Becoming fluent at speaking Spanish
Hi folks,
My question is directed at people who have managed to become truly fluent in Spanish. Particularly those who had never learned another language before and don't consider themselves to be especially talented at learning languages.
The questions is: what is required to go from knowing the grammar rules and speaking "a bit" of Spanish, to being fully fluent?
My problems is that I have been studying Spanish for a couple of years now and I even moved to Colombia (I have been here for about 9 months), but I feel as though I have plateaued.
I don't consider myself fluent, but I can speak Spanish and get by in almost any situation. The reason I don't consider myself fluent is because I struggle to understand people speaking Spanish, I understand hardly anything at all on television/radio and when I speak, I have to really think about what I'm saying. I really thought I would pick up Spanish easily by being here, but I'm finding I really have to work at it!
Have any of you experienced this? How did you get past it?
Many thanks in advance, Chris
5 Answers
So, about a year ago, I realized that I loved learning Spanish. But I wanted to take my Spanish to the next level. I stumbled around the internet for a method by which to learn. After a long time of searching, I formulated a new method, one that has worked well. Not only did my Spanihs catapult through the roof, but I'm going to apply this method to some new languages now. Basically, I combined the advice of a bunch of language-learning sites and blogs into my own method. Here's what I do:
1) First, download Anki. It's a free SRS. Remember when you used to use flas cards for language learning? But after a while, it became cumbersome to review a lot of cards and you didn't really use them too much. Anki is the answer. It's essentially virtual flashcards that you make. The trick is that every day, Anki will tell you which cards to review. You don't have to fumble around with hundreds of cards each day. Anki uses an algorithm to automatically find your 20-or-so (80 a day for me) weakest cards and quiz you on them.
2) Gain access to a good grammar guide/book. This site is pretty good for a start. Personally, I used this site, En March Intermediate Spanish, and these other two sites (here, and here). Now, go through these references and for every example sentence/piece of dialogue create an Anki flashcard. You want to bold 1 new term in the sentence that you really want to make the focus of the card. Then lay out the card like this.Here, here, and here are some examples I actually use. Basically, going through En March Spanish at 20 cards a day took roughly 2-3 months. Note that you should review your Anki deck every day. Also, SKIP EXERCISES AND VOCAB THAT ISN'T PART OF AN EXAMPLE SENTENCE. While it's great to practice, this approach in Anki relies on having context for words and phrases, because eventually, you want to start saying them (almost verbatim) in conversation.
3) Gain access to Native Spanish materials. This can mean books, movies, shows, songs, anything with lyrics/subtitles (if it's audio). If you come across an interesting sentence while using these media, you should add these sentences to your Anki Deck. Especially after you burn though your grammar book, you'll be doing this for most of the time. Nowadays, I come home, watch some Mexican soap operas, and add 20-30 sentences a day.
4) Talk with native Spanish speakers. As you talk, you'll start feeling the sentences that you put in Anki flow out of your mouth automatically. That is an amazing feeling. At this point, just bounce between points 3 and 4 until you're "fluent".
That is the general way that I learn languages. It's was created after a lot of personal research I've done and it works for me. Remember that this is just a general overview, I haven't gotten to the specifics. I should really put this on a blog or something...
Well I am not truly fluent but I will answer anyway. I have been living in Mexico for six years speaking Spanish on a daily basis. My girlfriend and all of her family do not speak any English so I live in Spanish. I consider myself very conversational as I can hold a conversation with anyone on any normal topic. I get regular complements on my Spanish. But everyday I encounter things that I do not understand and I have to ask for explanations. Some people are harder to understand and some are easier. It is still a struggle day to day.
I can tell you that I have experienced the same thing that you are going through. Conversing is the hardest thing to do. Hearing and understanding is harder than forming your own thoughts into sentences.
You will experience plateaus and breakthroughs as time goes by. But you have to keep at it. You have to talk, no matter what. Don't worry too much about grammar rules and matching and getting the verb tense and person perfect. If fact, if you get stuck just use the infinitive. Once you have said something you can correct it when your mind catches up with your mouth. Once you get comfortable with speaking you will relax. Once you relax it will all get easier.
Fluency is a false god. You really do not need it and very few will ever attain it. So relax and make lots of mistakes but keep talking and asking for lots of explanations.
If you want to go to another level, try live translation where there are no pauses in the dialog. When you first try it blood will squirt out of your eyes. It's easy enough when the speaker says a line, then you translate, another line, then you translate. But it's an entirely different ballgame when the speaking is continuous, and while you are speaking English, the Spanish words are still "coming in", it can be very overwhelming. But I learned to do it, and I'm still learning.
I practice and practice all the time, translating tv shows, movies and such, and I think this has helped me tremendously in my ability to understand spoken Spanish. Last week I translated a 3 1/2 day event (from English to Spanish, usually I'm translating from Spanish to English), 12 different speakers and workshops in between.
I'm not fluent and could care less, because the more I know, the more I know I need to know, and it's for life. But I'm extremely happy how far I've come in 7 years.
You don't need to know grammar to be fluent, in any language.
Read my blog and/or talk to me on Skype (chileno74)
Welcome to the forum. This is a question that has been asked here at SD many times before. I can certainly understand how you feel. Here is a link with some responses to that question. Fluency
Good luck!
