Learning Spanish

When I first got here, I asked each gringo if they spoke Spanish and how did they learn it. All except a couple of people told me they tried, went to school for 60 to 120 to 180 hours and just couldn't get it.

I judged them severely. How could they insult this country by not learning the language.

Then I tried to learn Spanish. I now have well over 100 hours of schooling. And I am a poor Spanish speaker. And frustrated with it too. And feeling like a failure.

Yesterday, I went for a walk. On the way home, a Spanish man was walking with me. We had a conversation for about 10 minutes.

I was flabbergasted!

I understood about half of it...enough to communicate. And I heard him and responded.

Wow, where did that come from?

As it turns out, there are four distinct things to learn in a language...all very different.

You speak, of course. You listen. Very, very different activities.

When you speak, you can take the time to formulate your sentences. When you listen, it comes at you with speed, allowing no time to think.

As it turns out, for me, reading is the easy part. About 30% of the words are similar in spelling to English. The pronunciation is VERY different so hearing it takes all new learning but reading is easier.

Then there is writing...I'm not even approaching this yet.

Oh so slowly, I am learning this language.

After reviewing my learning experiences, I am going back to Rosetta Stone.

For raw communication, vocabulary is most important and Rosetta Stone is the best way for me to learn vocabulary.

You see, if you know the words, and your grammar is really bad, they still can understand you. But if you have great grammar and don't know any words, there is no communication.

The schools focus on grammar. About 90% of the time is spent conjugating verbs. In Spanish, a very complicated endeavor. I left the last 60 hours of school more confused and less able to speak then when I started the 60 hours.

I'm going to focus on vocabulary now.

I'll let you know how it goes.