Misconceptions? Delusions?
I'm curious. When you began your (Spanish language) learning journey did you have any major misconceptions or delusions? I certainly did.
And it was a "biggie". I remember looking at a complete chart of a conjugated verb (it had about 70 cells in it and looked something like an Xcel spreadsheet) and I smugly thought to myself - 'Oh I won't r-e-a-l-l-y need to know all that - you couldn't possibly need to know all those endings. I'll just.....ignore it.'. Mm - wrong, very wrong.
5 Answers
I did a similar thing: I thought I didn't really need to learn the subjunctive and that I could just put in present tense all the time.
Also, I made a New Year's Resolution a couple years ago to become fluent in Spanish by the end of that year. Impossible!! 
I'm curious. When you began your (Spanish language) learning journey did you have any major misconceptions or delusions? I certainly did.
What a great question Annie!
I think my major misconception was that this was going to be an impossible task and that I would have to go it alone. Originally, I thought that I would try to learn a few vocabulary words and phrases. It didn't take long before I realized that if I wanted to do this....I had to do it right. A few phrases would only get me so far. If I really wanted to communicate and develop my friendships with Spanish speaking people, I would have to learn the language.
I started exactly two years ago this month while in Mexico. No one else in my circle of family and friends was even a little bit interested in learning a second language. I really don't mind a challenge. In fact, I work even harder when I'm told something is impossible. What I didn't count on was meeting all of my friends here in the forum. I basically stumbled upon this site when I wanted to learn the Spanish word for "heart". I did the video lessons for a month or so and then the format of the forum changed and the "new" Spanishdict" was introduced last August. It seemed like everyone was having so much fun here in the forum and learning together. I met great people like Goyo and Heidi and the rest is history! I was just enjoying reading the questions and answers. I couldn't believe they responded to me personally.
So I have to say my greatest delusion was that I could do this all by myself. I have found that we really do need each other. We need the encouragement, the corrections, the laughter...all of it. Working together with like minded people is really essential when tackling something as huge as learning a new language! 
Dandi said:
I thought I didn't really need to learn the subjunctive and that I could just put in present tense all the time.
Yeah, that was me 1 1/2 ago when I knew only the present tense! I quickly learned that we tell most of our stories (about our day, what we did yesterday, etc.) in the past tense. As soon as I got that under my belt I was hit with the bad news that a lot of the present tense is spoken in the subjunctive mood! Ugh! How could they do that to us!?
Anyway, here we are....more advanced than ever and enjoying the learning process (most of the time.)
Oh, and yes, I thought I'd be "fluent" when I learned all of the conjugations and sentence structure. I completely missed the fact that we need years of practice with native/advanced Spanish speakers to become fluent.
I heard so many things from people about learning Spanish, even as far as someone saying that you could learn any language in one year. Maybe someone could but not me. I also saw a completly conjugated verb with all the endings and almost died. I never thought I would be fluent in only a few years but now I realize it is going to take a long time of study and practice.
