Mistakes that one should make, and make often
I have, as I'm sure many people have, avoided making mistakes in spanish.. while I imagine, holding myself back. I don't tend to write free minded in spanish, for fear of placing a wrong preposition, or getting into bad grammar habits.
I'm just wondering... from people who have learned to be intermediate... advanced... fluent...
what should I not worry about ? what should I expect ? and should I stop being cautious with my grammar ?
What is the bigger picture, for you guys, what was the bigger picture... and what should I be doing to improve my grammar in spanish ? (and ability to convey thoughts)
6 Answers
Here is my two cents worth. More than 80% of communication is verbal (spoken/heard), that leaves less than 20% that is nonverbal (written/read). Now, take a few minutes and think about how you communicate with your friends, parents, teachers, co-workers, etc. Do you always use perfect grammar, or do you use slang and sentence fragments, etc. What about the others with whom you communicate, do they always use perfect grammar, etc. I assume that for you, like for me, proper grammar and sentence structure is not always used. So here is the B I G question, do you think just because you are now speaking in Spanish that it is any different? I say, No its not.
Listen to what AlphaMichoacana said above but don't let it rule your world. Talk and wirte without worrying about every letter, rule, and punctuation mark. Build vocabulary. Listen and read, to yourself and others. You will find yourself communicating, with difficulty at first, but with time more and more easily. Then return to the grammar rules. They will be a lot easier to understand once you are able to use the language.
This is my biggest problem with SpanishDictionary, the overwhelming drive for perfect grammar, spelling and punctuation to the point of instilling fear of making mistakes in beginners, intermediates and advanced learners.
Remember, the reason you are learning a new languatge is to communicate, not get an A in school. Well maybe you do want that A.
Well, I think you should look for a native spanish speaker who can listen to you and point out your mistakes. If you want i can help you reading some of your writings and listening to your doubts about grammar or whatever you want to know about spanish. I was born in Mexico and I'm interested in learning how to teach spanish to english speakers. It would be great for me to know what are the most common mistakes that english speakers make, that would help me develope a method to teach my own language. Of course, you wouldn't have to be afraid of expressing your self in spanish because i know how hard it is to learn a new language and, also, i know that the only way to learn is making mistakes learning from them. So, why don't we share our mails and help each other?
Spanish is a hard language to learn, my advice:
1.- Always pay attention to what you say and write (listen to yourself carefully, read out loud what you write...) sometimes that helps identifying what's wrong.
2.- You won't get what's wrong unless your ears and your eyes get used to what's right: Read as much as you can in Spanish (not theory, stuff you like), watch movies or series in Spanish (if you need subtitles, put them in Spanish as well)..
3.- While you write, don't worry about mistakes. Just write. (Thinking so much about spelling and grammar while you are writting keeps you from expressing your ideas fluently)Make sure after that you have enough time to read it many times and correct whatever is necessary.
I couldn´t agree more with gringojrf and gringojrf.
What is the bigger picture, for you guys, what was the bigger picture... and what should I be doing to improve my grammar in Spanish ? (and ability to convey thoughts)
I agree with Gingojrf for the most part.
I'm an Advanced speaker and writer and I try to improve every day.
This is what I suggest....
Build vocabulary--lots of it.
Learn the grammar rules, but S P E A K to other people even though you make mistakes.
Listen to radio, TV, and movies
vocabulary--- I got my list of vocabulary words from listening and reading and looking up the names of things around me, e.g., the fridge, the birds, technology I used, etc. I learned to store that vocabulary by making tons of flashcards then writing sentences with the words at the end of each week. My vocabulary helped me tremendously to communicate my thoughts and to pick up words during others' speech.
Learn Grammar--- You need to study this as you go along. If you have a solid base of grammar it helps you understand W H Y she just said "quiero" instead of "quieres"...and later on W H Y he used the subjunctive instead of the indicative to say "I doubt that he'll come to the party." *As for the subjunctive, I just learned the basic rules but waited until I heard it being used by native speaker before beginning to use it myself. It's really not as confusing as I thought it was in the beginning and now I use it naturally (most of the time).
Speak!!--- The more you S P E A K the more you learn how to conjugate verbs and try out new vocabulary. I make mistakes every day, but these mistakes get less all the time because my brain now functions quick enough to conjugate without much thought. If I make a mistake in speech I almost always instantly correct myself. Someday those mistakes will disappear, so I'm not worried.
Listening Comprehension--- Listen as much as possible. You'll train your ear to understand more each time. You'll also increase your vocabulary and learn more about sentence structure. Repeat and / or write down what you hear on the radio, especially the obnoxious commercials, it will come in handy someday.
P.s. contact me about finding a paid Skype tutor if you don't have a native speaker to talk to in your life.
GringoRF tiene mucha razón. Hay que dejar de preocuparse tanto por cometer errores. No puedes mejorar sin cometer errores.... un montón de errores, lol.
"...you should look for a native spanish speaker who can listen to you and point out your mistakes.."
Por supuesto que MiguelRF tiene mucha razón. Es una mezcla de los dos consejos. No tienes que dejar de tratar de escribir con la gramática "perfecta" (nadie quiere escribir mal) pero tienes que tratar de escribir para recibir las correcciones. Vas a cometer muchos errores (si lo haces correctamente) y de ahí, recibirás muchas correcciones para que no los cometas más (o al menos puedes evitar muchos de esos errores)
"This is my biggest problem with SpanishDictionary, the overwhelming drive for perfect grammar, spelling and punctuation to the point of instilling fear of making mistakes in beginners, intermediates and advanced learners."
Vale pues, es una página para mejorar tu gramática, o sea, aprender a utilizar español. No se debe tener miedo de cometer errores, ni de recibir correcciones, haha... así son las cosas. En una escuela, cuando hagas algo incorrectamente, el maestro (un maestro digno de ser maestro) te corregirá.. pero no puedes decir "¡huy! no voy a intentarlo porque no quiero que el maestro me corrija." Es la misma cosa al aprender un nuevo idioma. Al fin y al cabo, este es un lugar para aprender.
"Spanish is a hard language to learn, my advice"
Pues Alpha, no me sorprendió ver que el español es tu lengua materna. Me parece que muchos hispanohablantes piensan que su idioma es muy difícil... lo aprendieron de niños, pero... al parecer, son expertos sobre si o no es difícil (en vez de los estudiantes del idioma). lol. Esuchen ustedes, no es fácil aprender ningún idioma, pero, si es algo que realmente quieren hacer, va a ser DIVERTIDO, en vez de "hard"... lo que sea "hard." Además, es un idioma muy parecido a inglés, así que es el idioma más fácil de aprender para un angloparlante, y viceversa (una conjetura)
Pero, no te engañes, no es fácil aprender ningún idioma si ya hablas otro, y requiere muchas muchas muchas horas... y todavía te faltará, haha... pero, el objetivo es aprender a comunicarse. No te des por vencido. Sigue adelante... y listo. Es un proceso que requiere muchas horas y paciencia. No vas a aprecier tus mejoras inicialmente, pero... estás mejorando cada día sin darte cuenta.. (dando por hecho que estás practicando en serio y cada día). Estarás contestando cosas que te solía costar mucho trabajo.
¡No te rindas!
