Quote:
Originally Posted by Manuel
I think it is POSSIBLE to learn to speak almost as well as a native speaker without living in a Spanish speaking country, BUT....it would require some serious dedication.
If you live in the country, you will automatically learn a lot of little things: colloquialisms, little words that you never even thought about learning but that caught your attention because they become part of your daily experience etc.
If you don't live in the country, then your knowledge will probably have a lot of little "gaps", minor things perhaps, but still they would be things that a native speaker WOULD know.
Having said all of that, why waste time thinking about whether you will ever know as much as a native speaker? Does it really matter? It's certainly possible to be FLUENT in a language, no matter where you live.
I would say that you have to remember WHY you want to learn a language in the first place. Isn't it to be able to communicate your thoughts to people who speak that language? All that matters is that you can express yourself in the language the way you would LIKE to express yourself. You only have to learn what you actually NEED. Perfection is not the goal, being able to express what you WANT to express should be the goal.
I am sure a native English speaker knows more words than I do in English, but I can say exactly what I WANT to say in English, so I don't feel hampered in my expression by a lack of vocabulary, for instance. So, although I am NOT as good as a native English speaker, I am good enough "for my own standard"!
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I agree, I'm going to Spain for just over two weeks so I'll improve on my Spanish hopefully. I guess it's different when you're using the language to get through the day; know what I mean?
But then again, there's foreigners here that can't even speak English properly and they're in the country.