Is it normal for Spanish teachers to not teach Vosotros?

[Jorjor]

My spanish teacher seems to have a strong Mexican bias and pays no mind to terms used in Spain.We have so far been tought how to conjugate verbs ending in ar,ir, and er. But she always has us put an X in the box where vosotros is supposed to be. So for instance hablar, she only does hablo,hablas,habla,hablamos,X(hablaís),hablan. Or for ser, soy,eres,es,somos,
X(where sois is supposed to be),son. For estar, estoy,estas,esta,estamos,X(where estaís needs to be),and estan.

I asked her once in class when she was talking about the conjugation of estar and she responded "um, estaís or something funky like that". I asked why it wasn't included on the chart and her answer was just "it's used in spain"

It's just one more conjugation to study, why wouldn't she teach it to us?

[wafflestomp]

Most Spanish teachers do that. All of the ones I've had so far never taught it, except for the teacher I had from Spain, and in the intro year we did things like "vosotros sois" and stuff like that. Some people in Latin American countries, from what I understand, don't even know off their head how to conjugate the vosotros form. Your teacher is probably just trying to get through the curriculum quicker.

I personally think that all verb forms should be taught. On the AP Spanish Language exam, the vosotros form appears, so that should be enough to teach it. Not even just that, but it's used everyday in Spain, and Spain is one of the most popular Spanish speaking country that United States citizens travel to, so why not teach it? I don't know. Probably as I said earlier trying to get the curriculum knocked out faster.

[LibraryLady]

I had the same learning experience.

[chileno]

Hmmm, I don't know about that. Would you say the same thing if you went to England and the teachers there insisted in teaching you American English?

[Bolboreta]

:-O Incredible. Ok, if you are in the US, you will probably almost never talk to a spanish, and the most of the people you will talk to will be mexicans so learning vosotros could be not very useful. So I understand your teachers to teach the mexican way, as we in Spain tend to prefer british usages. But not teaching a verbal form just because it is diferent in the spanish speaking countries sounds quite ridiculous to me, even agreeing with your teacher that Spain is very small and very far away for you to learn our verbs. The times when spanish from Spain was the-only-good-one are over, but man, you should learn the most used verbal form in your context, I think.

But, I must confess, after reading your post, that I don't know how latin americans learn the verbs at school. Here in Spain we only learn the spanish form, but I don't know if, for example, argentinians learn the verbs with "vos" and such...

[pjt33]

Jorjor, the accent's in the wrong place: it's habláis and estáis.

[ookami]

Originally Posted by Bolboreta

But, I must confess, after reading your post, that I don't know how latin americans learn the verbs at school. Here in Spain we only learn the spanish form, but I don't know if, for example, argentinians learn the verbs with "vos" and such...

We learn with the "Tú" form at school, and at less when I was at primary school, the "vosotros" conjugation was included (but we didn't pay to much attention to it). We never think like: Yo, Vos, Él... always Yo, Tú, Él. But we never use "Tú" outside of that.

[xchic]

It sounds to me as if the teacher simply doesn't know 'vosotros'

[Esperar]

I'm learning Spanish Spanish, not Mexican Spanish, so I will try to learn vosotros too.

Originally Posted by xchic

It sounds to me as if the teacher simply doesn't know 'vosotros'

I knew one guy who was helping me with my Spanish on MSN. He was in America, and told me he didn't know about vosotros either, despite being a good speaker of the language.

[ROBINDESBOIS]

Personally, good teachers, no matter where they are from, should teach the most important variations marking the country or regions where that variation is used, and the learner chooses to use it or not,or use it when he is in one country or the other, but he has the right to know it.
As simple as that.

I think in Spain we see both variations BE because it is closer and AE because it is more practical. Anyway I think American English is gaining ground all over Europe.
As for how Spanish is taght in Spain, whe I learnt grammar in school, of course they mention the use of persons and variations, very slightly, to make you conscious of the existente of the variation.