what was your first language barrier breaking moment ?
When was the first time that you looked at your second language and thought, "Hey ! I'm getting this ! I got this", and what advice would you give others who haven't quite felt that yet ?
16 Answers
I was in Mexico last year for 3 months, living with a Mexican family plus two other boarders. Eight who spoke Spanish, and one who spoke English. Obviously, my Spanish improved a lot in that time period, but I can assure you no one mistakes me for a native speaker. Near the end of my visit I went to Mexico City for a week with a friend. One day we took a long cab ride from Cuauhtémoc to Xoxomilco. For some reason, my listening comprehension took a quantum jump on that very ride as I talked with the cab driver about everything under the sun during that trip - his family, the history of Mexico, the political situation, the Mexican National Futbol team and its rivalry with the US, gang violence, etc. I speak relatively rapidly - though with tons of mistakes - but I always had to ask people to speak slowly in order to understand them. Due to my 3 months in total immersion it really did feel like busy little workers had been hard at work in the infrastructure in my brain, and on that one morning the whole system went on line. Of course, now that I am back in the States for over a year I am losing all that, but I know that when I return again the system can repair itself more quickly than before. ¡Menuda revalación!
My moment came shortly after starting my first job in the US. I didn't know how I was going to understand the clients. So, I found the most natural thing to translate literally from Spanish to English:
Perdone my acento, hábleme despacio porque estoy aprendiendo inglés.
Perdón, puede repetir lo que me dijo?
Todavía no entiendo, puede explicarlo de otra manera?
I translated word by word and learned more or less their pronunciation. I was pleasantly surprised when the clients understood and they would speak slowly. That in turn, would spurn more conversation and questions from them.
- Don't worry, you are doing fine. Where are you from? When did you come to the US? etc...
I knew I had a system in my hands.
Welcome to the forum!
I feel that way every time I finally get something... then I'm quickly brought back down to Earth with another grammar issue that I've never encountered before. 
I guess the first time I had that "aha moment" was when I finally understood adjective gender and number matching. I started out learning with a popular immersion program that didn't explain why it was "Las faldas son rojas." or "Él cinturón es rojo."... I still make silly mistakes with my adjectives from time to time, but I remember that I felt super-smart when I finally figured it out.
That didn't last long. 
When I first started studying the subjunctive and realized it wasn't the big terrifying monster everyone said it was.
When I first read a proper book in Spanish.
My advice is always: bit by bit!
Never panic because something is difficult, just take it one step at a time. When I first saw the past simple I said "oh my god that's way too hard, I'll never learn that" and I avoided it for ages, this really held me back. I would say not to let yourself get intimidated by anything and just go step by step!
Desde he empezado a aprender español, mi problema más grande era oír y comprender. Cuando mis profesores previos hablaban a la clase, me sentía confundida y estaba frustrada.
Todo cambió este año...(pues, no, 2011, pero saben lo que estoy tratando de decir)...me volví un miembro de SpanishDict. Escuchar a Señorita Paralee durante las lecciones me ayudaba comprender más.
Mi "breaking moment" sucedió en el primer día de las clases. Mi profesor habló en español y comprendí sin un problema. Desde ese día en esas clases, mi profesor nos ha dado instrucciones a la clase y yo, no he tenido un problema comprenderlo.
No estoy diciendo que puedo escuchar una canción española y comprender todo...tengo que practicar más antes de que eso sucedea. Pero, he hecho mis pasitos y estoy caminando en el sendero hacia hablar español con fluidez.
P.D: Hace seis meses, no habría sido capaz de escribir esta respuesta entira en el español, pero, gracias a SpanishDict y mi profesor, puedo.
Since I have started learning Spanish, my biggest problem was hearing and understanding. When my former teachers talked to the class, I was confused and frustrated.
Everything changed this year (well, no, 2011, but you know what I mean)...I became a member of SpanishDict. Listening to Paralee during the lessons helped me understand more.
My breaking moment occurred the first day of classes. My teacher talked in Spanish and I understood without a problem. Since that day in those classes, my teacher has given the class and I instructions, and I haven't had a problem understanding him.
I'm not saying that I can listen to a Spanish song and understand everything...I have to practice more before that happens. But, I've made my baby steps and I am walking on the path towards fluency.
PS: Six months ago, I wouldn't have been able to write this entire answer in Spanish, but thanks to SpanishDict and my teacher, I can.
I wish I had something as definitive as a "Barrier Breaking Moment"! I tend to slide around somewhere between completely hopeless and cautiously optimistic.
Last week, a Spanish woman at church came to get me when she needed a translator.
