How did you master the rolling r's in Spanish?

[True2marie]

One of the most difficult aspects of learning Spanish for me was mastering the rolling r's.  I wasn't used to moving my tongue that way. Only after several months of trying did I get it down. How did you master the rolling r's in Spanish?

Here's a great link for help in this area . . . http://www.rollingrs.com/

[LivetoErr]

I haven't mastered that yet. It's so hard! Spanish people make it seem so easy but it is not. I take a look at the site you linked; maybe, just maybe, I'll finally get it. I know it has to do with how your tongue hits your teeth, I just can't seem to get it right.

[nick87]

I just practiced a lot. I probably sounded insane saying random words in spanish with r in them over and over again just to get rolling the rs right.

[Rosa]

I mastered the rolling r's in Spanish by practicing a lot. I remember my sister who did Spanish before, assisting me many times. I would look carefully at how she placed her tongue and practiced that until I got it.

[Aishe]

I practise a lot! And still haven't gotten it perfectly down.

I used to be able to do it as a kid because it's used sometimes in the Thai language but lost it as I grew up from lack of usage.

These days each word I see with an r in it I will try rolling - if I haven't practised for a few days I will struggle the first 10 or 20 times I try.

[whistle_tone]

I would listen! Since my parents are both fluent in Spanish, I would ask them to repeat/show how to do so. With practice, I mastered it!

[PSLoveCharli]

Hearing it from people who are fluent in the language and then repeating the specific words to myself kind of sticks with me after awhile. Rolling did used to be difficult, but once you've mastered it, it will start to become natural! Roll away.

[Hedonologist]

Well it's that thing again where the more language you know, the easier it is to learn more. Because I had already mastered the rolling R from other languages so it came easily to me.

[JohnSword]

I'm still trying to tackle the rolling r's as well. Thanks for the link, I'll definitely make good use of it. I guess the saying holds true, 'practice makes perfect'.

[Linguetronix]

I guess this is a problem English speakers in the West face. In the Indian subcontinent we roll our Rs anyway (not as much as the Spanish do though), so this seems like a trivial problem to us

[thekernel]

It's really funny, I somehow have always been able to do it, long before I learned any Spanish words. In class I remember so many people having trouble with it, and I couldn't understand why! Physically, it was so easy. Pronunciations in general have always been the easiest part about Spanish for me.

[Baburra]

I agree. I think R's are one of the most difficult things to adapt to when speaking a different language, hence why Japanese people have a little trouble speaking English and why English speakers sometimes have trouble with Spanish R's, and personally, I have trouble with French R's because that is the one that's most different from my native language. As for Spanish, I learned it easily enough because it is very much similar to my native language, Filipino, which is for the most part derived from the Spanish language.

[polaroidsredwine]

  On 2/20/2014 at 2:09 AM, thekernel said:

It's really funny, I somehow have always been able to do it, long before I learned any Spanish words. In class I remember so many people having trouble with it, and I couldn't understand why!

Same here!  I sound like a complete goof when I roll my r's though.  I tend to overdo it, I guess?  Like, I can't make it a short noise, I have to overdo it to make it work, otherwise the r won't roll!  I suppose that's not such a bad problem to have compared to not knowing how to do it at all.

[Brianna Jay]

  On 2/20/2014 at 2:09 AM, thekernel said:

It's really funny, I somehow have always been able to do it, long before I learned any Spanish words. In class I remember so many people having trouble with it, and I couldn't understand why! Physically, it was so easy. Pronunciations in general have always been the easiest part about Spanish for me.

It's the same thing for me.  I didn't learn Spanish until high school, but I have always been able to roll my r's naturally, even when I'm speaking English.  It's always been a habit of mine and that could possibly be due to the fact that my mother grew up in areas where Spanish was the predominant language being spoken.  My grandfather also teaches the language even though he is "gringo" as he calls it. 

[SLAMX]

Never had a problem with it, something to it just came naturally to me for whatever reason.

[rgaz83]

I can kind of roll my Rs, with practice. But not very well. I felt better about this, though, after I found out that it's common-ish for someone to not be able to roll their Rs, even if they grow up speaking a language that has them.

But it's still frustrating and I hope that, one day, I'll be able to roll my Rs as well as anyone can.

[czarina84]

This wasn't as difficult for me because when I was a child, I used to mimic the cat purring.  When I started Spanish, I just relaxed my tongue and mimicked a cat's purr.  Then I practiced really easy words like "perro".  I moved on to more difficult words after that.

[Verba]

It was not a problem to me at all because I am from the Philippines. Since we were colonized by Spain for centuries, we have so many Spanish words in our language. In the University I studied in, we were required to take Spanish classes from freshman to senior years. As such, we know their alphabets and their way of sounding out letters and/or words. I even understand tidbits of conversations my Spanish colleagues have in their native tongue.