Improving Spanish language skills

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Unless she is able to use Spanish in her every day life she won’t be able to be proficient in conversation.

Are there any neighborhoods with a large Latino population? She could speak to various store owners or workers if she heard them speaking Spanish.

Whatever you do, don’t rely on Puerto Ricans to help her learn. They speak at a rapid pace and use a lot of slang exclusive to them.

This is not true.

She’s going into her second year of Spanish class. She started learning the language at a later age which makes it more difficult. She does well with the grammar part which is much easier than conversational Spanish. Do you really think she could converse with someone at this point?

Yes. She can learn to converse. I did, having started at age 12. I can speak, read and write it well enough to travel and work at a professional level in Spanish. Is my grammar and accent perfect? No. But it’s quite good. Yes, it took work, but was totally worth it. Don’t be discouraged by the naysayers OP!

I didn’t say she couldn’t do it. I SAID she needs to use it in real life routinely, not weekly or randomly. Spanish is spoken a lot quicker and with slang unlike the apps. She can do it but it takes more than just being in a classroom and reading and writing. It’s a lot of work but it’s worth it. Of course a small percentage of people can pick up language easily but she seems to be a typical student.

How long did it take you to be proficient? Also what countries do you work at a professional level.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Unless she is able to use Spanish in her every day life she won’t be able to be proficient in conversation.

Are there any neighborhoods with a large Latino population? She could speak to various store owners or workers if she heard them speaking Spanish.

Whatever you do, don’t rely on Puerto Ricans to help her learn. They speak at a rapid pace and use a lot of slang exclusive to them.

This is not true.

She’s going into her second year of Spanish class. She started learning the language at a later age which makes it more difficult. She does well with the grammar part which is much easier than conversational Spanish. Do you really think she could converse with someone at this point?

Yes. She can learn to converse. I did, having started at age 12. I can speak, read and write it well enough to travel and work at a professional level in Spanish. Is my grammar and accent perfect? No. But it’s quite good. Yes, it took work, but was totally worth it. Don’t be discouraged by the naysayers OP!

Some people are better at languages than others. I started in 9th grade (14?) and it was difficult for me. I also wasn't great with English either fwiw but am strong at math. I've taken various courses and tutoring over the years since HS, have lived a total of 4 years in 2 different Spanish speaking countries and I can still not really carry a conversation - I can understand main ideas of speech and text but always struggle with a response outside of a very basic sentence or phrase.

But I applaud OPs DD for trying. I have 2 kids who are fluent and still figuring out how to keep it up for them once we move away, my husband isn't thrilled about the cost of a tutor. Probably the best bet would be to take a trip somewhere not too touristy but that can get expensive quickly also and also idk if one or two weeks would be enough.

Was it South America? I have Puerto Rican family and South American family and there’s no comparison. The Puerto Ricans are rapid fire speaking and have their own unique words. South American, Chile, is much clearer.

My mother left her French speaking country as a teen and lost it all. Her family was a mixture of French only, the older ones, and bilingual.

[Anonymous]

Watch The Simpsons in Spanish to help with listening. Reading fluency can be achieved with consistent practice. I'd recommend light children's chapter books in translation, like Junie B Jones books, then work your way through harder material. Harry Potter in Spanish is difficult because they use fancier language and more complicated and convoluted sentence structure, so don't dive right into that unless you really can read an easier book without Google translate.

[Anonymous]

Everyone in South America thinks their Spanish is the bestest Spanish, but they all have their annoying features. Argentinians slur their words and pronounce some letters strange, Colombians whine and always sound like they are complaining, Peruvians talk too softly so hard to hear. Personally I think Mexicans speak the best Spanish, regional slang notwithstanding. Every country has weird words that are only used in that country.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Unless she is able to use Spanish in her every day life she won’t be able to be proficient in conversation.

Are there any neighborhoods with a large Latino population? She could speak to various store owners or workers if she heard them speaking Spanish.

Whatever you do, don’t rely on Puerto Ricans to help her learn. They speak at a rapid pace and use a lot of slang exclusive to them.

Same with nearly every group of Spanish speakers. I had a student who spoke Dominican Spanish. None of the other Spanish speakers in the class understood his Spanish. Neither did most of the Spanish speaking adults in the building.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Everyone in South America thinks their Spanish is the bestest Spanish, but they all have their annoying features. Argentinians slur their words and pronounce some letters strange, Colombians whine and always sound like they are complaining, Peruvians talk too softly so hard to hear. Personally I think Mexicans speak the best Spanish, regional slang notwithstanding. Every country has weird words that are only used in that country.

Peruvians at least don’t speak ridiculously fast. Argentinians have a more European Spanish.

They all sure have beefs with each other.