Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Are You Trying to Learn Spanish?

By Melissa Osborne


Learning a second language is always a good idea. Spanish is rapidly approaching equal usage as English in the US. How many times do you hear messages in English translated into Spanish? This is just one of the reasons why learning Spanish is a good idea. Yet there are a lot of people who experience difficulty with a new language. If you're one of those, here are some helpful tips for you to use.

Many people living in America today do not even speak English; many of these people are Spanish speaking. In this environment, speaking Spanish and translating it into English or another language is a useful and marketable ability.

Keep in mind to have some patience. You won't be fluent in Spanish before the end of the week. You could have all the rules of vocabulary and conjugations memorized yet still have some difficulty with the sentences. Your progress will suffer if you try to become fluent too quickly and put pressure on yourself. Just relax and learn in a slow but sure manner. This allows you to feel more relaxed with Spanish. If people know you're learning their language, when you talk to them they'll be more patient with you. If you try to learn too fast and become over-confident, you run the risk of accidentally offending a person in a conversation if you make a mistake. Whenever you can, start to think in Spanish rather than your native language. This takes some work, but as you are going about your day try to translate your thoughts into Spanish. You won't be able to do this very well at first, but be patient. Periodically throughout your day ask yourself how you would say the words you are thinking in Spanish. Like any skill, you can become better at it the more you try it. You'll find that the internal translation starts to get easier. Before long you might find that you are thinking in Spanish without even making an effort to do so. Then, to improve your conversational skills, you'll want to practice speaking your thoughts out loud.

But it's still a great idea to do it even if you make mistakes. Everyone else makes the same mistakes, so what better time or place is there to do it? Everyone can participate in making silly mistakes! That's much better than doing it in real life where you people may be less forgiving of your mistakes.

Are you in close proximity to a location where most of the people speak in Spanish? An excellent way to learn is by listening to a fluent conversation between two people.

You might also find that people in these neighborhoods are happy to help new speakers learn how to properly communicate. You can get great practice in your new language without needing to leave the country! There are a lot of different techniques you can employ if you need help learning Spanish. There are many sources of assistance; look online or in your local community. Most likely, certain strategies will be more effective for you than others; this is normal. Your best bet is to look around and try out as many methods as you can find. Speaking Spanish is something you can do; just find the method that works for you and be persistent.




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