Why are you learning Spanish?

[Evandar]

Will do!

[SeanMc]

I am learning Spanish because I married into a family that often speaks Spanish at home. My mother-in-law was born in Mexico, while my father-in-law is from the states. He speaks almost no Spanish after nearly 40 years of marriage. I do not want to be that guy.

My wife speaks fluent Spanish, but is having trouble trying to teach me. We have been married for 12 years now, but I still cannot keep up in a conversation. It has been my New Year's Resolution for sevaral years now. I am determined to get to fluency, but I can easily become frustrated and impatient. She is trying to help me. I have learned a lot, just not enough to be able to use it confidently.

[jpv206]

SeanMc,
In my experience, it's very hard to switch languages when you're in an established relationship (marriage, parental, whatever). It's hard for the learner, and it's hard for the "teacher." Even when I meet someone bilingual, if our first few conversations are in English, I'll think of that person as an English speaker; if our first few conversations are in Spanish, I'll have the impulse to speak Spanish to them. However, if our first few conversations are switchy, I will tend to be switchy with them.

So my advice is to you is to find someone else who will speak Spanish to you every time. Even when your Spanish gets to the level where you can speak comfortably, you and your wife will probably continue to speak in English, especially when it comes to the "important stuff" (i.e., are you going to pick up the kids, your mother called again, did you use my razor, etc).

It is super cool that you have your wife there as a resource! Unfortunately, she's not in the best position to be your teacher... you probably already know this!

[spence25usn]

Yo quiere aprende espanol. Yo estoy ser ingles profesor en Latin Americano.

[jpv206]

spence25usn,
¡Mucha suerte! Hope you find our podcasts helpful!

[spence25usn]

I am learning Spanish, so one day I can live in Spain and work for wine vineyard.

[andiejlee1948]

I am going to school for nursing and to be able to speak the most widely known language other than English in USA will be helpful for multiple reasons. I can make Spanish speaking patients more comfortable, and since the hospital won't need a translator for when I'm on duty, they can spend the money they would have spent on patient care

I'm looking forward to taking the medical Spanish class my school offers when I get to it

[jpv206]

Awesome, andiejlee1948! Welcome to the site! Let me know if you have any questions

[brianward81]

Hola, me llamo Brian y quiero aprendar español porque mi esposa es de Madrid. Sus padres y familia es de Español tambien. - that took much longer for me to write than to say, I never really read or write Spanish so my spelling is probably terrible.

Ever since I started dating my now wife (nearly 10 years ago) I have always tried to learn Spanish so that, initially, I could impress her parents (who are fluent in English and Spanish) but also because I think its very important to be able to converse in another language other than your own - you appreciate what it feels like to not understand everything when you go to a foreign country. We have a daughter who is only 15 months old and we'd love her to speak Spanish as well as English.

Like SeanMc, my wife has a hard time teaching me as its not very productive for me to talk to her in Spanish at times when, say for example, the house is on fire;

"Como se dice; 'The house is on fire, call the police' en español?" - she'd much rather me just ask her in English.

Plus, she grew up with Spanish in her household so she knows it and is fluent in it but hasn't learned grammar, verbs, etc... so is unable to answer some of my questions. Her parents are very encouraging but sometimes I get too nervous and feel mentally exhausted trying to speak in Spanish without making a fool of myself (even though they constantly remind me that they don't mind if I make mistake, at least I'm trying).

I've practiced with phrase books and a competitors Spanish course on audio CD but found the Spanishpod 101 lessons much easier to listen to, they sound more natural and practical. We are heading to Spain (we live in Australia) in July for 7 weeks so I've really been applying myself since Jan this year to get better.

Gracias y lo siento si este mensaje estaba demasiado... como se dice "long" in Español?

[SeanMc]

Congrats brianward81. Keep up the good work. Spanish is my wife's first language, so her grammar and spelling are not that good. I am actually better than her there, which to me is worth absolutely nothing without complete fluency.

You will have a solid opportunity when you spend 7 weeks in a Spanish speaking country. Here you will be forced to use Spanish. I would be willing to bet dollars to donuts that you return very fluent.

It is my hope that my wife and I will be able to visit relatives in México, because I know that the language immersion that I will experience there, speaking and listening, will aid my progression immensely.

Please post about your progress if you can while you are there.

¡Buena suerte!

[guyclatterbaugh7863]

Yo estoy voyando a espana en septiembre a octubre. PS How do you type in accents and nyes in this forum?

[jpv206]

brianward81
It's great to hear from you, my friend. I'm always thrilled to learn about our listeners Down Under!

You're wife is the wrong person to "teach" you Spanish, my friend; that would change the whole nature and dynamic of your relationship. Please learn the words el peligro danger, el fuego fire, and la policía police.

Also, use ¿cómo se dice? to find out words and phrases, don't use it for emergency communication My high school students used to preface their snotty comments that way, like, "um, ¿cómo se dice... I don't think we should have to learn Spanish because everybody is learning English anyway, and they just force us to do it, like it's a total power trip, and I couldn't finish my homework because I had two soccer games last night, and can I go to my locker?"

Anyway, I digress... I'd encourage you to keep up with the podcasts, take a Spanish class, make friends with people where the primary language of your friendship is going to be Spanish from the very beginning... and then you'll see your Spanish will start really taking off! ¡Buen viaje!

guyclatterbaugh7863
Guau, ¡España en septiembre y octubre será una belleza! ¡Buen viaje!

There are a few ways to type accents into Spanish. I do it the way Spanish-speakers do it; I change my keyboard to Spanish:
http://www.starr.net/is/type/kbh.html#change
Because I switch languages rather often, I have some hot keys set up so that I can switch to Spanish and back to English with a key stroke.

If you're only typing in Spanish occasionally, and you don't want to learn a whole new keyboard, you might try the Alt+ key route: http://www.starr.net/is/type/altnum.htm
Hope that helps!

[guyclatterbaugh7863]

Gracias!

[atolen72747]

I'm not really trying to learn Spanish but get it back. Spanish is my native tongue, my 1st language and when you're exposed to English everyday and don't practice your native language much, you tend to lose it. It's very important that I learn Spanish for my relationship, culture and future. I also plan on going to Ecuador in May for about 2 weeks to establish a camp with my church for the children there and I would very much like to communicate with them and build friendships.

[delcasmx9242]

@ atolen72747

Bienvenido!
Nos encanta tener nuevod hispanohablantes nativos aquí en el foro.
Espero que encuentres lo que buscas aquí y que te vaya muy bien en tu proyecto en Mayo. Estoy seguro de que lograras tu objetivo.

Se como te sientes, yo también me encuentro lejos de mi hogar, y tengo muy pocas oportunidades de platicar con alguien mas en mi idioma natal español.

~fer