Do you speak another language?

Bueno que te puedo decir? creo que el Ingles es un lenguaje muy facil de aprender, el español si esta un poquito dificil, sobre todo porque las cosas tambien tienen que tener un genero, como masculino o femenino, entonces ademas de tener que aprender la palabra tambien tienes que aprenderte el genero
 
Ich weiss ein wenich Deutsch, nicht viele weil ich nicht mehr studieren
 
Thats Spanish and German, Spanish 100%, German i used to know 50% but just like anyone that does not practice i almost forgot about it by now

I know Spanish. I was born in the US, but my parents are from South America so I grew up speaking both Spanish and English. I think learning a language is hard. If I had not grown up around it, I don't think I would have caught on. []

Espencer - I would have to say I think English is harder than Spanish simply b/c there are so many English words that have double meanings, i.e. can (a can of soup) or can (I "can" do this). But the masculine and feminine are pretty tough as well. []

ORIGINAL: espencer

Bueno que te puedo decir? creo que el Ingles es un lenguaje muy facil de aprender, el español si esta un poquito dificil, sobre todo porque las cosas tambien tienen que tener un genero, como masculino o femenino, entonces ademas de tener que aprender la palabra tambien tienes que aprenderte el genero

 
I cheated a little and used an online translator:[]
 
Good that I can say to you? I believe that English is a language very easy to learn, Spanish if it is a bit difficult, especially because the things also have to have a genre, as masculine or feminine, of that time in addition to having to learn the word also you have to learn the genre

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Well, I've been using "learn in your car" CDs to help me learn when I'm outside of the classroom but wow, I always get the feminine and masculine mixed up and then first, second and third person conjugating verbs really confuse me.  I so wish I would have learned Spanish when I was a kid.  Any other suggestions for learning a language?

ORIGINAL: dasher

Espencer - I would have to say I think English is harder than Spanish simply b/c there are so many English words that have double meanings, i.e. can (a can of soup) or can (I "can" do this). But the masculine and feminine are pretty tough as well. []

 
Every lenguage has those double meanings, in spanish "banco" can be a bank or a stool, spanish is harder because you have to learn the gender but also if you conjugate a verb in spanish you have to change the ending of the verb depending on the person, in English the verb always almost stays the same
 
When i was learning German they do also have genders for the things, not only male and female but also neutral and let me tell you that really is a pain in the a$$

You said your family speaks spanish? A faster way to learn outside of the classroom would be to only allow your family to speak to you in Spanish and only reply to them in spanish, and you will pick up what they are saying and the context it is said in, and that should help you learn it.

ORIGINAL: Xebby


Bueno que te puedo decir? creo que el Ingles es un lenguaje muy facil de aprender, el español si esta un poquito dificil, sobre todo porque las cosas tambien tienen que tener un genero, como masculino o femenino, entonces ademas de tener que aprender la palabra tambien tienes que aprenderte el genero


I cheated a little and used an online translator:[]

Well, I've been using "learn in your car" CDs to help me learn when I'm outside of the classroom but wow, I always get the feminine and masculine mixed up and then first, second and third person conjugating verbs really confuse me.  I so wish I would have learned Spanish when I was a kid.  Any other suggestions for learning a language?

Online translators are not the best way to go hehe they get it all wrong with words like the ones we were discussing, like the word "banco" in spanish, sometimes you can try to translate "I go to the bank to deposit money (written in spanish)" and the translator can come up with "I go to the stool to deposit money" hehe

Thre is nothing better that practice with real people, i have friends that didnt learn any other way than speaking with tourists when i was living in Cancun, they never went to a school to learn but by talking everyday that helps you a lot

My mom and her side of the family speak Spanish. I grew up in a neighborhood that spoke Spanish and I was in bilingual classes in elementary school. In high school, I was too advanced for normal Spanish classes so they moved me to "Spanish for Spanish Speakers", however, I never spoke the language. I'm still confused about where I stand with Spanish. I can read it and understand what I'm reading PERFECTLY. I can understand my mom PERFECTLY and even my tios and tias. My Abuelita is different. I grew up in her home and used to understand her perfectly until I moved and now I only understand most of what she says, but not all of it. I have the Spanish accent so when I do say Spanish words or sing in Spanish, you would never know that I couldn't speak it. My family believes that I can if I want too or if I tried, but I don't agree.
 
There are things to this day that I grew up referring to in Spanish so I never use English terms. Small things like "toast", "milk", "ham", I say all of these things in Spanish and a million other things. I pronounce "salsa" and any of other Spanish or Mexican foods with the proper accent. One time, I said "burrito" with no accent and my mother just about slapped me across the face. She said, "I'm sorry, but did you just forget how to speak properly? Is that how we say "burrito"?" I have never made that mistake again.
 
If someone else has learned Spanish as a second lanaguage, I find that I can almost always understand them and I'm not sure why. I even notice that many of the words they say and use are of a different dialect. With someone like my abuela though, it's much harder for me now to understand everything she's saying. I usually just grasp pieces of it and I figure it out. I have a friend who learned Spanish in college. He can speak it and I can't, but when he does, I can carry on a Spanish-English conversation with him. He's speaking Spanish and I'm speaking English. It's very strange to me. I don't get how I can do that, but not know how to speak it myself.
 
I don't speak Spanish, but it is very much a part of my life. I'm confused with my understanding of the language and I hope to someday be able to speak it fluently.

I'm a foriegn language geek. And that't not a good thing because I've become mildly conversational in several languages but fluent in none.

