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Plans for the future!
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Thomas Whiteley
Posts: 786
Joined: Jul. 8 2003
From: San Francisco Bay Area
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 RE: Plans for the future! (in reply to Kate)
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quote:
No, no tengo un perro".
My mom spoke Castellano, but being a normal child I refused to learn from her! 
I took Castellano in high school and college along with German. I had a friend in the Air Force who was born in Germany and lived in Venezuela, and we would drive people crazy. He might see me and say hello, how are you in German and I would reply in Spanish, not even thinking about what I was doing. He would do the same thing! It was so funny and we would laugh while others shook their heads like we were nuts.
When you study a foreign language (one that is not your first language), you are taught such things as greetings and how to respond. The responses were always very positive and full of energy!
While working in the electronics industry I had many friends from South America, Mexico and Spain. One day I said to a friend named Lucas from Argentina, “Buenos días. ¿Cómo esta usted?
My friend was married and had a wife and two teenage boys and I knew the family well. He stopped cold in his tracks while I awaited the response taught in school, fully expecting, ¡”Muy bien gracias! ¿Y usted”? This would be said with great energy just like all my teachers taught me. Or so I thought!
It seemed like an eternity passed before Lucas replied. With a distraught look on his face he said very slowly. “Bien”, with a tone indicating it was almost a question.
Bien? Are you serious? Are you all right Lucas? It truly shocked me and then I learned a great lesson about languages. People express how they feel and not how the teacher creates his/her world in a classroom environment! That was a good lesson.
When Katy and I were married she spoke no English and asked me to talk to her only in English. Her English within six months was really outstanding. My Spanish has become poor as I do not often speak but I still understand what is written or spoken.
While studying languages (I also studied Latin and Greek thanks to Catholic School), I felt that it is easiest to learn how to read, followed by listening to and understanding the spoken word. It seemed more difficult to speak and most difficult to write with proper grammar.
I can read a good bit of French but can not understand the spoken word. I can read and understand a good bit of Italian. Learning Latin did have its good points! I love to kid people with true statements, which sometimes aggravate those who are sensitive. Tell someone who speaks Spanish, Italian or French that they are “vulgar or vernacular languages”, and see the response! Ah the things you learn in Catholic school!  hehe
You have to be in an environment that requires or demands you communicate in another language other then you own to truly learn.
_____________________________
Tom
http://home.comcast.net/~flamencoguitar/flamenco.html
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Date Dec. 31 2005 17:23:01
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Ron.M
Posts: 7051
Joined: Jul. 7 2003
From: Scotland
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RE: Plans for the future! (in reply to Kate)
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quote:
Just do it, use a dictionary and buy 501 Spanish verbs so you can see the verb conjugations
Hi Kate,
That 501 verbs thing sounds great.
I always had real difficulty with Spanish past tense verbs, what they were and how to use them.
I had a couple of tricks, like always speaking in the present tense...ie "I am in Brasil two years before"...which sounded foreign, but folk could understand what I meant.
The second was to use he, has, ha (I have) followed with the verb with the ido, ado etc
ending... like "He vivido en Brasil para dos años".
I could never conquer estaba and era etc..... 
Also you get good at mime and things!
I once went into a farmacia to buy shampoo.
The asistant was chatting away to some folk when she asked me what I wanted...
I said, "Teine usted champu para polvo blanco?", dusting my shoulders.
"Ah...para caspa", (dandruff) everybody cried out at once.
I found everybody to be so helpful when you at least make an attempt to speak the language and are not too sensitive about making a fool of yourself LOL!
I also found it helpful to carry a little dictionary around with me and when I was bored, say standing at a bus stop or waiting in an office etc....having a look at every object around me and testing if I knew the Spanish word for it.
Every noun is important, for even if you don't know any grammar, you can still get your request across in an emergency.
I posed this question to my wife once...
Can you imagine you had a bout of "Spanish tummy" and suddenly got caught short in the middle of a crowded big department store like Corte Ingles and realized that you'd have to get to a toilet in less than a minute, but couldn't find it?
