Will my Spanish improve...?

Question

I took 4 years of Spanish in school, and I really would love to speak it fluently. I buy books all the time and listen to Spanish music to try to stay sharp. My boyfriend has also been trying to teach me a little. I can read and write it pretty well, but I speak it terribly, especially when I'm around Spanish-speaking people (I get so nervous!) and I can barely understand it when spoken. Also, I'm very shy, so that also hurts me.

I'm moving to Miami in a few weeks and I'm hoping that this will be the perfect opportunity to improve my Spanish. What do you think?

My boyfriend is Hispanic.

Answer 1

Sounds like my wife! OK at reading and writing, but flies into a panic when listening! Apparently, the problem lies in the fact that Spanish doesn't use the glottal stop, therefore it appears that all the words run together and hence the panic sets in. Spending time listening to Spanish speakers will help enormously - let it flow over you initially and pick out the key words - the rest will follow.

I felt the same when I first started to speak Spanish in business situations rather than in class - the more you are exposed to it, the easier it becomes.

Answer 2

i think it depends on youre level in spanish if you cant speak too much then it might be quite disheartening to watch it and not understand, movies are probably easier if that is you because you can have spanish subtitles as well and then youll understand more and hear it said spanish shows excepting the news etc will usually be fast spanish and often use expressions or colloquialisms which are hard to understand if youre quite good at it, then yeah im sure itll help a lot :)

Answer 3

Whenever I went Miami, and I spoke English, they quickly recognize that I m not a English speaker so they talked to me in Spanish, so I think most of the people in Miami (those who work in a hotel, or drugstore, rent a cars, restaurants) are bilingual.
It is the perfect place to learn Spanish, with different accents Argentina, Chile, Peru, Bolivia, Colombia all of them have different accents and people from all those places are in Miami (the hub of the Americas)

Answer 4

Practice Makes Perfect It Dont Always Happen As Fast As You Want It To Give It Time

Answer 5

^^^^ What the person above says.

Also, don't be scared about speaking Spanish. If a Spanish speaker sees that you are making the effort to speak to them in their favoured language they'll be most accomodating.

The best way to learn a language - certainly orally - is to just dive in. Any mistakes you make will be corrected (politely!).

Answer 6

hang around a lot of hispancis, or better yet get a hispanic bf u are gurantee to improve ur spanish.