I'm trying to work my way towards fluency in Spanish. My college professors in my undergraduate career told us that by their curriculum, we're NOT supposed to expect to be fluent. My mental health case manager thinks that just because I have a degree in Spanish then I should be fluent. I told her what my professors said, & she told me I was making up excuses for why I'm not successful & why I'm not fluent. I'm NOT making excuses. We didn't have enough language, grammar, & culture, & we took mainly Medieval literature. How does that help me? So I'm trying to go to graduate school & further my Spanish education. & my case manager thinks that I just didn't apply myself in school. But I tried my best. Many people say I need to live in a foreign country & practice communicating every day to become more fluent.
2007-08-09 17:10:35 · 5 answers · asked by Anonymous in Society & Culture ➔ Languages
Your mental health case manager is an idiot and probably hasn't tried to learn a foreign language. You cannot gain fluency through teaching alone, you have to live in an environment where you are constantly around the language. That's why so many colleges have study abroad programs. It's not to give their students a vacation, it's to help them excel in a foreign language.
2007-08-09 17:17:29 · answer #1 · answered by Belie 7 · 3⤊ 0⤋
For the last three years I have had the chance to chat with many Americans taking Spanish at some level. Not even the ones claming to be fluent fulfill the expectations.
No, I don't expect now to find many people who have had studied Spanish to be fluent.
and in most cases I don't think it was their fault. I mean... the way classes are structured are not enough.
What is true is that you need A LOT of work in order to be fluent in a foreign language.
Ask yourself if you could have had asked this question in Spanish. but without checking any dictionary or notes. And how confident you are with it.
2007-08-09 17:18:21 · answer #2 · answered by kamelåså 7 · 3⤊ 0⤋
your mental manager is such and idiot... just fire that mental...
take it from me, as an non professional language enthusiast, the language classes do not/will not make you fluent in any given language, no matter how long you take them. the only way to be able to communicate is to practice to talk talk and talk more without having fear of making mistakes... just try to communicate, find some Spanish speaking friends and talk to them ONLY in Spanish... do not rely on English and the improvement will follow soon .... you will be surprised....
2007-08-09 20:10:12 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 3⤊ 0⤋
well if you expect to meet people face to face then you'll have to be conversationally fluent. immersion is probably the best solution.
besides, what better excuse to take a vacation? =)
2007-08-09 17:21:09 · answer #4 · answered by jade2a6 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
You can go to Italy and learn universal Hand Gestures.
2007-08-09 17:13:51 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 3⤋