Speaking Spanish
¿Cuánto tiempo le toma a una persona para aprender español con fluidez?
5 Answers
It all depends.
- The amount of time you devote to it.
- The amount of interest that you have.
- The amount of immersion you expose yourself to.
- Every person is different, do not get discourage if you are not learning as fast as someone else.
I agree completely with farallon7, but would like to add (as it regards "The amount of interest that you have").
I personally don't think you will ever become fluent if you don't have a "fire in your belly", a passion that drives you beyond what other people will understand.
I know grammar nerds that can quote rules and argue with text books, they have learned about everything there is to learn out of a book, but they can't speak the language. I believe that you have to embrace the culture, which obviously includes the people, the food, the perspective of people, in other words, why do they say what they do in the way that they do? Just about every aspect of a culture affects the language. If you can't understand why people think the way they do, then you're not going to be able to understand idiomatic expressions, amongst other things.
Your immersion experience has to include talking with real people, and I do mean a lot. Talking with people is what "re-wires" your brain, moving vocabulary out of your temporal lobe into permanent memory.
I've been learning Spanish nearly four years, and every day of these last few years I've spent at least two hours studying and practicing, but usually it's three or four. With my immersion experiences, most days I have five to eight hours of exposure to Spanish. Everything I watch on TV is in Spanish, everything I do I try to do it in Spanish. I have lived and breathed in Spanish these last few years to get to where I speak with a semblance of fluency.
There's a huge difference in learning some Spanish than acquiring another language, and I do mean huge.
Yo agregaría también qué tan rápido descubres cuáles son esas actividades o ejercicios en particular que te ayudan a aprender más y con mayor velocidad y claro, el tiempo que dedicas a hacerlos(as) como dijo farallon7.
Work hard, work at it often, work at it daily... even if all you have to spare is 30 minutes. Watch spanish TV (with subtitles in spanish, which will help you hear how things you already may know are pronounced by native speakers) ...watch shows with the SAP on, and with captions "to relate the Spanish speech with words you know" ...and of course, build your vocabulary, and find good sites to learn. Here are my top 5
- www.studyspanish.com (a monster of grammar learning, imo)
- www.quizlet.com (the best flashcard site I've even seen easily, with game modes etc.)
- www.123teachme.com (a monster of vocab learning, not so much of grammar rules)
- www.spanishdict.com (the natives on the chat can be helpful when you find them, but don't end up wasting too much time there aimlessly if you aren't actively learning)
- http://www.ver-taal.com/vocabulario.htm - ETC ETC
There is also livemocha.com and you can download Pimsleur audio for an iPod, it works on your core vocab and listening skills... making you listen, repeat, and at times fill things in an active manner.
I think farallon7 pretty well covered it all. But I'd like to add something about "immersion."
I don't think anybody can become fluent in any language without a period of total immersion But with a diligent effort a person can become pretty good using farallon's other suggestions.
In place of total immersion I try to spend time watching Spanish TV (I find news programs the best for learning); I try to read an article in El Mundo online every day, and I've joined a Spanish conversation group (I also take classes).
I've been at it for 18 months and I figure that in another year I'll be able to engage in social conversations enough to get by.
Suerte.
