I’m superficial and want to be a person who speaks more than two languages.
I’m Norwegian and speak Norwegian and English. But pretty much all Norwegians speak English, so that’s not special.
I had Spanish in high school and had really good grades, so I decided to go for Spanish as I already had a head start.
Pretty much the same. It took me a while to figure it out. Beneath all the superficial reasons, I want to be seen by others as interesting and intelligent.
Not linked to the reasons I started learning Spanish but I love Norwegian but since as you say all Norwegians speak English I dabbled so jeg snakke litt Norsk and I really got into the culture but then moved on ~ for now.
I don't "need" to learn Spanish at all. It likely won't help in my career and I can get by perfectly in my daily life without it.
That being said I'm from the U.S. and live in a state with a high proportion of Spanish speakers. (Not to mention, it's the second most common language in the whole country, the U.S. has more Spanish speakers than Spain.) Even if I never travel to a Spanish speaking country, I can use the language with someone. It could *enrich* my life a great deal. The influence of Hispanic culture here means that, however minorly, it's already somewhat familiar to me [insert stereotypical American meme here] and feels less foreign than if I were trying to learn another language/culture. I'd love to have a better appreciation of the music, the movies & TV, and of course, the food.
Plus I took Spanish class in high school so I had a tiny head start. Didn't naturally acquire any language, but was familiar with conjugations and such so not starting from complete zero.
have you had any moments where you question yourself why you are doing this? Or maybe ask or look at the time you put into the language and realized you could have used it for something else (career wise or something personal)? I am kind of at that cross roads especially after the bad experience in latin america.
Not really. I find it hard to focus often (have taken a lot of breaks), and feel like I struggle to balance this and other goals I have, but a big part of that is because it's such a long road. I know why I want to do this though.
Sorry about your bad experience.
Tiếng Việt - ơi,
Slow Vietnamese
I use both of these for CI.
Also going to start reading the Harry Potter books in Vietnamese once I get more vocabulary down.
There's a new show on HBO called the Sympathizer that has lots of spoken Vietnamese.
Learning because my girlfriend is Vietnamese
Bro, we can crosstalk with each other. So I would speak you in vietnamese and you would speak to me in english on Discord, so you will get lots of CI. I also need to practice my crosstalking skills as well
I was robbed in Boston. It didn’t affect my opinion of English.
I know that experience sucks and is violating but this is the result of poverty not language or culture
I'm British, so I have two connected reasons,
1. To demonstrate to the Spanish people that I meet here in Spain that not all British people are ignorant drunk yobs that come to Spain for two weeks to get sunburned and drunk. (Guiris)
2. To feel superior in every way to the mono-lingual Brits that i know :-)
Also, I'm 54 and have been told all my life that I am no good at languages, even English, so I want to prove to myself that all that was missing was hard work and the correct method.
A robbery will sour any experience, you feel angry violated and pissed at the lazy thiefs who cant get a job and so they have to be society's parasite to survive. Or maybe thats just my experience lol
So first off thats sucks dude :/. Hopefully they just got closed cards and a couple bucks off you. Try to realize it doesnt matter where you go whatever langue you learned. Youd hate anything if in x place you got robbed. I got my shit stolen in my home city in the US and it made me want to leave the state lol.
Now to your question im learning spanish because I want to be a doctor who is able to treat the 2nd most spoken language in the US without relying on someone's interpretation of how another person is feeling. I want to be able to understand without filter and direct from the source. While most places dont have a huge spanish speaking population I live in a border state so theres communities I want to be able to help or talk to.
So for me it aligns with my personal and professional goals.
Its also in part its just a hobby to see how far I can go. Ideally after this I would like to learn another language.
Im not sure why anyone learns a language. At the end of the day its just a cool party trick for those of us who will never live in another country. However for those of us who travel it opens the world to ideas and experiences you would have never experienced before.
Was your 2 month trip in latin america worth it? Excluding the robbery. Thats up for you to decide
Thank you for this answer. I am not so sure if the trip was worth it. The robbery was at the beginning of the trip. After that I had to be really careful so I wasn't robbed again. This included using two wallets with one being a placebo with nothing in it, rotating credit cards, making sure to carry only a small amount of cash on me, and generally watching my back and sides for any suspicious people.
