Will I be able to learn enough to speak to others?
Will I be able to learn enough to speak to others?
10 Answers
That's a great response, but I forgets a bit about the real world. People from Mexico don't have the same accent as the people in Columbia. The people of Puerto Rico speak very rapidly, whereas the people of Venezuela speak a little slower. People of Espana have a whole other way of speaking. People of Argentina have a whole other structure of speaking.
I strongly disagree. Consider this advice "translated" in to English (that is, for someone asking about how to learn English). If you're American would you suggest that the best way to become fluent in English is to spend a great deal of time listening to "gangsta rap" (because this is what is spoken in the "real world")? Perhaps you would, instead, suggest becoming fluent in Cockney rhyming slang or the English spoken in Glasgow or the importance of saying "G'day, mate" or the Cajun English of Louisiana. These are all legitimate variants of spoken English but they are also all restricted to quite narrow geographic regions (or social groups).
If you're in an American prison and wish to join a Spanish speaking gang or you're planning on living in one of the "barrios" of Los Angles or Puerto Rican Harlem, learning the local slang may be very important but, if you just a normal American citizen and your contact with Spanish speakers is likely to be as a tourist (or you have friends/co-workers who are not grade-school dropouts) they will be quite comfortable speaking in "standard" Spanish (even though they may know [and in the right circumstances, use] some regional slang).
Slang is, by its very nature, peculiar to certain age groups/regions. Unless you are prepared to attempt to learn the slang of hundreds of different regions (or you know for a certainty, that you will be in only one place), you're better off learning "standard" Spanish first and, then perhaps, specializing in the slang of some particular area.
Samdie, all JohnJuan was trying to say is that to be able to understand what a native speaker just said, you need to not only 1) possess the adequate grammar and vocabulary knowledge but 2) also have sufficient real world experience with how the language sounds.
And where a person is from has a LOT to do with how the language comes out of their mouth. This is where fonología starts coming in.
I remember way back, my first few months of learning spanish, acing all my tests and studying like a madman. Needless to say, I felt pretty good with myself and my understanding of basic spanish. Well, one day I go over to my friends' house. They're puerto rican. I think it's general consensus on this board that the phrase 'Cómo estás' fall under the basic category right?? Yea, so my friends had their uncles and cousins, etc over that week and I said Hi to one of the uncles and he responded by saying 'Cómo estás?' Yea, I couldn't for the life of me, understand what the !@#$ he just said. Why you ask??
Well, he actually didn't say Co-mo-es-tas. It was more like Co-mueh-ta? Unbeknownst to native speakers, what happens in their speech is a process called 'encadenamiento' basically a chaining effect. It's the process of pronouncing a whole sentence (which is composed of a number of separate words) as if it is one word. And yes, this DOES happen. I too was skeptical of this phenomenon until I really thought about it and experienced it.
My friends' uncle more actually said just, 'Cómo ta'? Cutting off completely the 'es' before the 'ta'. Happens a lot, it's just faster and easier to say it like that, more economical.
There's other instances like, I forget where, but some region in central or south america, the letter 'p' gets omitted in certain instances, especially proceeding after dipthongs. Prime example would be the word 'aceptar'. While in the mind of the speaker is 'aceptar' what exits their mouth and consequently what enters the listener's ear is 'a-cei-tar'.
So yea, the point is, you DO need the real world experience while one may have learned all the grammar and vocabulary there is to learn, if you can't recognize words for what they are which can be very complex sometimes with regards to regionalisms and other accents and even the spoken speed, all these factors can culminate into one very tough endeavor.
But Samdie is right, you DO need to learn the 'standard' spanish first. It makes no sense to learn slang and street talk first. You need to have the basic foundation down to a science first (which can take years even) and then you'll be able to play around with the language.
-Charlius-
Absolutely, but it takes a while to understand and speak fluently! Think about how long it took you to speak English correctly. For a normal person, about 12 years of school! Now, it won't take you that long to learn spanish, but you will always learn something new everyday for the rest of your spanish speaking life! I would suggest getting spanish audio to listen to. For example, I rented some spanish learning tapes from the library and it has helped me understand it and speak it better. Practice, practice, practice and eventually some things will come naturally! Good luck and don't give up!
That's a great response, but I forgets a bit about the real world. People from Mexico don't have the same accent as the people in Columbia. The people of Puerto Rico speak very rapidly, whereas the people of Venezuela speak a little slower. People of Espana have a whole other way of speaking. People of Argentina have a whole other structure of speaking. Dominicans are very slurry in thier way and they have all kinds of words that are just from Dominica. Spanish speakers of New York and New England have this very distinct way of speaking, their New York and New England accents all mixed into their spanish. Never underestimate this! 
I guess it depends on how much you pratice and pay attention.
The question, mi amor, isn't if you'll learn enough to speak...of course you will! The real question is, will you be able to understand when they respond! Just a friendly suggestion...make understanding the spoken language your primary goal, and the speaking part will come on it's own.
Additionally, I just wanted to add a way you can get to where you want to be, not only being able to say stuff, but also being able to understand what is being said.
The first and foremost thing, once you have all the necessary grammar and an adequately sized vocabulary, is to read, read, read.
Reading is one of the things you can do that where you don't need another person there to practice with, meaning you can potentially spend massive hours on it without inconveniencing someone. Why is reading so important in regards to oral comprehension?
Nothing, or so I thought when I first thought about it. But it makes perfect sense. When someone is talking, you don't have all the time in the world to analyze each and every single word. Your comprehension needs to be pretty much right there on the spot, in other words, the speed at which your understanding of the language operates, needs to be high.
How does one develop this? Through reading. When you first start out, it's pretty slow. But as you continue reading, you get faster and faster until you get to the level where you can skim the page (like to cram for a test the next day) and still get a good understanding of what you read. In other words, your comprehension of the language is increasing and you don't have to read and re-read the same sentence several times to comprehend it. This helps in terms of understanding orally as well.
The difference though is the initial trigger. When we're reading, the trigger, or what sets off the spanish mental processes in the brain, is visual stimuli, or what you're reading and seeing on the page. In listening, there is no such visual stimulus, only audio which then sets off the mental processes. During these mental processes your brain needs to be able to 1) recognize what the words are for what they are (see my previous post about the phonological aspect of spanish speech in this thread) and 2) be able to string everything together with the grammar and make sense of it all in a cohesive thought/idea. Number 2) needs to happen at a certain speed, usually around how fast the speaker is talking, so the speed of comprehension is very important here. As said, reading helps in this.
-Charlius-
Charlius said:
Through reading....your comprehension of the language is increasing..
I noticed this, too.
For a few weeks I had been reading more than listening; however, when I returned to listening to Spanish radio I understood some words/phrases that I had read earlier.
Was that a response to my answer?
Thank you, those of you who are fluent, for taking the time to come in here and help those of us who aren't. JohnJuan, those are some great suggestions that I will use for myself. I have found a website (lomastv.com) that has videos to watch and it will tell you where the dialect comes from, whether its from Madrid, Mexico, Spain, Columbia, Argentina... Unfortunately it does cost money, but I really want to be fluent so I paid the 100 dollars for a year.
