Progression in Spanish
I've wanted to learn Spanish my entire life, but I never seriously sat down to try and learn until about a year and a half ago. I started to learn roughly halfway through my freshman year, not through classes, but I was learning with the help of a friend who was tutoring me daily. She was teaching me to be grammatically correct in Spanish, but the only problem was as soon as the summer hit, my mind flushed out 75% of what I learned. So I lost my base.
Then, Sophomore year came around, I was given a Spanish class, and saw this as the biggest chance I'd have to learn Spanish. While taking the class, my friend started to tutor me again, but for some reason, while I was able to get more complicated words down, I realized that the basics are what slipped through the cracks for me. People who know me and were helping me kept trying to have conversations with me in Spanish, and while I understood them, I could never figure out how to respond. Grammar is what kills me every time. I took into learning Spanish all wrong, the way the schools teach you. They teach you words, but they don't teach you how to use those words.
That has always been my problem in Spanish, and as much as I want to learn the language, I won't be able to get anywhere without a good foothold. You can't put the roof on a house until you build the walls, and you can't have walls without a foundation. I'm missing the foundation and half of the walls. All I have is half a wall and a roof. I pretty much took that expression and made it into a weird over worded expression just to say that I am failing in Spanish because I can't put my foot down on grammar. Whenever I try to put together sentences, I use English grammar, which obviously isn't the same, thus making my sentences incorrect, and most of the time I am not understood. Now, I don't understand all of those technical grammar words that I've seen thrown around here and there, but I still want to understand the grammar put in place for the language.
I've heard that Spanish grammar is a bit like English grammar, which makes me feel some what slow then, as I've been trying to learn Spanish my entire life; if I haven't been able to grasp the grammar portion by now, it is kind of a great way to demotivate a person, you know? When I ask others for help in grammar, including my teacher from last year, they wouldn't explain it in a way I could understand. I'm a hands-on learner, and they would just write an example down on a chalkboard and say something along the lines of, "There we go! Now you should understand!" Well if I'm a tactile learner, just staring at something on a chalkboard isn't the most helpful...
I guess I should really get to the point by now, as I'm sure this post is getting quite boring. I was wondering if there is a way that others could explain Spanish grammar to me in a way that might stick with me. Spanish has always been something I've wanted to learn my entire life, and I've been struggling with grammar for quite some time. At my peak, a friend would give me roughly 100 new words a week to learn, that lasted between 2-3 months. I had learned them all, but truth be told, I've forgotten a good deal of them. I've been looking through the notebooks again, and picking back up on old study habits, but it's slow going, and looking back, I don't know how I was ever able to learn so quickly. Now it seems like I'm at a point where I'm not getting any new information, and all that's happening is that I'm losing the old information. How do I keep the old information retained? How can I finally crack the grammar block? What methods of study have worked for others? How do I get off this plateau and restart the climb? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you for your time.
7 Answers
This book is the best grammar that I've seen for students of Spanish:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/0131598708/ref=dp_olp_used'ie=UTF8&qid=1249289931&sr=8-2&condition=used
But does the original include supplementary materials such as CD's, Infotracks (whatever those are), access cards (') etc., which might well be missing from one of the used copies?
Janice, Amazon offers a new copy of this same book, which will have all the CD's, workbook pages, etc. It's $53.
http://www.amazon.com/Gramtica-bsica-estudiante-español-MySpanishKit/dp/0131598708/ref=sr_1_2'ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1249392250&sr=1-2
Instead of buying books and such like many others do, I stay in the bookstore and read through the books that they have there, and if there is anything very helpful,I save up to buy it, and while saving up, if I realize that the book isn't as helpful as it was at first glance, then I won't buy it, otherwise I will.
And about the Spanish fluency test, I did some research, and came up with this:
http://spanish.about.com/library/questions/blq-fluencytests.htm
Apparently it's called the DELE test and is found in Spain. The link tells a little more about it. Hope it's helpful
This book is the best grammar that I've seen for students of Spanish:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/0131598708/ref=dp_olp_used'ie=UTF8&qid=1249289931&sr=8-2&condition=used
Your post was not so boring, Brian. I must personally defer comment, though, until I've had a bit more success with the language. How to measure success? I am not at all sure. Maybe there is some test in Spain similar to our TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language).
In the meantime, I would very much like to purchase a good grammar text, Lazarus, and have just clicked on the link you provided to find a long list of entries at various prices for books in various states of wear and tear, from a low of $19.75 to one for $500.00 (there must be a typo in that price).
But does the original include supplementary materials such as CD's, Infotracks (whatever those are), access cards (') etc., which might well be missing from one of the used copies? Some entries include a statement that the seller may not provide everything. But that may just be what we call "boilerplate" for the general entry.
Please advise, as I would be very happy with a $19.75 plus shipping copy unless my purchase would be missing the CD's with strong spoken examples from native speakers. To date I have used only materials with spoken Spanish, trying to avoid all reading except for grammar explanations, and studiously trying to write what I hear (you would be surprised and perhaps amused at what one hears when one doesn't know the words
Then I look up the words I think I have heard but which I do not recognize - not in their accompanying text, which serves as my last resort - but in my Gran Diccionario Oxford!!
All that listening has had the effect at least that I understand directly whatever I do manage to understand with little-to-no need to translate in my head to English.
But the time has come for a good, complete grammar. Without the grammar I have learned so far I would never have known when I was listening to something that had gone on in the present, for example, the past, the future, or.....perhaps simply in someones imagination.
I guess, perdoname, those are a lot words to simply ask "which one should I buy'"
Thanks.
I'm having a tough time also. I can understand written Spanish, but when it comes to listening to conversations, I can only pick up a word here and there. I have started to listen to Spanish television hoping this will help - so far - nada - but I was fortunate enough to get a penpal. We've been messaging back and forth in Spanish only and I find
that this is helping. It's forcing me to check my written messages using this web site, to make them sound as grammatically correct as possible. As well, I pick up different ways to say things from my penpal. To learn a new language and be completely fluent takes a few years, I would imagine. We need to use the language continually (immersion is probably the ideal way) and even after becoming fluent, we need to keep it up, otherwise we risk losing it.
I am having problems with learning Spanish too. My problem is that when I listen to native speakers talking I understand practically nothing unless they are talking directly to me about a subject or situation I am familiar with. All the 1000s of words I think I know and many of the phrases just don't seem to be used. I listen to a lot of Spanish news on TV and radio and films on DVDs but very little seems to "stick" in my mind / brain.
Hello Brian:
On this site there is a reference for grammer, just click on "Reference" and then choose "Grammer" It has helped me with things like "Cachorro negro, Casa blanca and carro rojo" It is a very useful tool.
This book is the best grammar that I've seen for students of Spanish:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/0131598708/ref=dp_olp_used'ie=UTF8&qid=1249289931&sr=8-2&condition=used
All the explanations are in Spanish, I warn you. This grammar has been used successfully -along with other materials- in many language schools where Spanish is taught without using a word of English, and believe me: in a just few months, the students speak impressively. A grammar book alone is no substitute for a classroom or real conversations, but you'll find very powerful -and yet, simple- explanations, plus some very smart exercises designed to make you think, rather than blindly applying a rule.
Here (http://www.difusion.com/'download=356) you can download an extract, although it is only about the gender of the nouns, not exactly the most exciting chapter, but it will give you an idea.
P.D. Don't get fooled by the term "básica". In European schools, the subjunctive is introduced in basic grammars. This book covers most tenses.
