HACER UNA PREGUNTA What is your favorite quality of the Spanish language?
7
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"The linguistic relativity principle (also known as the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis) is the idea that the varying cultural concepts and categories inherent in different languages affect the cognitive classification of the experienced world in such a way that speakers of different languages think and behave differently because of it."
If you speak Spanish natively, do you miss any aspects of it in English? If you are learning Spanish as a second language, do you see qualities that make it somehow fundamentally different? What concepts fail to translate most directly to English?
Just curious. 
17 Respuestas
8
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I've read many serious studies refuting the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis, and I have to say that I see things in favour of and against it.
In any case, I find pros and cons in both languages, and common weaknesses and strength alike in both languages. In my opinion, the mayor weakness of English, by far, is having one of the most difficult and ridiculous spelling systems in the planet. People can't spell, which is a not a problem affecting only English speakers anyway, but the problem is that no English speaker can read a word they've never heard before, and even if they have, it can be written in 20 different ways, all of them competing to be more absurd than any of the other ones.
On the other hand, English strengths lie on its flexibility to form nouns from verbs and vice-versa, having got rid of stupid genders (that English still had a few centuries ago), and how easily and conveniently incorporates vocabulary as needed. Other weaknesses: its morphology and orthography is based on five different sources, making the language terribly unpredictable in its spelling, pronunciation and word formation. For example, while in Spanish (or other European languages) we use in- most of the time, English has un- and -in, both with the same meaning and for words of similar origin, both mixed randomly.
5
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I started to learn Spanish with the hope of being able to talk - no, to understand - my future "consuegros" and to be able to talk - no, to read to - my future grandchildren, whose native language will (from another thread about "likely") lo más seguro be Spanish, too.
It was a somewhat "forced" beginning.
But in the meantime, I continue for the very reasons hinted at in your question: to learn about and internalize
the varying cultural concepts and categories inherent in [Spanish]
and to hope I learn the language well enough to
affect [my] cognitive classification of the experienced world
and perhaps find for myself a whole new world opened up and even
think and behave differently because of it.
And also because I, too, as are you, am
Just curious.
2
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An excellent question....I could probably go more in-depth, but for now...
One thing I have noticed about español that I really like is that there seems to be a verb for just about everything. There have been times when I'm just chatting informally with a native speaker, in English, and it occurs to me to ask how to say what I'm currently saying in Spanish. I can't come up with a good example off the top of my head, but it's a recurring pattern that I'm asking about saying something that requires a constructed phrase in English to express, and when I ask my friend for the Spanish version, it turns out there is simply an actual verb for it. 
I'm tickled every time...Somehow having an actual verb to use to express it nicely simplifies what in English feels like a bundle of concepts...so then when I am expressing something like that by actually thinking it in Spanish...the cognitive process seems smoother in those moments. I guess in a general way...sometimes when I try to express myself in Spanish, the act of expressing a thought seems smoother.
Also I tend to experience the Spanish language as being rhythmic or melodic in some way...and I like that.
1
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I like the ¡ and ¿ marks!
1
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I prefer the structure. The way that there are rules to speak words and where the stress should be. At times I am amazed how we communicate in English. I remember once watching the "Southbank Show", a fairly high brow discussion show in England. There were four so called educated people all discussing a certain word in the English language and all pronouncing it differently.
0
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0
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i like how it is different from the english language....but there are so many similarities and differences...i love how the language sounds....i like the thought that someday, i'm going to be a native speaker and that when i do eventually travel to mexico, i'll actually know what to say...but that's just me....
0
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What I enjoy most about learning Spanish (or any other language) is that when I read Spanish (my ear is not yet adapted well enough to spoken Spanish to get this same effect) it forces me to look at language in general in another light. I really rather enjoy the different Spanish expressions and colloquialisms that may or may not have similar voicing in English.
I prefer the structure. The way that there are rules to speak words and where the stress should be. At times I am amazed how we communicate in English.
I like the structure of Spanish as well; although, I don´t necessarily prefer it to that of English. What is fascinating to me about learning other languages is that by studying other languages, not only do I gain the obvious benefit of sharing in another culture but I also receive the supplemental benefit of better understanding my own native language.
0
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I like the way it sounds too, it’s kind of musical. 
0
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Above all I would have to say the way words inSpanish are spelled. There is never any confusion (ok, rarely) on how to spell a word, as it is spelled exactly like it sounds. I have had to study German, Dahri, and Arabic for the Army and I am also learning Gàidhlig for myself. I find Spanish is so much easier to learn.
I would hate to be on the other side of the coin, trying to learn English. I mean, think about it, in English you can actuall spell fish as ghoti. That's got to be helpful for a beginer.
0
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Quite easy to learn, and it sounds great (as angelbabyliz has pointed out, kind of sexy).
0
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I mean, think about it, in English you can actuall spell fish as ghoti.
While school children are often taught this, it isn't true. There are no English words in which "ti" is pronounced like "sh" without being followed by a vowel (in fact an a or o.) Simliarly, there are no words where "gh" is pronounced like "f" without being preceded by a vowel (in fact ou or au.)
That being said, there is a large number of ways to pronounce almost any word, and given any one of them there is some region where that is the usual pronunciation.
0
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I really like melody of Spanish.
Of course ¿¡ marks. My thought seeing them for the first time was "Why it´s not incorporated in all languages?"
Unfortunately - it's still long way for me to be able to appreciate the possibility of having one more alternative mindset encoded in this particular language...
0
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I like the verbs like "solucionar" that have no direct equivalents in English. We can't say "to solution" for example. I like the fact that if you can hear a word you can spell it and vive-versa.
0
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The language applied to music can shatter any inertia! I can´t help myself.
I just love Salsa!
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