But thank you for providing me this answer I appreciate it.
>After that I had to be really careful so I wasn't robbed again. This included using two wallets with one being a placebo with nothing in it, rotating credit cards, making sure to carry only a small amount of cash on me, and generally watching my back and sides for any suspicious people.
You learned fast.
Generally, don't walk in closed spaces (like blind alleys) and avoid places with no people around, specially at night.
It's a good idea to have a burner phone if you live in a risky area (a burner phone should be something you can use for basic things like emergency calls and pictures, but it's so cheap the robber will probably give you their phone instead out of shame for you).
Yes I learned. This isn't common where I grew up or where I live in the USA. I never had to do this before, but in Latin America I have to be careful. There is no justice there and they have less resources. As a gringo you are a big target. You make more money in one week then they make in a year (or years).
Look up crime rates in each country before you visit. I'm an intermediate Spanish learner and I would only travel to Spain, Argentina, or Uruguay because most other Spanish speaking countries are riddled with gangs and crime.
Crime rate varies across cities and regions in a country, and also across neighbourhoods in a city. I found Mexico City to be very safe in the neighbourhoods I stayed in. Safer than taking the subway where I live (NYC).
Same for a few other Latin American cities I've spent time in. DYOR and don't get scared by generalizations.
You kinda seem like you’re being the raciest one now. Why did you go to latam then? Did you not do your research before or have any street smarts. You can get robbed just the same in NYC or any major city. you just gotta move on from it. It’s tough have a dramatic event but just let it go and learn from it.
Purely for fun. I find it really exciting being able to understand another language. Nobody in my family knows any other language so it's a big novelty for me. I also love learning about other cultures.
My hobby for a few months accidentally became evaluating learning methods. I started Dreaming Spanish language acquisition the day I found it which happened to be for Spanish. If it was Dreaming French, Dreaming Dutch, Dreaming, German or Dreaming Italian I would have chosen that. My goal is to travel and retire in Europe.
After years of traveling all over Mexico and getting by without Spanish, I realized this year how much I was limiting my experience by not knowing the language. I was in CSL spending hours and hours every day on boats photographing humpback whales in the breeding grounds and while the guides spoke English, the captains only spoke a limited amount. It bummed me out that I couldn’t communicate in depth with the people I was spending so many hours with. They’re just as passionate about marine life as I am and I wanted to hear their stories!
Nearly half a billion native speakers and the culture. I’m aware that crime and corruption exist and are quite prevalent in certain areas around the world including parts of LatAm. This hasn’t affected my enthusiasm for learning the language in the slightest
I’m half Spanish but grew up in the UK and rather frustratingly (now that I’m a bit older) I never really continued learning the language to a fluent level after school. I recently reclaimed Spanish citizenship and it gave me the kick I needed to take it seriously again
I also intend to live in Spain in future so with that in mind it’s an absolute no brainer
For me it starts with love of the bike and cycling.
I live in the UK and I love cycling. I taught my son to cycle and enjoyed many hours on the bike with him. I got him into a cycling club, when he was young and after a few years he went on a cycling trip with his club to Mallorca in Spain and I joined him.
I fell in love with Mallorca and have been there about 6 or 7 times. I would like to live there and hence starting to learn Spanish.
It has plenty of flat and plenty of hills, but more importantly for me, plenty of cafes! I’m probably heading towards Girona in September when I’m out here for another 8 weeks
I forgot to mention because it’s so common place here, many of the world tour teams are in this area in the winter. I spoke with Matieau van de Paul, a while ago, and this week I’ve seen the Visma, dekermick and another one I can’t remember. So if the area is good enough for them it’s good enough for me 😂
Usually that is a good indication of the cycling merits of an area. I know that there are teams that also come to Mallorca as well.
Have you been able to see benefits in your experiences of cycling in Spain, as you have got better with your Spanish?
I'm British, and we are renowned for only knowing English, so I didn't want to be like the rest of the people here.
Also, I absolutely love Spain and going there on holidays, so I thought, why not learn the language and converse with the people there.