Yesterday I carried on a 30 minute telephone conversation in Spanish while driving to work. (probably dangerous, I know! )
No, I guess I'm still waiting for the dramatic "ah-hah!". Pero poco a poco, paso a paso, sigo tratando de mejorar!
After spending an enforced 18 months in France, hating most of it, I had a sudden moment, in a supermarket queue( they are very long in France) , when I suddenly realized I understood the people behind me, without any effort whatsoever. The pity of it was that they were having a very uninteresting conversation about how they went out for ' le shopping avec le boyfriend le week-end' . Nevertheles, it was, and remains, my only moment of unexpected revelation and I did feel very warm inside, whilst on the outside I maintained the required disdainful look, so appreciated in France.
Estoy de acuerdo con Qfreed, todavía no ha sucedido a mi. 
I started with Pimsleur 1-3, internet, phrase book and dictionary. I really enjoyed it and took to it like a duck to water. After about 8 months I found a private teacher (which I highly recommend) from Peru. I recited a few phrases that I had learnt. She understood me immediately! Even though I didn't really understand what I was saying ... she did! I got a huge kick out of that (and still do).
I was also astonished to learn that I could understand her fluent Spanish when she started talking about her DVD collection because she used hand gestures and different facial expressions etc. So much easier than just a voice!
One time she asked me ¿Queire un vaso de agua? (I always asked for a glass of water to combat nervous "dry mouth") and I understood her as easily as if she had asked me in English. Great day!
I think it's important to seize these moments and take full advantage of them. The best learning (for me at any rate) is during conversation - however awkward and slow it may be. Go for it!
I would say my first 'aha' moment was in a queue at the customs at a foreign airport. There, the people in queue behind me were talking to each other in rapid Spanish, and when I caught a few words which I understood, I felt really warm inside. Its almost like 'hey I am going home'. It was the first time a real live person speaks Spanish in my vicinity. Before that, the only spoken Spanish I hear is the recorded voice of Paralee. 
Of course my level of Spanish today is much higher than at that time (although still really low compared to everyone here), and when I think back at stupid mistakes I made in my early days I feel embarassed, AND warm! It's the 'hey I am getting it!' feel.
I would say, be proud of anything you have achieved. Learnt a new word today? Use it! Found out a new grammar rule? Use it! And be happy you know more today than you had known a few days back.
sitting down for the first time after about a year of trying understand what they were saying on REBELDE ( a spanish program ) and understanding the entire episode for the first time - I then watched the entire marathon and never looked back.
It happened to me when I had been living in Venezuela about 6 months and suddenly realized that I was holding a conversation in Spanish without translating in my head.That's the goal. There's really no way to reach it without practice - lots and lots of practice. It's the same way you became fluent in your first language.
There never was a barrier I mean.. These 8 year old kids spoke spanish to me on the playgound at elementary school and then told me what it meant so I knew what was being said - there never was any "barrier" and it was like that the whole rest of the way only when I got older if I didn't know what a word meant I used a dictionary- wore it out. I guess it's all how you look at it- that's why little children learn so easily. They don't see in terms of barriers.
I would have to say over the past few months concepts like the participles and progressives are beginning to make sense and I can form sentences using them. Also, I can read other members posts in Spanish a little better. Before I would just read the English because the Spanish words looked like gibberish.
I´m not even into the subjunctive tenses yet but I know some day I will tackle them. One ¨advice¨ I give myself is time and patience. One of the members here was told this learning a language is a journey and they in turn told me those words. I remember those words, always.
Belief in yourself is another big help. Using what knowledge you have and continuing to study what you want to learn. I tell myself over and over I want to learn and I´m going to. Everyone has a different study method. Learn what works for you. And stay with it!
On this journey there are down days. But here, on Spanishdict.com, other members have experienced the same down. They have ¨been there, done that¨ so they are a big encouragement. I hope this helps in some small way!
There are so many little moments of triumph when learning another language, but I've achieved a major jump in confidence in the last few months through my work volunteering as an assistant teacher in a community English as a Second Language Class. Of course, I speak mostly English in the class, but I have to speak a lot of Spanish too. Any nervousness I used to feel about having a one-one-on conversation in Spanish pales in comparison to the nervousness I felt at first speaking Spanish in front of a room full of native speakers. But the nervousness quickly went away. I can now say that I have no fear of speaking Spanish. That is not to say that I don't make mistakes. I make tons of mistakes, and I have much left to learn; but I am not held back by any worries that I will look silly or mess up. I now know that I can look silly and mess up, and not only will it not kill me, but I will have learned something from the experience.
