Ayudarme,por favor!

Ayudarme,por favor!
 

I live and work in Spain.I am 37-and an English teacher!I have been here one year and my Spanish learning has just STOPPED.I can do all the basics but I seem to have hit a plateau.I have a "friend" with whom I do an exchange every week,but his English is much better than my Spanish so it's boring for him-I need any ideas,tips,suggestions-and experiences,as I am starting to feel really alone in this!I think a lot of this is due to my age-what do you think?I already share a house with Spanish people,but it even seems as if my comprehension has gone down!What's happening!?
Regards and good luck!:)

I would suggest reading newspapers. Find articles that interest you. Online you can read the readers' commentaries which are often rude, but will expose you to more vocabulary. Online use a dictionary like the one on this website, and if the word isn't there, you can link to RAE's dicionary. Write down the words you don't understand. Try to look at them daily to
remind yourself of their meanings. If you have specific questions that a dictionay can't help, ask a forum such as this one.

From my perspective of being much older, that is really funny, especially coming from a teacher. Your ability to learn a language is probably highest at the age of one year old, and it goes downhill from there, but it's never too late. By far the best method is to be motivated, but only you can determine what it is that motivates you.

Be assured that the feeling of making no progress is a natural development, because you begin to be aware of complexities once you are familiar with basics. Keep at it. Join a forum. Welcome, by the way. :D

Welcome, Noh. :)

Te voy a escribir en español porque así practicarás. ¿Que aburres a tu compañero con tu español? ¿No se beneficia él de tu inglés? Pues no entiendo por qué se tiene que aburrir. Y si se aburre, busca a otra persona con la que puedas intercambiar conversaciones. Hay mucha gente interesada en poder hablar un ratito en inglés con un nativo a cambio de unas sencillas clases de español. Busca un poquito y encontrarás. ;)

Intenta pensar en español, traduce tus pensamientos al español, habla con tus compañeros en español, escucha la tele y la radio en español. En resumidas cuentas: vive en español.

Dices que estás en Andalucía. El andaluz es un poco difícil de entender, pero escucha todas las conversaciones que puedas: en el autobús, en el metro (si hay), en el súper, por la calle,... Escucha sin traducir, sólo intentando captar alguna palabra, que eso da mucha alegría :D. Poco a poco esas palabras que has entendido y no has traducido irán penetrando en tu mente y se fijarán en tu memoria.

Eres muy joven, puedes aprender muchas cosas todavía; no es la edad, es que estás bloqueado. Y lo peor que puedes pensar es que eres demasiado mayor para aprender, siempre se puede aprender algo, sólo hay que querer. Lo peor que se puede hacer en esta vida es dejar de estudiar. :)

¡Hola NoH!
Welcome to the forums!
I'd follow the advices given by our friends... And truly, you could be 80 years old and start learning Chinese... (There is a lot of balderdash about "when" one can and cannot learn... mainly because 'vested interests' on keeping people ignorant.)

I could tell you that you could go to your Spanish learning experience to the last point where you were last doing well, and find there or just before there a word or symbol you missed, you didn't understand and that probably blocked your ability to keep learning from there on.

The difficulties you are having now on this "plateau" stem from an earlier point where you were not having any such difficulty. In order to keep progressing, you have to back up, find your misunderstood word or words (or symbols) clear these fully until you get them conceptually, and carry on.

Learning a new language is a game, is creative and is communication! Communicating is fun! No matter what you say! Exchange viewpoints! Have an argument! (That is one of the best things you can do... i.e., I am just thinking now about Monty Python...) (Plus, Spanish and English have so much in common is not even funny... if you [or anyone else] wants to start a thread on that, just to 'argue' for the sake of 'arguing' and learning the language... you can have fun with it...

Sólo como sugerencias... ;) :)

Are you comfortable with the people you are living with in the same house and the person whom you are communicating with in Spanish? What makes me wonder are your statetements in which you said, your Spanish learning just stopped and as if your comprehension has gone down. I'm not a psychologist or anyone like that but based on what you said, you might be undergoing some kind of "culture shock" (in your case, it is delayed since you've been in Spain for a year). If so this might be interfering with your learning. I have experienced culture shock so I know something about how it feels to be like an outsider in a culture that is not familiar. Feeling like an outsider is in itself a barrier to wanting to communicate. What is bad about a culture shock is that one assumes lots of things that may not be accurate or true. What I can say in addition to the good advice that had been given is to force yourself to communicate more in Spanish as much as you can and get to know and be really interested in the people and its culture and admire its being different from the culture that you left behind and that you are now missing. Culture shock is discussed somewhere in this forum also. I just don't remember exactly which thread it was in. If this is not the case then forgive my ramblings. Good luck and I hope you come out of the "plateau".:)

Hello I bid you welcome to theses forums.

Just I want to share my experience with you about as you should or you could to increase your level in Spanish, there're many website where you can get some many new word, they are free and you can chat with people native speaker Spanish.

You can do some kind to list personal where you can consult every time your new words learnt during all the day.

Other example could be it, if you could to chat with someone in the messenger or other kind of messenger and together learn the language.

I don't know there're one Thousand way of as you could to learn your language.

Sincerely yours.

Muchas MUCHAS gracias a todos.....many thanks to all of you for taking the time to reply.Your advice and support is genuinely appreciated and it will be used.I am looking forward to getting into these forums.....and posting my threads in Spanish!
Abrazos.

De nada, hombre. Un placer poder ayudar... aunque sólo sea con consejos.

You're welcome.

Remember, you are free to ask us anything about your learning it.
And the most important, have fun mean you are leaning it.

bienvenido a los foros