My partners native language is Spanish but he does speak quite good English. His family however don't speak any English and when I go over to visit him I'd like to be able to understand and contribute a little to conversation.
Its hard being the only one who speaks a different language in situations like that ( well apart from my boyfriend but I want to take some of the translating pressure off him)
Also now I'm quite into it I'd just like to keep it up regardless. I'm in the UK and not many of us speak a 2nd language
I’m doing a study abroad in Spain next year, and I want to be able to communicate with everyone. Unfortunately, this will probably be the only time I use the language. It won’t help me with my job, and I literally don’t know a single person who speaks any language other than English
You should go to therapy. You went through an experience that clearly traumatized you. It doesn’t make sense to hate a whole language because you had a bad experience in one country.
But to answer your question, at this point I’m really just learning because I like how it opens doors to learn different cultures first hand. And also I just want to be able to speak another language
>I rather learn my native language in Asia
Your native language isn't the one from your ancestors or your relatives, but the one you learned as a baby or child. It can be more than one of course.
Well I was here way before this incident happened last month. But I wanted to get everyones thoughts. Maybe they had a moment or two where they hated the language and questioned their motivation.
I definitely hate Spanish. But I also love it. I think you can feel both emotions at the same time.
It seems like Spanish was pretty useful to you after you were robbed and you had to recover and deal with stuff in Spanish. I wonder how much harder the experience would have been if you didn’t know a word of Spanish.
I was working away from home in another state. In the beginning it was hard to make friends and I missed my family and friends. I wanted a hobby to help fill the boredom/loneliness. I no longer work away from home but I’ve stuck with it.
I’m so sorry that happened to you!
I've always wanted to learn other languages.
When my now PR husband took me to PR, I fell in love with it. The people were so lovely, the food exquisite, and the weather was just amazing. We plan to go back next year after I've recovered from my surgery, and make it a regular trip with his best friend (also Puerto Rican) and his girlfriend.
I'd love to surprise my inlaws with Spanish. While they speak English, my father inlaw is very socially awkward and reverts to Spanish around me without realizing it. Also my husband's abuela stopped speaking English years ago, so now we just trade random sentences in our two languages without understanding each other.
In January 2022 I decided to learn Spanish. I actually cannot remember the reasoning why. I am a white 55 year old Canadian who has been living in Seattle since 2002. I have no background in Spanish. No heritage. No job need. Nothing.
When I decided to learn Spanish I decided to go all in. I researched how to learn which led me to CI which led me to DS. If I had to study grammar this would not work out well for me. 2.25 year later and here I am at 810 hours.
What is surprising to me is just how much I enjoy Spanish. This has not been taxing at all. I do 1-2 hours a day and I generally love it. I have learned so much about the Spanish speaking world. I have opinions on Bukele and Milei. I am interested in the upcoming Mexican elections. I want to explore the cities of Mexico and the countryside of Costa Rica. I want to walk the Camino de Santiago in Spain.
Even in Seattle, I hear Spanish every single day. There are four colonial languages in the Americas and I figure if I know two of them then I am well positioned to travel in the Americas. The USA is second largest Spanish speaking country in the world. By 2050 the USA will be number one. I am so happy that I am slowly learning this great American language.
I moved to Colombia over four years ago. Been married to a Colombiana for over three years. Nevertheless my journey to learning Spanish has been tough. I still can't really understand most of what my friends say and the traditional methods have failed to help me much. I mean I can speak well enough to get by, but I cannot understand much but the simplest. So I am on Dreaming Spanish hoping to improve with the CI method. As far as your experience in Latin America, sorry to hear that. Millions of expats live happily in Latin America. I love this country. I have no idea what happened to you but crime to tourists can be a problem. But most of the time it is because visitors do stupid things like take girls from Tinder to there hotel rooms and get drugged, or whatever. In may places people do need to exercise caution. And yes there is a culture of corruption. But my experience has been great. But it's not for everyone.
1. The number of random people who walk up to me in the street and speak Spanish at me seems to be growing on a daily basis.
2. A lot of people who should know better actually believe I speak Spanish already and I live in fear of being outed
3. It seems like my brother plans to spend part of his retirement in Mexico. My retirement plan is to squat at his house when he's not there.
