Am I Wrong Not To Want to Learn Spanish?

Question

I hear it so often I almost despise it. I have never found an interest in the language because I hear it around me so often and sometimes by people who speak nothing but it. Yeah, I get that it's one of the most spoken languages in the US. But I just can't stand hearing or speaking it!

I love Italian however. I think it's one of the most charming, beautiful languages in existence.

So, am I wrong not to want to learn to speak and understand Spanish?

I do not consider Spanish a difficult language. I learned Italian and it was very easy to me and Italian is tougher than Spanish in general. I also learned French and found it easy.

I could pick up Spanish easily but don't really want to.

Answer 1

Not at all. Some ppl prefer to learn French, Chinese, Norwegian. If you learn Italian, though, you might actaully be able to understand Spanish whether you want to or not, although you may not speak it. That's a 1/2 advantage.

Answer 2

No, its not wrong. I am surprised though that you do like Italian but not Spanish.

Both are descendant languages of Latin. Romans would try to teach Latin to German tribes. The German tribes would say the words with their own accents, and what came out from the mix are the Romance languages. These are French, Spanish, Italian, Romanian, and Portuguese.

If you really listen to all of these, they all very much sound the same except for a few differences. "i" at the end of Italian words as opposed to the "o" or "a" of Spanish. And, of course, the nearly every word has a silent something that exists in French.

I guess you just happen to like those little differences from Italian over the Spanish versions. It happens.

In truth, I only like Spanish and French when said with a female voice. I only like Italian when said with a male voice. And I like Portuguese when said with either. I haven't heard that much Romanian.

Answer 3

Generally speaking no, not in the United States. However, if you were to major in Romance languages or literature you would need to know it.

If you were to major in Latin American history on a graduate or post-graduate level it would be a good idea to have at least have a working knowledge of it.

And if you wanted to live in Latin America to do business or pratice law, by all means, you should learn both Spanish and Portuguese before doing so.

Historically, Latin, French and German were the three foreign languages that were taught in American high schools. These languages had a lot of technical literature so it was highly recommended that anyone who was college-bound learn them.

Spanish didn't begin appearing in American high schools and colleges until the 1930's. It was largely the result of President Roosevelt's " Good Neighbor Policy" toward Latin America launched in 1933.

It was felt that there might be sufficient business opportunities in Latin America resulting from The Good Neighbor Policy to make it worthwhile for Americans to learn.

Even after that, however, Latin and German remained the recommended languages for students going into technical fields. German became much less important after World War II --- largely displaced by Russian ---but most American schools continued to offer it.

Answer 4

Spanish is a practical language, for like English it is commonly spoken. Americans should have to learn Spanish before graduating 8th grade and then master another language before college. But people outside the US probably have less occasion to use it. I could hardly get by without some Spanish because it is all my houseboy speaks!

Answer 5

There's nothing wrong with not wanting to learn a certain language. But with your interest in Italian, you'll be on your way to understanding Spanish. They're very closely related.

Answer 6

Of course there's nothing wrong with that. Spanish is a hard language if you don't want to learn it you shouldn't have any need to do so because you live in an english speaking country. Try to have some tolerance though because it is for that same reason that learning another language is so hard that you hear people speaking spanish.

Answer 7

Of course you're not wrong. This is your personal choice.
Go take evening classes in Italian or move to Italy. Come move to my town which is full of ex-Italians and where they congregate at the street corners speaking their language all day. It drives me nuts. It's like living in 'little Italy' around here.
I get annoyed at them for not even trying to learn to speak English. I mean, they move to an English speaking country (Australia in my case) and they live here for 30 or more years and don't know a word of English. It's probably the same for the Spanish people in your town. That's probably why you have come to hate their language.
Anyway, point is, you can like or dislike any language you want. It's your choice.

Answer 8

I love french. I know spanish and i think its your choice for whatever language u want to learn. The spanish here tho is "poor" talk and i should know, I like the spanish spoken in mexico because it sounds much "less poor". I might of opened a can of worms here!@!!!

Answer 9

I can't believe people are actually giving you serious answers.... Because you're not asking a real question, just looking for confirmation of your views.... Nobody should either judge or define others by their in/abilities to learn a foreign language. It's your loss if you don't want to learn Spanish.
Am I wrong not to want to take your question seriously? I hope you're just too young and will eventually grow out of it.

Answer 10

i want to know if they're talking sh*t about me, so I want to learn it, but the problem is is that i'm learning 2 other languages right now and 3 would be too hard