, I was almost fluent in the language by the end of the textbook. It's great at not only teaching you the basics, but coaching you until you are fluent.

    Wow, I'm curious to know what workbook that is. Most of what I've learned of Spanish comes from taking it in school for several years, but I'm nowhere near fluent. Do you remember what the title of the book was that you used? If you don't, is there anyway you could do a quick search through Amazon and see if any of the Spanish books is the correct one?

    Thanks!

  18. finding the time to work on learning and studying the language of your choice?

    Ideally, for me, I'd love to be able to devote at least one or two hours a day to learning Spanish, but it never quite works out that way. It seems I always have about a million and one things to do, and finding time to study seems to usually be something that doesn't happen. It's one of those things that always seems to get pushed aside because other things take priority.

    How do you manage to fit it in? Do you devote a specific time everyday to studying? Do you just fit it in during the day when it works best for you? What's the key to making it happen? Maybe you guys can give me some good ideas.

  19. I know a lot of Americans don't think it's necessary, and I guess maybe for a long time that was true, because English was the "in" language to know. Most countries learned it. You could go a lot of places and most likely find someone who could speak it. That's still true, but I think it's definitely changing where one has to know at least a couple these days though.

    I'm in SoCal and you definitely have an advantage in the job market by being bilingual in both English and Spanish, due to the high population of Spanish speakers (read Mexicans). A lot of places don't just see that as an added bonus in an employee, but as a MUST. I think, with the population of hispanics increasing throughout the country, people are definitely soon going to see this as the norm, rather than just the exception.

    I also think things may shift where Chinese is going to be one of the big languages to know as well. I don't know how I myself will fare with that language though, so I'd rather not think too much about it, but it's something to consider.

  20. For me, it's really about finding the time to do as much as I want to do to learn it. I've found that I can listen to Spanish books or podcasts in the morning while I'm working on other things, but formal study is always put on the back burner to all my regular life tasks.

    For the language itself, it's speaking it, and the verb tenses that get to me. Actually, the latter may be the cause of the former.

  21. I stay up pretty late and used to have very limited channels. I like to have the TV on as background noise when I'm working on stuff, and I'd often turn on PBS where they'd have various college TV courses on later at night. "Destinos" was one for Spanish. I kind of made up my own story to go along with it at the time though, since I'm not fluent. One can buy materials to go along with it if they want. There are 52 episodes.

    http://www.learner.org/resources/series75.html?pop=yes&pid=366#

    Scroll down to go to the full videos and to be able to full-screen them. Maybe I'm a bit pathetic, but I somewhat enjoy following the story line. :)

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