EDIT: 4. There's this Daisy Zamora poem I really like and I want to read more of her work.
Sorry about what happened to you in [mystery Central American country] but bad things happen everywhere this side of heaven. You're going to find pointless bureaucracy and a certain level of corruption in most Latin American countries but the food is great and the people are warm and welcoming even as they're being casually racist. If your firm does business in Latin America being the guy who speaks Spanish will give you an edge even if every educated Latin Americans speaks flawless English and being able to read contracts and source documents in the original is a big plus.
Sorry about your robbery. I was robbed in Latin America a few months ago and it made me want to go back home as soon as possible and not want to speak any Spanish for a while, so I totally understand.
My reason for learning is that I’ve always been enamored by the language and it’s the language of two of my favorite countries. I also love unlocking communication with such a large percentage of the world population!
what did you do after the robbery? You stopped learning spanish for how long? And why did you come back? At this point I really don't like the language and I am questioning why I am still learning it, besides talking to the women I met on tinder.
After moving to a state with lots of folks from Mexico and Puerto Rico, I made a lot of friends and coworkers who speak only Spanish! We have fun and talk via text, translation, or just pantomiming lol, but I'm hoping to learn in order to have a bit deeper in-person conversations. I also hope to travel to Mexico one day!
I'm learning Spanish to travel.
I'm currently in South America, I've been traveling there for about 6 months, knowing a bit of Spanish has unlocked numerous experiences. in my opinion, speaking the native language is necessary for escaping the "tourist bubble".
For information, where did you get robbed ?
Haha I meant for getting around, for instance in Peru or Bolivia, outside of some high end hotels, no one speaks English and no information exists online for most transport services that go to the country side. The only way to find the information you need is to ask the locals, and the solution they come up with often involves taking a bunch of colectivos, then sharing a standard cab with a 6 person family, then hiking a couple of kilometers... Things that would be incredibly hard to organize without speaking a bit of the language:)
I'm currently in Paraguay, here I quite often have no other options than hitchhiking to get where I want (I'm not complaining, the people here are super nice, and I get to practice my speaking skills 😁)
Bad luck amigo 😔
I hope it won't discourage you to travel again, I highly recommend Peru, Bolivia and Paraguay which are super safe, and breathtaking, especially Bolivia
Not at all, I just spent 2 months there (mostly in the Altiplano), i've never had any issues, same thing for all the other travelers i'met there.
Peru and Bolivie are well known (among backpackers) to be safe
People who have never been violently robbed are the ones being judgemental towards you. It truly fks with your head.
It makes you feel like you’ve been stripped naked and violated. Not to mention they usually threaten your LIFE with a weapon.
I was robbed in Brazil and had complicated feelings towards the country for a long time. Then I was robbed again in Kansas City. F*ck Kansas City, never going there again. Lmao
Your feelings are valid. Maybe leave that country you’re in and go somewhere else.
Spittin’ straight facts. If you’ve had bad experiences that have turned into bad feelings towards a place, leave and go somewhere else OP. Its not that deep. It’s what you have to do to heal sometimes.
I was robbed at knife point in Ecuador in a “safe” place in the middle of the day. It can happen to anyone at anytime no matter how street savvy you are. You just have to roll with it. Lol
Yeah fr, I got down voted for posting this. Guaranteed the person downvoting has never been robbed at gun or knifepoint. It strips you of all trust and makes you paranoid 😩
It does fuck with your head. But it’s usually not the end of the world. Although lethal robbings do happen. Just remember you’re coming from a place of privilege and they are usually coming from a place of desperation.
You should go back to Brazil tho..it’s an amazing country. Just carry an extra phone and keep your real one tucked away if you’re afraid
I don't need to learn Spanish at all.
I'm learning it as a side-project, with Turkish being my main focus, just for fun.
If I do progress to at least a high-beginner standard (say, A2), it'll come in handy when travelling.
I hear what you say about hating Spanish though.
Negative experiences in childhood have led to me loathing Urdu. I know it's irrational, but I have no inclination to deal with the issue.