If you didn't know the word, then what gesture would you make to get your point across?....
Every word is valuable...even "destornillador" (screwdriver).
You never know when you may need one!
cheers
Ron
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Date Dec. 31 2005 21:02:31
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Kate
Posts: 1827
Joined: Jul. 8 2003
From: Living in Granada, Andalucía
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RE: Plans for the future! (in reply to JBASHORUN)
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quote:
ORIGINAL: JBASHORUN
Kate, its JAMES actually... I think you're getting me confused with Jon Boyes... I know... they both begin with "J", but the way to tell us apart is that Jon is a MUCH better guitarist!
"Jon" 
Agh so sorry JAMES, lo siento muchisimo ( I'm really sorry)
Anyway good luck with finding the book, and getting to grips with Spanish. Also am sure you know more words than you say, what about la guitarra, las cuerdas, cantar, tocar, madera, tocar madera ( guitar, chords, to sing, to play, wood, touch wood)
Kate
_____________________________
Emilio Maya Temple
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B000CA6OBC
http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/emiliomaya
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Date Jan. 1 2006 16:13:09
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Kate
Posts: 1827
Joined: Jul. 8 2003
From: Living in Granada, Andalucía
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RE: Plans for the future! (in reply to Thomas Whiteley)
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quote:
ORIGINAL: Thomas Whiteley
I learned a great lesson about languages. People express how they feel and not how the teacher creates his/her world in a classroom environment! That was a good lesson.
Tom, this is so so true. You can learn a lot in a class room but real life is often so different. I felt like I was starting from scratch when I first came here, due to the accent but also the fact that people spoke normally, ie said things out of context, did not finish sentences or changed the subject before I had grasped what the subject was. Learning a language is one thing , actually using it is another entirely
Still reading is a good safe place to start, its a solitary exercise, no-one can judge you, and slowly you build your vocabulary. I was told I spoke like the old Spanish poets, Lorca, Machada, ie very flowery and I used old fashioned phrases because that was what I had read so much of. Nowadays I'm told I talk like the teenagers from Poligono 
Kate
_____________________________
Emilio Maya Temple
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B000CA6OBC
http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/emiliomaya
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Date Jan. 1 2006 16:21:17
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Kate
Posts: 1827
Joined: Jul. 8 2003
From: Living in Granada, Andalucía
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RE: Plans for the future! (in reply to Ron.M)
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quote:
ORIGINAL: Ron.M
I once went into a farmacia to buy shampoo.
The asistant was chatting away to some folk when she asked me what I wanted...
I said, "Teine usted champu para polvo blanco?", dusting my shoulders.
"Ah...para caspa", (dandruff) everybody cried out at once.
Going to a farmacia here is such an experience, everyone has an opinion and voices it whatever you are buying or suffering from, privacy is an alien concept. Its a social event !
Your story reminds me of my first time in Sevilla and having a cold and needing to buy paper tissues, so I mimed sneezing etc and the tissues appeared. I than asked what they were called in Spanish and was told " Kleenex" !!!!
And as for the past tense, apart from the subjunctive they are used the same way we use them. Harold lived in the present tense for the first few years and had no problem at all being understood. Usually people are helpful and really happy you are making an effort.
My worst experience was just recently, with a horrible hangover and a load of English friends we went to a bar for a late breakfast. I asked for a Gazpacho, and the waitress said " Servicios" I said no ' gazpacho' and she said "Toilets" this time in English. I tried again and she simply shook her head and said she did not understand me. I went into angry Spanish mode and cried " Por dios un Gazpacho, no hay otra manera decirlo" ( For Gods sake a gazpacho, there's no other way to say it) and the penny dropped, turns out she had thought I was speaking some foreign language and just wasn't expecting me to be speaking Spanish.
Hey ho,
Kate
_____________________________
Emilio Maya Temple
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B000CA6OBC
http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/emiliomaya
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Date Jan. 1 2006 16:40:55
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