But I took Spanish and French up through level, like, 6 in high school (started them in middle school) and then I took Mandarin Chinese and studied abroad in China in college. I seriously do not know how all my European friends who are fluent in like 5 languages each do it. Once I began to seriously study Chinese I could not make anything but it and English come out of my mouth. I can still understand a lot of Spanish and French, and read it okay, but I can't actually physically make my mouth say those words. All that comes out is Chinese or English. My Chinese is still quite solidly in the "talking about the weather and what I did yesterday" column.

ETA- read below. Messed up on this post.

ORIGINAL: espencer

ORIGINAL: Xebby


Bueno que te puedo decir? creo que el Ingles es un lenguaje muy facil de aprender, el español si esta un poquito dificil, sobre todo porque las cosas tambien tienen que tener un genero, como masculino o femenino, entonces ademas de tener que aprender la palabra tambien tienes que aprenderte el genero


I cheated a little and used an online translator:[]

Well, I've been using "learn in your car" CDs to help me learn when I'm outside of the classroom but wow, I always get the feminine and masculine mixed up and then first, second and third person conjugating verbs really confuse me.  I so wish I would have learned Spanish when I was a kid.  Any other suggestions for learning a language?

Online translators are not the best way to go hehe they get it all wrong with words like the ones we were discussing, like the word "banco" in spanish, sometimes you can try to translate "I go to the bank to deposit money (written in spanish)" and the translator can come up with "I go to the stool to deposit money" hehe

Thre is nothing better that practice with real people, i have friends that didnt learn any other way than speaking with tourists when i was living in Cancun, they never went to a school to learn but by talking everyday that helps you a lot

 
This is so true! I've used on online translator before because my friend (the one I referred to above) will write me something in Spanish and I'll be like, "huh? That makes no sense?". I understand the word he used, but it doesn't fit into what he's saying so I look it up online and they give this slightly different interpretation of it and then it will make sense in the way he said it.

I remember when I was in high school, I went to the teacher and told her that many of the words in the books and that we were using in class were not words that I have heard my family use. The ones in class were almost a different Spanish than what I was used to hearing within my family. That's when I learned that the Spanish they taught in school was the Spanish spoken in Europe and in Spain. It WAS a different Spanish. I didn't even know that different dialects and stuff existed until that moment.

I'm from western NY State -- the "second language" of preference that close to Canada is French.  I majored in French in high school and took long term baby sitting jobs for a couple of families who were from Paris and Belgium but who were living in the States for a while for their job.  True conversational skills in a language are NOTHING like conjugating verbs and class stuff.  Any true dialect is always different.
 
One day I said a phrase RIGHT out of my dialogue in French class.  I told them to "Brusse les dents" ('Brush your teeth" ... as in before bed).
 
They looked at me like I had six heads.  HUH?????
 
The eldest (a sweet child of six at the time) whispered to me "Pas de 'brusse' ... LAVE" -- in other words -- "Don't say BRUSH you dipstick ... WASH your teeth!!"  to them a 'brush' was only for brushing your hair!  Beglian dialect. 
 
I learned singing a 3 month old child a lullabye in English if French is spoken in that home will scare the tar out of them and make them cry hysterically.  Soooooo sing Frere Jacques or some stupid verses of Alouette (which is about a rooster for crying out loud) and the baby quieted right down.
 
Xebby -- when I went back to college at the age of 31, I decided to take Sign Language so I could interpret in my church.  I took "basic sign language" THREE TIMES before I began to 'get it'.
 
But when you do ... it begins to fall in place.  But any time you gotta conjugate verbs, unless you have superior English language skills (like I mean REAL language skills -- like diagramming sentences and knowing a gerund from any other word ending in "ing" or knowing a transitive vs. intransitive verb -- THAT stuff becomes really hard because most of us don't speak our native language THAT well. 
 
Don't be intimidated.  Just roll with it and use it .... and it ALL sets you apart from most other people who are just plain satisfied with how little they know and who never try. 
 
You're doing a GOOD thing!!  Don't get discouraged.  But remember -- some folks are naturally good at "languages".  The rest of us just do what we can.  but anything we DO learn makes us better than we were yesterday!! You go girl!!

I took Japanese last semester.  I loved it!  I was doing great at it because at my old job, I worked with an older lady from Japan.  We would say little things in Japanese and no one else would know!  I changed jobs during the semester and without the help, I didn't do so well.  Last semester was a tough one for me.  I will probably take the first level again and continue with it.  It is so much fun!  And, it really isn't hard to learn at all.  Now, the Kanji characters get a bit harder.

ORIGINAL: espencer

Bueno que te puedo decir? creo que el Ingles es un lenguaje muy facil de aprender, el español si esta un poquito dificil, sobre todo porque las cosas tambien tienen que tener un genero, como masculino o femenino, entonces ademas de tener que aprender la palabra tambien tienes que aprenderte el genero

Ich weiss ein wenich Deutsch, nicht viele weil ich nicht mehr studieren

Thats Spanish and German, Spanish 100%, German i used to know 50% but just like anyone that does not practice i almost forgot about it by now

Perro las palabras malas estas mas facil.  Dociento, no se ecrivar espanol, solo se hablar.

I want to learn Chinese, Vietnamese and Russian as well.  If I'm exposed to native speakers of any language I pick it up quite easily.  I can listen to and understand a bit of chinese, korean, and vietnamese-but speaking it is a bit different.

I took french for 3 years in highschool, and I had 3 semesters of French in college, or well, 2 for credit and I audited a semester of French because I couldn't risk anything less than an A. I still don't speak it very well. I might be able to ask a person if they could speak english, and I can understand most of what I hear, if it is by someone from France. I don't understand French Canadians too well.
I took a semester of high school German, so I can understand a few words, but it's pretty useless to me.
I know a few words of sign language (I just learned the word poop today actually) . I mostly know some animals, some days of the week, and a few other little things. I'd like to learn more though because I might use that in my job at some point.