The Stages of Learning Spanish Part 2, Contributed by @Shenanigator

in #education6 years ago

Continued from Part 1.


This is awesome, we're learning so much!


At this point, we could watch a Spanish tv show or movie and pick out some of the words they were saying. We couldn't come close to understanding everything from a Spanish film but we could definitely feel that we were making progress.

Will this ever get easier?


My feeling frequently goes from We're learning so much! back to This is so hard! Will it ever get easier? It seems like there's this nearly constant feeling inside of me wondering if I'll ever learn enough to become fluent. It constantly feels overwhelming. I have to keep reminding myself every day that as long as I continue to progress, I'll eventually get there.

Fast forward a year


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Let's fast forward a year. We both got through Spanish Five (150 lessons). We crossed the border into Mexico, a Spanish-speaking country, and quickly realized that we couldn't understand anything people were saying to us. We should know a lot of these words but they're speaking so fast that we can't understand any of them! When trying to speak, nothing would come out. We could hardly put together a basic sentence that your average 3-year old would know.

Okay, our brains just need to be rewired


A couple of weeks after crossing the border, we were able to understand a lot more. Not because our Spanish had advanced much but because we had become more accustomed tofast-talking​g Spanish speakers.

3 Months Later


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We've been living in a Spanish-speaking country for several months. Things seem to be getting a little easier each day but there are still many challenges. There was a point at which we felt like we were making no progress and we had to shake things up a bit. We started reading in Spanish, which seemed to help us build our vocabulary quite a bit.


We still have a long way to go and a lot of vocabulary to learn. It's often times frustrating and almost always nervewracking but we know that if we keep progressing, we'll eventually get to where we're going.

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I’ve always been fascinated with learning another language. My parents spoke Cantonese to me whe. I was younger and I learned Mandarin in school. Learning and playing classical music also helped with different sound intonations. But with anything, practice makes habit.

As I’ve said so many times, the big thing in language learning is motivation. I keep on repeating it because it’s not about talent, it’s not about classes or teachers or methods, it’s primarily about motivation. The amount of time you spend on the task and noticing–noticing what’s going on in the language. I think the good language learners have become better at noticing. They’ve become more aware, more alert to what’s happening in the language.

In my opinion, Spanish is one of the most attractive languages to learn. We can all be motivated to learn a specific language, like Mongolian or Finnish because we have a friend or a particular interest. Maybe we want to learn Korean to be able to watch Korean dramas or Japanese for amine or business, all kinds of reasons. Spanish is different: there are a number of real big advantages to learning Spanish.

Spanish, I think, is an easy language to learn. It’s also a kind door to the Romance language world. If you learn Spanish, you can learn Portuguese; 200 million people in Brazil. You can learn Italian, which is a phenomenal language and has so much history behind it, and French. Spanish kind of leads you into this world.

So I think there’s tremendous motivation–there should be–for a lot of people to learn Spanish. Not just because if you’re an American there are more and more Hispanic people and you might one day need Spanish to find a job. I think these are minor issues. Language learning is a long road. It is not enough to need the language for a job; you need a deeper level of motivation.

Once you realize that it’s actually a very long haul to get to genuine fluency, that’s where you need that intrinsic motivation. You have to like the language and like the people, at least some of them. There has to be that personal desire and commitment to the language, and I think Spanish is an easy language to get committed to. @communitycoin

Thanks so much for this awesome insight! It sounds like you have a lot of experience learning languages. You obviously learned English very well, since you write it perfectly. Or perhaps it's your primary language? Living in Bangladesh, I assume (perhaps wrongly?) that English is at least a secondary language for you.

So true about learning Italian and Portuguese, that's another reason why I wanted to learn Spanish. Because after learning Spanish, that will open doors to learning​ some other languages more easily.

The first things is consistency and commitment which Is the brain behind learning anything good with a lot of practice like you did in watching the TV show, learning any language require a lot of engagement in conversation with the native speaker after one might have passed through the first stage of learning the alphabet.

My feeling frequently goes from We're learning so much! back to This is so hard! Will it ever get easier?

Yes, that is always the case whenever we are learning anything not only the language, we think that we it ever be easier, absolutely it will be easier once will keep on to the process and determined to stay focused no matter how it seems to be tiring. Understanding this we won't have problem over anything through learning.

People opted out of the process because they aren't committed and determined and forget that learning will always be process and stages is required.

Engaging in conversation with the native speaker will always be the best at the stage, make mistakes and stand firm to learn to move forward. Success is yours always.

I think I have picked the answer to my question in the first part. Smile

"Determination and consistent would go a long way in learning new language" . I knew I was not too determined back then.

I'm glad with the progress you are making so far, but it's due to your changed environment. You are now surrounded with Spanish speakers only, you need to up your learning process to be able to communicate with them, such is the sacrifice you are to make to become better. And that is helping you to become the master of it already.

And again, you are so lucky to have a partner who is ready to undertake the process with you, this makes it more easier, you learn something new outside, you try it with your wife at home. Wow! What a perfect way to master what you have learnt.

Thank you so much for the lesson, I will try and work on my Hausa too (smile) and probably ask my partner to join me if she's so wish, hope to see teachers who are ready to teach to details like my old teacher.... Smile

Learning Spanish or any other languages takes time and patience, bit since you are residing in a Spanish country for now it will be a bit easier now try and make friends with the people and have an interpreter to teach you their basic Spanish words . By reading their Spanish books will also aid in accelerating your learning process, you are progressing just keep learning sooner you will become perfect in. Speaking and undestanding Spanish language @Shenanigator

That was a great move- watching movies in Spanish to learn the language. That way, the brain rewires it self fast and the language sticks more quickly. Did you also try listening to Spanish music? Now, I think I going start learning Spanish too. Just one problem- I don't have a GF yet,lol

Absolutely. Persistence. I really admire your desires to learn as fast as you could, because you want to relate better with the locals and not miss out. I admire even the Spanish you speak now, and that is stuff about process. What you have gone through brought you here, shaped you and gave you the result. The efforts behind it all sure brought you both here.

If you keep doing this with the same intensity, you guys will be unstoppable. Gracias Amigos...

I am a very good idea. this is a lively holiday while it certainly is very useful. Being aware or not is one of the ways that can be used to learn.

The brain sometimes needs to be refreshed to re-accept the subject matter.

One way to let go of saturation is to walk away from the routine. But one of the bad things is that many of us do not make the holidays to learn.

Well let me learn also not depressed, we can be a vacation while learning. As you do now.

Thanks for sharing.

Reading fluently in Spanish language shows how adapting you at with your lessons, keep it coming, Persistence is the key

Persistence is the key and a good quality . Because that quality makes people to achieve their long term goals without any motivation. Without that quality, you wouldn't become a successful person that easily.

Consistency will always be the solution and way forward in learning any language, stage is actually relevant too. Constant conversation with the native speaker will always be to best since you have learnt the basic principles whoch is the alphabet. Your case is even better since you had to chance to live with the native speaker. Determination, focus and commitment will always put you at advantage in whatever you do in life.

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