why is it so hard to learn spanish?

Question

i just started an spamish emerson class and it is litteraly the beginning class and the secound day. to give some back ground i am half mexican but never learn spanish (father was more concerned with him learning english) so through the years i learned jack quat and to make it harder my school took me out out language classes in 2nd grade and thus i dident graduate with a language class which the state required. so here i am at 20 trying to learn a language i have been around all my life but cant seem to pick up.

could you give me advice?

this class and any other time i try and learn is truely a pain in the butt! i get a blank mind or my head hurts, literaly, the same with math. why cant i learn this stuff?! also if needed i have tried 3 or 4 programs (2 computer and one audio casset) and only know what cair is in spanish...

i can read the bible in spanish if i wanted to. pronouncing is not the problem, its knowing the meaning thats the problem. also my father never being home and not likeing my faily dont help me with this. pluse i have no friends. so i am just fu*ked

i can read the bible in spanish if i wanted to. pronouncing is not the problem, its knowing the meaning thats the problem. also my father never being home and not likeing my faily dont help me with this. pluse i have no friends. so i am just fu*ked

perhaps i will drop out of the class ands wait till iget to OSU to take japaneese, i was laerning that pretty quickly for a whial.

Answer 1

Spanish is not hard, practice with your Spanish speaking relatives/friends, thats the best way to learn. Don't block it out, listed to what you do know and you'll pick up more. suerte...

Answer 2

In my opinion, you have an educational disability. That is, even though you got through school, you really did not catch on to how to study, how to do the learning thing. It's not a physical thing, not a mental thing, it's a "poor training in how to do school/learning" thing.

And you have picked up a mental block when faced with learning things, too. So what you need to do is unlearn bad habits of mind, and to learn learning skills. This is more important than learning any one thing, obviously.

You probably in fact do know more Spanish than you think you know, you just don't know you know it.

There are places you can go that help people who got poor training in doing school work, see if you can find such a place.

And besides, relax. Second day of beginning classes, how much Spanish can you expect to know?

Answer 3

My dad also speaks Spanish and I don't know how to say many things, although I understand a good bit.

It's much easier to learn a language when you're young. I don't know why, probably because you're not afraid of making a mistake and looking stupid, so you attempt to speak without fear. It's probably easier to memorize, since you don't have much going on as a child.

Anyway, I'm also trying to learn Spanish now (I'm 19), and all I can say is, you have to practice and study. Maybe practice with your dad (even if you're embarrassed to). Again, you have to practice and study, there's no way around it.

I hope this helps!

Answer 4

One thing that helps is to learn the structure of Romantic languages, which Spanish is (English is Germanic). Romantic languages have a more simple structure than Germanic ones, so once you get the hang of that it shouldn't be so bad. Also, what is the most important in learning any new language is vocabulary. You can't ask for soap if you don't know the word, "jabón". Finally, learn tht all nouns have genders to them. That's one of the hardest, because you can't tell the gender of a potato just by looking at it. You have to look it up and memorize it.

Answer 5

First get a good teacher. Practice, as everybody says, it`s very important. Talk, read, watch TV, movies, listen to music, all in Spanish. It will help you a lot. Of course, Spanish grammar is more difficult than English but it`s not impossible to learn. My mother tongue is Spanish, English and French came later in life. Nothing is impossible if you really want to achieve it. Good luck!

Answer 6

I'm glad you're trying to learn. Spanish is muuuuch easier than English, but there are still grammatical rules to follow. I know you're in a Spanish emersion class, but you will probably need separate lessons (from your dad, maybe?)on how to conjugate verbs, since it sounds like it's something you've never gotten a chance to learn. Take hablar, for example. You need to make sure you know how and when to break it down to hablo, hablas, hablamos, etc. STAPLER gave you a crazy, non-helpful answer. You need to see Spanish in it's written form, as well as repeating spoken Spanish. You're older now, so switching your brain between Spanish and English is more challenging, but it can be done. Try to speak it to another Spanish-speaker who can correct you or supply the word you're trying to think of. It's always scary in the beginning when you try to speak Spanish to a fluent speaker, but you'll get there. Buena suerte!

Answer 7

One of the biggest difficulties people have when learning Spanish is the way verbs change depending on the tenses and persons you are referring to, these need a lot of practice! Even children living in Spanish speaking country spend a lot of time practicing them. For example in English you will say in present tense:
I eat, you eat, he eats, she eats, they eat, we eat.
As you can see the verb only changes 1 time eat-eats
in Spanish you will get:
yo como, tú comes, él come, ella come, ellos comen, nosotros comemos
Verbs change in all tenses and there's a different form for each person.
I would recommend getting a picture dictionary, yes I know it sounds childish, but Oxford has some pretty good ones; you get a complete scene with all the words for the objects written on it.

Answer 8

Well, I think it's hard to learn spanish if you don't know any languages that are similiar or have the same rules (for example the masculin and feminin) just keep practicing and it should come to you eventually. Just remember to use the right conjugation for the right words.

Answer 9

It's all phonetic: words are pronounced exactly how they are written. Put the emphasis of each word on the second to last syllable unless there is an accent elsewhere. Diphthongs count as only one syllable (for example "ei"). Match gender and number between the particles and nouns (la mesa and los gatos, not el mesa or las gatos).

Answer 10

its usually not hard. all u have to do is put alot of effort and dedication into it. starting to learn spanish at a younger age also helps.