Gave up on learning Spanish

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Don't try French if you can't do Spanish. How about Mandarin? Arabic? Ebonics? Russian?

I don’t know about Mandarin or Ebonics, but if OP found Spanish tricky, highly doubt they’ll find Arabic or Russian any less tricky with the added bonus of learning all in non-Latin alphabet and the same as Spanish gender adjustments, changing word endings depending on context, etc.

What languages do you already speak or learned before Op?

Native Russian speaker here. I don’t speak Spanish, but I did learn French which is supposedly harder than Spanish. Out of the three languages I speak - Russian, English, French - I would consider Russian to be the hardest by far. At least in terms of grammar. Not only are there changes due to gender, but nouns have declensions (different endings based on which preposition is used, and there are 6 of those - so each noun can have 6 “varieties”). Verb tenses are much harder than either English or French too.

If OP struggled with Spanish then I don’t think Russian is the way to go, unless she already knows another Slavic language.

If you are familiar with Latin, the declensions in Russian should not be a surprise. English doesn't really have declensions because English relies on a strict word ordering to determine which nouns are subject (nominative) or object (dative.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I like to watch movies in Italian, French and Spanish with English subtitles and repeat the dialogue out loud as they say things

Just pay attention. I learned "chingas-a-tu-madre-cabron !!!!" from the apple TV show Pluribus. I absolutely looked that one up lol

I also liked learning "va te faire foutre !!!" which was something they definitely didn't teach me in any classroom

Language is fun

It’s chinga tu madre. I went to HS in Arizona. Very very common phrase. The speaker in Pluribus very obviously spoke very bad Spanish.

If you want a master class in Mexican swearing, watch Club de Cuervos. And then you can compare it to the swearing in Casa De Papel from Spain.

Muchas gracias!

Also, Spanish was in North America way before English.

If the English had arrived in Mexico and South America earlier on, it would be an entirely different linguistic story overall today.

The English snoozed, they losed.

In closing, the United States has never had an official language, and I don't know why it's some kind of flex today to declare that you only know how to speak one language. You go, you guys! Winning! /fin

[Anonymous]

Not sure why, but I found French to be easier to learn than Spanish.

[Anonymous]

Spanish is the easiest.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I heard Korean and French are easy.

I can't think of any similarities between the two

I speak passable French and listen to a lot of BTS and watch a lot of zombie movies with subtitles, I haven't picked up on a thing in Korean. Though, granted, the zombies don't speak much

[Anonymous]

As a native English speaker, I found Canadian to be the easiest language to learn.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Spanish is the easiest.

This is what I don't understand. Spanish is just not that hard.

This must be some psyop thread because a whole lot of Americans actually do already know more Spanish than they think.

Like, if you grew up in NYC you probably already know more Yiddish than you think, even if you aren't Jewish yourself.

Just ever having seen Fiddler on the Roof or reading the menu at Ratners or ordering at a deli

Spanish just isn't that hard if you already live in the US, because it's everywhere you look, unless you somehow willfully ignore it

Even your typical mountain quality dipshit probably knows how to say "Si Señor" even as they are trying to use it as an insult or something ... and they definitely know words like cajones and pendejo because they've learned them from car chase movies. Or something. Or they like certain actresses.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:As a native English speaker, I found Canadian to be the easiest language to learn.

Sorry to hear that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I recommend Arabic. It’s basically Spanish but harder but strangely, I found Arabic much easier to learn and I dont even have Arab ancestry

Only because Arabic and Spanish sound similar?

For a native English speaker Arabic is a throaty language to try to learn.

Best to always have plenty of H2O on hand when attempting to speak it!!
Lol!

I like Arabic because it sounds nicer than Spanish. Also because Arab countries have a more richer and better culture imo.

[Anonymous]

Agree with watching soap operas. Many of them even have English subtitles, which help a lot.

[Anonymous]

My recommendation is lots of comprehensible input. The person who recommended children’s programming is right. There’s also a site called Dreaming Spanish that I’ve heard good things about.

[Anonymous]

Try Dreaming French website. You can use the free videos to get started. If you decide to pay for premium, it’s just $8/month.

They do also offer Spanish. Are you sure it’s the language versus the method of language acquisition?

Comprehensible input is the best way to learn.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Don't try French if you can't do Spanish. How about Mandarin? Arabic? Ebonics? Russian?

Mandarin does not require the one million verb conjugations required in Spanish!

[Anonymous]

My mother was a polyglot and taught various languages and held an MA in literary translation.

She said that French is harder for most people to learn than Spanish because of all the different conjugations and the m/f endings / changes. She said that Spanish had a lot more words, but if you could remember those words you were fine, because it was far less complicated structurally.

And I believe this to be true.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Depends on how you interpret languages. Spanish is phonetic, but the preterite and how fast people speak it can get to some learners. French is less phonetic, letters that are silent, but I find the grammar easier. Brushing up on it now.

Spanish is phonetic that’s why it’s relatively easy to read once you know how the vowels are pronounced and other small tricks to learn. I can’t translate Spanish in my head fast enough and it’s frustrating. Plus the US is full of Spanish speakers with different accents and wording. Puerto Ricans are fast and don’t follow the rules of the language. People from Peru speak slower and more grammatically correct.
Spanish speakers learning English have the same difficulties as English speakers learning Spanish. They can understand someone speaking the language but can’t always find the words to reply. It’s a skill some are gifted with more so than the average person.