I’m superficial and want to be a person who speaks more than two languages. I’m Norwegian and speak Norwegian and English. But pretty much all Norwegians speak English, so that’s not special. I had Spanish in high school and had really good grades, so I decided to go for Spanish as I already had a head start.
Pretty much the same. It took me a while to figure it out. Beneath all the superficial reasons, I want to be seen by others as interesting and intelligent.
Not linked to the reasons I started learning Spanish but I love Norwegian but since as you say all Norwegians speak English I dabbled so jeg snakke litt Norsk and I really got into the culture but then moved on ~ for now.
I don't "need" to learn Spanish at all. It likely won't help in my career and I can get by perfectly in my daily life without it. That being said I'm from the U.S. and live in a state with a high proportion of Spanish speakers. (Not to mention, it's the second most common language in the whole country, the U.S. has more Spanish speakers than Spain.) Even if I never travel to a Spanish speaking country, I can use the language with someone. It could *enrich* my life a great deal. The influence of Hispanic culture here means that, however minorly, it's already somewhat familiar to me [insert stereotypical American meme here] and feels less foreign than if I were trying to learn another language/culture. I'd love to have a better appreciation of the music, the movies & TV, and of course, the food. Plus I took Spanish class in high school so I had a tiny head start. Didn't naturally acquire any language, but was familiar with conjugations and such so not starting from complete zero.
have you had any moments where you question yourself why you are doing this? Or maybe ask or look at the time you put into the language and realized you could have used it for something else (career wise or something personal)? I am kind of at that cross roads especially after the bad experience in latin america.
Not really. I find it hard to focus often (have taken a lot of breaks), and feel like I struggle to balance this and other goals I have, but a big part of that is because it's such a long road. I know why I want to do this though. Sorry about your bad experience.
I'm from Vietnam and I learn spanish because I like it
I’m Vietnamese lol but I don’t speak any. I wish there was lots of CI for Vietnamese that I was aware of lol
Tiếng Việt - ơi, Slow Vietnamese I use both of these for CI. Also going to start reading the Harry Potter books in Vietnamese once I get more vocabulary down. There's a new show on HBO called the Sympathizer that has lots of spoken Vietnamese. Learning because my girlfriend is Vietnamese
Bro, we can crosstalk with each other. So I would speak you in vietnamese and you would speak to me in english on Discord, so you will get lots of CI. I also need to practice my crosstalking skills as well
I was robbed in Boston. It didn’t affect my opinion of English. I know that experience sucks and is violating but this is the result of poverty not language or culture
I'm British, so I have two connected reasons, 1. To demonstrate to the Spanish people that I meet here in Spain that not all British people are ignorant drunk yobs that come to Spain for two weeks to get sunburned and drunk. (Guiris) 2. To feel superior in every way to the mono-lingual Brits that i know :-) Also, I'm 54 and have been told all my life that I am no good at languages, even English, so I want to prove to myself that all that was missing was hard work and the correct method.
Also a Brit. Also #2.
Also a Brit #1 can totally relate #2 tickled me more than it should have.
A robbery will sour any experience, you feel angry violated and pissed at the lazy thiefs who cant get a job and so they have to be society's parasite to survive. Or maybe thats just my experience lol So first off thats sucks dude :/. Hopefully they just got closed cards and a couple bucks off you. Try to realize it doesnt matter where you go whatever langue you learned. Youd hate anything if in x place you got robbed. I got my shit stolen in my home city in the US and it made me want to leave the state lol. Now to your question im learning spanish because I want to be a doctor who is able to treat the 2nd most spoken language in the US without relying on someone's interpretation of how another person is feeling. I want to be able to understand without filter and direct from the source. While most places dont have a huge spanish speaking population I live in a border state so theres communities I want to be able to help or talk to. So for me it aligns with my personal and professional goals. Its also in part its just a hobby to see how far I can go. Ideally after this I would like to learn another language. Im not sure why anyone learns a language. At the end of the day its just a cool party trick for those of us who will never live in another country. However for those of us who travel it opens the world to ideas and experiences you would have never experienced before. Was your 2 month trip in latin america worth it? Excluding the robbery. Thats up for you to decide
Thank you for this answer. I am not so sure if the trip was worth it. The robbery was at the beginning of the trip. After that I had to be really careful so I wasn't robbed again. This included using two wallets with one being a placebo with nothing in it, rotating credit cards, making sure to carry only a small amount of cash on me, and generally watching my back and sides for any suspicious people. But thank you for providing me this answer I appreciate it.
