do you know spanish?

[sao95]

if you can speak, write, and read spanish, how'd you do it? The language is kicking my arse!!! I can't remember all this verb conjugating, stem changing, preterite, subjunctive crap. I barely have the most basic words memorized. Any suggestions are appreciated.
sao95

there is plently of website and software to help you out.

the only real way you will learn a new language is to keep working at it. dont expect to get it over night

[butch81385]

3 years of it in highschool.... repitition repitition repitition....

you wanna practice? go into a spanish speaking chatroom and just watch... you will start to pick things out and make sense, then you can guess other words..... kinda like a big game......

or you can just wait a few years until the whole world speaks english fluently...

I diligently studied French (similar grammer usage) for over two years.... doubt I could even construct a basic sentence anymore.

Just so we have a base level to work with, how long have you been studying Spanish?

[sao95]

Originally posted by butch81385
or you can just wait a few years until the whole world speaks english fluently...

wish I could get away with that this is a class I have to take, it's the second semester (I barely made it through the first with a D) so needless to say I'm about as lost as can be.

GZ3- I picked up a copy of MS encarta spanish, it was worthless as you already seem to have to know something.

luckily this won't hurt my GPA as i'm taking it at another college, still sucks though the irony is I was stationed in Spain for a year and I got along pretty well, lots of pointing and gesturing and communication was made, now I'll probably never go back to Spain and I have to learn the language... too bad pig latin isn't a college language as I'd have that down

[izaic3]

maybe make flashcards of words, and verb conjugations, again repetition is the key. If you spent 5 minutes a day on flashcards (which is easy) thats 1,825 minutes in a year which is over thirty hours. You spend 30 minutes a day studying spanish, and thats 6x as long. maybe if you have some friends that speak spanish on instant messenger, start speaking to them in spanish, or half spanish half english, it may be a more interesting way to practice than flashcards.

[Brainchild]

No but I need to.We have a growing populatioln of spanish speaking imigrants in the area,and they have bought 3 houses on my block.
The kids of course speak english and spanish,and are friends with my kids,and I'm starting to be able to pick out a word here and there (mostly cuss words ),maybe I'll learn to say a whole sentence someday.
It seems the my kids speak more than I do,prolly cause they are around the others a lot more.
I think if you were in a situation where it was spoken a lot you would catch on a lot faster.DO you have any friends that speak it fluently?Have a couple of them around speaking only spanish,would be more intresting than a software program.I would never learn it that way either.
Sorry I can't offer any real sound advice on the matter

[shawshank62]

Taking my 5th year of spanish right now.

http://www.lingolex.com/spanver.htm

That is a good site for all the verb endings.

For stem changing, you just need to go through and memorize. It would be best to pick up a copy of a level 1 spanish textbook just to look over, and then i suggest getting a great book called "501 Spanish Verbs" which has a great explenation of when to use each tense and 501 of the most popular verbs conjugated.

[super gerbil]

I don't like it and don't want to learn it.

Seriously, I can't stand it! I have to leave CA

[Patrick]

I live in Mexico and my Spanish is horrible. I should have learned Spanish before I was mostly deaf. Anyway, learning Spanish and passing a class in Spanish is two different things. My tests for Spanish involve ordering dinner and getting what I want. Your tests for Spanish involve performing for a teacher on specific topics you were to have learned. Different game.

The first word is the toughest. The more you learn the easier it gets. Study and practice.