Hardest thing for you learning a new language?

[vita32]

Originally Posted by ChilenoAlemanCanada

I highly suggest Spanish Made Simple.

Thanks, I'll look for it next time I'm at a book store.

I have the same proble. I live in spain for two weeks now, but i have some basics of spanish from excersise book. My only advantage is tahat I work here in an multinational environment, in translation agency
so although common language to speak between coworkers is spanish, its easier for me to understand them than native speakers, because spanish is not their mother language and they dont speak so fast. So i am advancing more in comprehancion, than in speaking myself, its definitely harder.

[poli]

I have found that fluent foreign speakers of Spanish are often easily understood.

[CrOtALiTo]

I can't say the same to your commentary, because casually when the American people native speaks English, because they use a lot of idioms and they speak very strange for me sometimes.

Sincerely yours.

[Caballero]

¿Cuál dialecto de inglés es más facil comprender?

[AngelicaDeAlquezar]

El que se habla despacio y articulado... just like Spanish or any other language.

[Caballero]

Sí, claro.

[chileno]

Too true. But then again...

[Caballero]

Originally Posted by chileno

Too true. But then again...

No entiendo su implicación.

[AngelicaDeAlquezar]

@Hernán. Él preguntó qué se entendía mejor.

@Caballero: Well, average native speakers (of any language) don't articulate and don't speak slowly enough as to be understood by language learners, so what I said is obviously absurd.

[chileno]

Originally Posted by AngelicaDeAlquezar

@Hernán. Él preguntó qué se entendía mejor.

@Caballero: Well, average native speakers (of any language) don't articulate and don't speak slowly enough as to be understood by language learners, so what I said is obviously absurd.

I k-n-o-w (with a hot potato in your mouth)

[Caballero]

The hardest thing for me is learning to express myself correctly. I'm slowly turning my passive knowledge (I can recognize a lot of words) into active knowledge.

[chileno]

Originally Posted by Caballero

The hardest thing for me is learning to express myself correctly. I'm slowly turning my passive knowledge (I can recognize a lot of words) into active knowledge.

The way I did accomplished that, was by transcribing a novel in English and translating it to Spanish...

[Perikles]

Originally Posted by chileno

The way I did accomplished that, was by transcribing a novel in English and translating it to Spanish...

Can you explain? Did you copy it in English then translate it into Spanish?

[chileno]

Originally Posted by Perikles

Can you explain? Did you copy it in English then translate it into Spanish?

Can you explain?

Can = poder

you = tú

explain = explicar

poder tu explicar? => Puedes (tu) explicar?


Can you explain?

Yes, I could.

[Perikles]

Originally Posted by chileno

Can you explain?

Can = poder

you = tú

explain = explicar

poder tu explicar? => Puedes (tu) explicar?


Can you explain?

Yes, I could.

Hilarious. I see you have grasped the concept of translating a simple sentence into Spanish correctly . The next task is to re-write this sentence, in a language of your choice, without grammatical errors (I can see at least 3), with extra credit given if you can make the meaning unambiguous:

Originally Posted by chileno

The way I did accomplished that, was by transcribing a novel in English and translating it to Spanish...

[chileno]

Originally Posted by Perikles

Hilarious. I see you have grasped the concept of translating a simple sentence into Spanish correctly . The next task is to re-write this sentence, in a language of your choice, without grammatical errors (I can see at least 3), with extra credit given if you can make the meaning unambiguous:

But seriously, this is the way to do it, if you don't want to go through the initial nag of understanding the grammar, which in many aspects it is almost the same as in Spanish, and make a speedier progress. You can always take on the grammar subject later on, when you're more comfortable with the language.

[Perikles]

Originally Posted by chileno

But seriously, this is the way to do it, if you don't want to go through the initial nag of understanding the grammar, which in many aspects it is almost the same as in Spanish, and make a speedier progress. You can always take on the grammar subject later on, when you're more comfortable with the language.

This is exactly the opposite of what works for me, but we are all different.

[chileno]

Originally Posted by Perikles

This is exactly the opposite of what works for me, but we are all different.

Correct.

[Caballero]

We are all different.

I'm beginning to come to that conclusion. I'm trying to teach my mom Spanish (well so far it seems more like Spanglish), but she says it's very hard for her to pronounce words differently than how they're said in English, if she sees them written down, so I'm going to switch to a non-written approach. She actually finds languages with a different writing system like Greek, Arabic, Hebrew (but not Chinese, etc.) easier, because then she won't be tempted to use the English sounds for. I'm the opposite. I find puzzling out a different alphabet an added complication, that makes reading the language much *more* difficult. Maybe I should teach her Ladino instead (archaic Judeo-Spanish written with the Hebrew alphabet.) I have no problem pronouncing the letters in Spanish, or any other language that uses the Latin alphabet differently than I pronounce English, but find trying to read Ladino (which while it sounds very close to modern Castillian) very difficult to read.