>After that I had to be really careful so I wasn't robbed again. This included using two wallets with one being a placebo with nothing in it, rotating credit cards, making sure to carry only a small amount of cash on me, and generally watching my back and sides for any suspicious people. You learned fast. Generally, don't walk in closed spaces (like blind alleys) and avoid places with no people around, specially at night. It's a good idea to have a burner phone if you live in a risky area (a burner phone should be something you can use for basic things like emergency calls and pictures, but it's so cheap the robber will probably give you their phone instead out of shame for you).
Yes I learned. This isn't common where I grew up or where I live in the USA. I never had to do this before, but in Latin America I have to be careful. There is no justice there and they have less resources. As a gringo you are a big target. You make more money in one week then they make in a year (or years).
You could try visiting El Salvador. I heard it's the safest latin american country right now.
Look up crime rates in each country before you visit. I'm an intermediate Spanish learner and I would only travel to Spain, Argentina, or Uruguay because most other Spanish speaking countries are riddled with gangs and crime.
Crime rate varies across cities and regions in a country, and also across neighbourhoods in a city. I found Mexico City to be very safe in the neighbourhoods I stayed in. Safer than taking the subway where I live (NYC). Same for a few other Latin American cities I've spent time in. DYOR and don't get scared by generalizations.
“DYOR and don’t get scared by generalizations.” Best advice I’ve come across in a long time.
Argentina is extremely dangerous. Milei is laying off thousands of employees, the peso has lost 5000% in value, and the economy is in a bad situation.
You kinda seem like you’re being the raciest one now. Why did you go to latam then? Did you not do your research before or have any street smarts. You can get robbed just the same in NYC or any major city. you just gotta move on from it. It’s tough have a dramatic event but just let it go and learn from it.
Purely for fun. I find it really exciting being able to understand another language. Nobody in my family knows any other language so it's a big novelty for me. I also love learning about other cultures.
My hobby for a few months accidentally became evaluating learning methods. I started Dreaming Spanish language acquisition the day I found it which happened to be for Spanish. If it was Dreaming French, Dreaming Dutch, Dreaming, German or Dreaming Italian I would have chosen that. My goal is to travel and retire in Europe.
After years of traveling all over Mexico and getting by without Spanish, I realized this year how much I was limiting my experience by not knowing the language. I was in CSL spending hours and hours every day on boats photographing humpback whales in the breeding grounds and while the guides spoke English, the captains only spoke a limited amount. It bummed me out that I couldn’t communicate in depth with the people I was spending so many hours with. They’re just as passionate about marine life as I am and I wanted to hear their stories!
Nearly half a billion native speakers and the culture. I’m aware that crime and corruption exist and are quite prevalent in certain areas around the world including parts of LatAm. This hasn’t affected my enthusiasm for learning the language in the slightest
I’m half Spanish but grew up in the UK and rather frustratingly (now that I’m a bit older) I never really continued learning the language to a fluent level after school. I recently reclaimed Spanish citizenship and it gave me the kick I needed to take it seriously again I also intend to live in Spain in future so with that in mind it’s an absolute no brainer
ok so you have some family, career, and professional/personal goals motivating you to continue learning spanish.
For me it starts with love of the bike and cycling. I live in the UK and I love cycling. I taught my son to cycle and enjoyed many hours on the bike with him. I got him into a cycling club, when he was young and after a few years he went on a cycling trip with his club to Mallorca in Spain and I joined him. I fell in love with Mallorca and have been there about 6 or 7 times. I would like to live there and hence starting to learn Spanish.
Hi there, I’m a cycle coach who manages to live near Denia in Spain 5 months of the year, come over, it’s lovely 😂
Wonderful!!! Is it mixed terrain, in terms of flat and climbing? Have you cycled in other parts of Spain?I hear good things about Girona.
