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Thread: Taking Spanish

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    Senior Member Pinnacle-Project's Avatar
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    Taking Spanish

    Once the kids are grown, my wife and I would like to move south to a better climate. We have an interest in either Costa Rica or Puerto Rico. With this in mind, I decided it is time to start to learn Spanish. I have never taken any foreign language before.

    Over the years when I have taught classes, I have told people to not be shy about asking questions. If they do not understand something, most likely others do not understand the same thing. Students rarely believe this. They assume everybody else knows everything and only they are confused.

    My Spanish class started tonight. The instructor jumped right in and 80% of the class was in Spanish already. Generally, I had no idea what was going on. However, the rest of the class seemed to be following right along. When she told us to do something, people did it. Thankfully, I am in a group with a former student of mine who seems to understand what is going on. He said he had Spanish in high school plus two semesters at community college before transferring to this school. So tonight, I am quite certain, everyone knew what was going on but me. I am convinced everyone else in the room had Spanish in high school.

    For example, at one point the instructor had everyone count out loud to 30. Huh???? I can only count to five in Spanish. I found the numbers in the book but I did not know how to pronounce them. I will work double-hard to get caught up but I definitely feel like I am starting from a negative position.

    The positive side of the instructor talking in Spanish so much is that it will be more like an immersion experience. In the long run, I will probably be better off. In the short term though, I am clueless. Thankfully, my wife had four years in high school and four years in college. People understand her when she speaks Spanish so she must still have a decent knowledge of it.
    Last edited by Pinnacle-Project; 09-10-2014 at 02:18 AM.

  2. #2
    Senior Member Mobile PC's Avatar
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    Uno, dos, tres, Cuatro, cinco, seis, siete, ocho, nueve, diez. Once, doce, trece, catorce, quince, dieciseis, diecisiete, dieciocho, diecinueve, Veinte.

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    Senior Member slgrieb's Avatar
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    Spanish is pretty easy. The sentence structure is similar to English, and there are surprisingly many cognates. You also catch a break because there aren't a vast number of cases and declensions. I took it for several years in Junior High and High School, and was pretty fluent. Nowadays, I can just about order a meal and a drink.

    When I went to college, my degree required 2 years of a foreign language. Did I have enough sense to keep on with Spanish, a language I heard spoken just about every minute of every day in Central Texas? Oh, Hell no! I took German! Why have the Germans started two World Wars? It's because they wake up really pissed off every day because they have to speak German!

    And really, who in the Hell can blame them? Cases and declensions out the wazoo, pronunciation that basically requires you to have a permanent loogie stuck in your throat, and a weird inverted sentence structure. Not to mention the consonant shifts: V sounds like F (even though German retains the letter F) W sounds like V. In English, if you are gonna get a haircut, you just say "I'm gonna get a haircut". In German, this is "Ich will mich die haare schneiden lassen." Which is more or less the English equivalent of "I will permit my hair to be cut." In fact, the Germans don't even know that their language is called German, and not "Deutsche". Go figure.

    Of course, Texas being Texas, we have an ethnically diverse population. Lots of Latinos of course, but also bunches of Germans, Poles, Belgians, and French. With plenty of Asians in the mix these days. 20 years ago, the four most commonly spoken languages in Texas were English, Spanish, German, and French, in that order. Today, it is English, Spanish, Vietnamese, and Mandarin. Bet that surprised some of y'all!
    Last edited by slgrieb; 09-10-2014 at 06:13 AM.
    Yes, Mr. Death... I'll play you a game! But not CHESS !!! BAH... FOOEY! My game is...
    WIFFLEBALL!

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    Senior Member CeeBee's Avatar
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    Una cerveza por favor.. gracias...
    Word of advice - if you don't use it you lose it. I used to be fluent in Russian and Bulgarian, now I would have a hard time catching few words from a conversation. Only takes a couple of years to start forgetting.
    That being said, having an earlier start is beneficial, but you won't be anything close to fluent unless you are forced to use it daily.

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    Senior Member slgrieb's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by CeeBee View Post
    Una cerveza por favor.. gracias...
    Word of advice - if you don't use it you lose it. I used to be fluent in Russian and Bulgarian, now I would have a hard time catching few words from a conversation. Only takes a couple of years to start forgetting.
    That being said, having an earlier start is beneficial, but you won't be anything close to fluent unless you are forced to use it daily.
    Of course, in Texas and Mexico (actually most of the Southwest), what you often hear is sort a mix of both languages with a few words or phrases run together. A few years ago I was in Cozumel with a girlfriend who spoke very little Spanish, even though she was a Latina, and we were in a little mom and pop store buying beer. I put a six pack of Negra Modelo on the counter, and my GF says, "Como se dice in Espanol?" Or "how do you say this in Spanish?" I could pretty clearly see the wheels spinning in the clerk's head, and at one point I was pretty sure she was about to say, "This is cerveza, bonehead!" But what she finally said was "Es un seex pock."
    Last edited by slgrieb; 09-10-2014 at 07:53 PM.
    Yes, Mr. Death... I'll play you a game! But not CHESS !!! BAH... FOOEY! My game is...
    WIFFLEBALL!

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    Senior Member Pinnacle-Project's Avatar
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    That was a weird first night. Right as the clock struck six, the instructor started to talk in Spanish. Not just a sentence or two but an entire story. "What is she saying?" I wondered. Two people obviously understood her because they answered back. She briefly went back to English, suggested those two students test out of this course and they left. I think I can safely say 80% of the first night was in Spanish. Huh? The course description said no prior knowledge of Spanish is expected. I thought everyone would be confused but I would look around the room (class of about 10 by the end of the night) and see people nodding, answering her, etc. At one point, she said in English, "What words in Spanish do you know?" Her gaze swept the room but ended on me. No one else answered so I told her I could count to five. All total, I knew about a dozen words. If she had any doubt about my confusion, that should have cleared things up.

    We have a group project so I paired up with a former student of mine. He told me he had Spanish in high school and two semesters of Spanish at another university before transferring to this one. He's obviously not the only one with prior experience. He told me it is his senior year and he just wants an easy A.

    I tried to do my homework last night but feel completely lost. I will try again tonight. I'm leaving town tomorrow but will be back Saturday evening. I am definitely going to need my wife's help if I am going to get caught up. She had four years in high school and another four in college. People seem to understand her so she must do pretty well.

    A co-worker suggested I talk to the instructor and get her to "dumb down" the course to my level. Why would she do that? Then nine people would be bored in order to accommodate me.

  7. #7
    Senior Member Gazzak's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Pinnacle-Project View Post
    The course description said no prior knowledge of Spanish is expected.
    Then something is quite obviously wrong here. Talk to her and get on a course where the instructor seems to understand the syllabus.

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    Drop out and do what the State Dept does and get Rosetta Stone. Have a good friend that works for them and when they were prepping for their new assignment, the whole family used Rosetta Stone to learn the native language of where they were going. Several other friends use it with their kids and say it is far better than what they were getting in school.

    Took 4 semesters worth(German) in my undergrad days, it was useless. Want to take the Spanish Rosetta stone sometime soon
    Last edited by Cleetus; 09-12-2014 at 03:33 PM.

  9. #9
    Senior Member CeeBee's Avatar
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    Tell the professor: "Excusas me senor. I no comprende Espanol".

  10. #10
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    Choose Puerto Rico. It's a US territory and they speak fluent English there.

    ;-)

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