#81  
Old August 08, 2013, 12:14 PM
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Originally Posted by Liquinn3 View Post
Well, my next door neighbour's relative lives in Spain and they said he doesn't know much Spanish... how is this possible? I thought if you live in the country you're going to be pretty fluent.
We have dozens of immigrants who barely speak German.
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I'd be very thankful, if you'd correct my mistakes in English/Spanish.

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  #82  
Old August 08, 2013, 01:53 PM
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Originally Posted by Liquinn3 View Post
Well, my next door neighbour's relative lives in Spain and they said he doesn't know much Spanish... how is this possible? I thought if you live in the country you're going to be pretty fluent.
You're not going to be fluent just by living there. You still need to study and actually wanting to learn, which many people don't.
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  #83  
Old August 10, 2013, 01:11 PM
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I gave up Spanish after I graduated high school, and I'm not taking any language classes in college :/
  #84  
Old November 13, 2013, 03:46 PM
Liquinn3 Liquinn3 is offline
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I feel like giving up... I don't know what to do anymore...

It's just that sometimes I feel fluent and other times not. =[

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Originally Posted by lalengua View Post
Hey!, do not give up!, try different methods, try speaking with natives they will help you. You can also wtch spanish movies and listening to radio it will help you.
I guess I have to keep at it. The hardest thing about learning a second language is speaking/writing as a native. It's one thing being correct but quite another to use the sentences a native would use.

Just gotta keep practising and spend time in a Spanish speaking country when possible.

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  #85  
Old November 14, 2013, 02:33 PM
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Originally Posted by Liquinn3 View Post
The hardest thing about learning a second language is speaking/writing as a native. It's one thing being correct but quite another to use the sentences a native would use.
Why would you like to write and speak like a native? I suppose it's a very hard task to accomplish.
I neither speak nor write like a native English speaker, why should I? As long as everyone can understand me, I'm glad.
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I'd be very thankful, if you'd correct my mistakes in English/Spanish.
  #86  
Old November 14, 2013, 02:34 PM
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Why would you want to like to write and speak like a native? I suppose it's a very hard task to accomplish.
I neither speak nor write like a native English speaker, why should I? As long as everyone can understand me, I'm glad.
People have told me this is possible, but maybe it'll take 20 years.

It's one thing knowing the verbs, grammar, vocab... but quite another to use phrases/sentences a native would use.

"It's possible to speak Spanish in a way that is 95% percent grammatically correct and understandable and yet not be using the words and phrases that a native speaker would use. What suggestions would you have avoiding that?"

I'm not sure, just a personal goal I guess. I'm nervous about Sunday...

Last edited by Liquinn3; November 14, 2013 at 02:41 PM.
  #87  
Old December 02, 2013, 03:44 AM
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Nunca te des por vencido, mi amigo. Se pondrá mejor pronto. Sigues estudiando y platicando con tus amigos. Eventuamente, verá un cambio.

Que esta pasando El Domingo?
  #88  
Old December 05, 2013, 06:46 AM
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Nunca te des por vencido, mi amigo. Se pondrá mejor pronto. Sigues estudiando y platicando con tus amigos. Eventuamente, verá un cambio.

Que esta pasando El Domingo?
Claro.

I had to ask my friend for her number... yeah, it was a bad ish day.

And I agree, you don't understand you've improved until you look back.

It'a crazy, my first folder is just... rubbish. So many mistakes, now I'm making very few.

Last edited by Liquinn3; December 05, 2013 at 06:58 AM.
  #89  
Old December 15, 2013, 04:48 PM
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I think classroom and textbook learning is a somewhat artificial environment. Written alphabets only go back about 5000 years, but verbal language goes back perhaps 100 thousand or more. (And widespread literacy really only goes back a few hundred years.) After all, it's normal for first grade students to know nothing beyond the alphabet. They must be taught to read and write, but already have 3 or 4 years of verbal language fluency and understand complex commands on their first day.

In other words, it should not be frustrating to need to spend years developing true fluency. It took years in your native language too; you just didn't realize it at the time.

When I think back to grade school, I was still reading mostly picture books by Dr Suess in 3rd grade. But by 6th grade I was reading novels from Jules Verne, and The Chronicles of Narnia. Again, you don't get there quickly. But you will, if it's what you want to be doing.

Last edited by Mozzo; December 15, 2013 at 04:56 PM.
  #90  
Old December 15, 2013, 06:57 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Mozzo View Post
I think classroom and textbook learning is a somewhat artificial environment. Written alphabets only go back about 5000 years, but verbal language goes back perhaps 100 thousand or more. (And widespread literacy really only goes back a few hundred years.) After all, it's normal for first grade students to know nothing beyond the alphabet. They must be taught to read and write, but already have 3 or 4 years of verbal language fluency and understand complex commands on their first day.

In other words, it should not be frustrating to need to spend years developing true fluency. It took years in your native language too; you just didn't realize it at the time.
All true, except for what I highlighted in red.

You see, when you were a kid you didn't have much fluency, and little by little you acquired fluency by being corrected by your parents etc, later you had to acquire fluency in reading and writing. True, everybody spends a lot a of years acquiring the necessary fluency, but now you are an adult and you know what fluency is and you don't have to expect a string of years to be fluent in another language if you take the necessary steps to acquire the language in more automatic way, rather than how you did it when you were a kid. You are not a kid anymore. So use what you have already acquired in your own language to acquire a new one.

That's what I did.

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