Spanish
Okay, so on a scale from 0 to 4, 4 being a native speaker, I have risen to a level 2. Which I must say is disappointing. NOT because I am only a level 2 but because when I was a lowly 1 and explained the levels, and the fact that their hope was to get me to a level 2, I figured I would speak MUCH better than this by the time I earned that level. Oooooh scary out of control sentence! Does that make any sense? Anyone? So here is the situation. I can understand fairly well and speak in whole paragraphs only now I know soooo many verb tenses that it takes me a half an hour to say one stupid sentence if I want it to be grammatically correct. And pronouns, FORGET ABOUT IT!!! I do not think it is possible for any language to come up with a system MORE confusing than Spanish and it's dang pronouns! Did you know "he" can actually be either "le, lo or se" but "she" can also be "le, la, or se" AND nouns can be "lo, la, le or se". Excuse me WHAT? Heck I may not even have that correct! Oh and my fav is the order which is essentially "he her it gives" for "he gives it to her" translated, I think, "el le se da" or even "le se da" with the "el" understood. Somebody shoot me now! Hmmm, now that I look at it again it might be "el se le da". I can see ALOT of confusion in my future. Nanny "Michelle, Maggie fed the dog this morning" Me, "What, you fed Maggie to the dog!" Oh and one of my favs from class the other day. Instructor: "What did you and your friend eat for dinner?" Me (laughing): "Why did I eat my friend?"
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7 comments:
I took 4 yrs of highschool spanish and 1 semester in college and I've almost forgot all of it. I can pick up words here and there, and probably could save my life if stuck somewhere (MAYBE) but thats it. It is very confusing. I really thought you just directly translated from English to Spanish and it was just about vocab. WRONG WRONG WRONG. How do people walk around knowing 7 languages? There seems to be so much slang out there now, maybe no one will notice if your pronouns are off!!
Have you read Madrigral's Magic Key to Spanish? If not, you should. It really helped me. I think it is a totally different than a classroom. It happened to have been a method that made much more sense to me.
Good luck! Keep your chin up.
I was going to suggest that the Magic Key...
Listen-people always say (and I have NO idea why) that Spanish it notoriously easier than French. As someone who speaks both languages, lived in Spain and France, and TAUGHT them both here's what I think....(cause I'm sure you are dying to know) =)
Spanish is much more grammatically complex than French. It is insane.
French is much more difficult for the average English speaker to pronounce and correctly annunciate.
SO there you have it-one is hard to communicate and the other is hard to communicate.
Imagine learning ENGLISH! bear, bare, there, their, they're, homonyms alone would send me packing!
Okay guys, I have a 4 day weekend coming up I guess I'll go get the Magic Key book. I'll let you know if it helps. Sure as heck can't hurt!
Being a French speaker (albeit rusty) the pronouns are killer. But the one nice thing about all the pronouns is that if you have a sentence with two shes or hers or a combo, the pronouns do make it easier to know which person is which--since you use a different one for each. Did that make sense? It did in my head.
Good luck and keep plugging along. When I got to the point of being able to speak French and Chinese as well as five year old, I realized that I could be understood. So if you can get to that point, you'll survive. Anything beyond that is a bonus.
Okay Maria, I knew about the french and also thought you could speak farsi or something along those lines. But chinese? When/why did you learn chinese and SO WELL. Impressive!
BTW - I bought Madrigal and it's AMAZING! Thanks for the suggestion guys.
I just saw your comment on the grammy-what and wrote to say thank you for the great idea. I like the things you have on yours. Oh, and the Spanish? I was an exchange student in Guatemala one summer in high school. Talk about Spanish immersion! I learned to ask for the pan dulce. Other than that, I smiled a lot.
Have a great time.
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