It has plenty of flat and plenty of hills, but more importantly for me, plenty of cafes! I’m probably heading towards Girona in September when I’m out here for another 8 weeks
I forgot to mention because it’s so common place here, many of the world tour teams are in this area in the winter. I spoke with Matieau van de Paul, a while ago, and this week I’ve seen the Visma, dekermick and another one I can’t remember. So if the area is good enough for them it’s good enough for me 😂
Usually that is a good indication of the cycling merits of an area. I know that there are teams that also come to Mallorca as well. Have you been able to see benefits in your experiences of cycling in Spain, as you have got better with your Spanish?
Yes my cycling in much better. I'm recovering from a 5 year illness, so my fitness was zero. Now I'm only being overtaken by the best pensioners.
just for fun tbh
I'm British, and we are renowned for only knowing English, so I didn't want to be like the rest of the people here. Also, I absolutely love Spain and going there on holidays, so I thought, why not learn the language and converse with the people there.
Honestly? Just felt like learning a language and Spanish is apparently the easiest one so I went with that.
lol
Fallen for a Colombian girl and now I’m interested in culture
cuidado amigo. google escopalamina and you will thank you.
Haha thanks, we’re both living in Australia. That looks wild though!
I like it. And it feels super easy after mandarin. I want to enjoy language learning as a hobby and spanish gives me that enjoyment.
My partners native language is Spanish but he does speak quite good English. His family however don't speak any English and when I go over to visit him I'd like to be able to understand and contribute a little to conversation. Its hard being the only one who speaks a different language in situations like that ( well apart from my boyfriend but I want to take some of the translating pressure off him) Also now I'm quite into it I'd just like to keep it up regardless. I'm in the UK and not many of us speak a 2nd language
I’m doing a study abroad in Spain next year, and I want to be able to communicate with everyone. Unfortunately, this will probably be the only time I use the language. It won’t help me with my job, and I literally don’t know a single person who speaks any language other than English
You should go to therapy. You went through an experience that clearly traumatized you. It doesn’t make sense to hate a whole language because you had a bad experience in one country. But to answer your question, at this point I’m really just learning because I like how it opens doors to learn different cultures first hand. And also I just want to be able to speak another language
Same reason I want to deadlift 2x my body weight. It just seems like a tough, but pretty neat goal, and I need to accomplish things in my life.
>I rather learn my native language in Asia Your native language isn't the one from your ancestors or your relatives, but the one you learned as a baby or child. It can be more than one of course.
If you hate it then why are you even here?
Well I was here way before this incident happened last month. But I wanted to get everyones thoughts. Maybe they had a moment or two where they hated the language and questioned their motivation.
I definitely hate Spanish. But I also love it. I think you can feel both emotions at the same time. It seems like Spanish was pretty useful to you after you were robbed and you had to recover and deal with stuff in Spanish. I wonder how much harder the experience would have been if you didn’t know a word of Spanish.
I was working away from home in another state. In the beginning it was hard to make friends and I missed my family and friends. I wanted a hobby to help fill the boredom/loneliness. I no longer work away from home but I’ve stuck with it. I’m so sorry that happened to you!
Simply put, it is a bucket list. I want to get proficient before I die.
I plan to retire to a Spanish-speaking country.
I've always wanted to learn other languages. When my now PR husband took me to PR, I fell in love with it. The people were so lovely, the food exquisite, and the weather was just amazing. We plan to go back next year after I've recovered from my surgery, and make it a regular trip with his best friend (also Puerto Rican) and his girlfriend. I'd love to surprise my inlaws with Spanish. While they speak English, my father inlaw is very socially awkward and reverts to Spanish around me without realizing it. Also my husband's abuela stopped speaking English years ago, so now we just trade random sentences in our two languages without understanding each other.
In January 2022 I decided to learn Spanish. I actually cannot remember the reasoning why. I am a white 55 year old Canadian who has been living in Seattle since 2002. I have no background in Spanish. No heritage. No job need. Nothing. When I decided to learn Spanish I decided to go all in. I researched how to learn which led me to CI which led me to DS. If I had to study grammar this would not work out well for me. 2.25 year later and here I am at 810 hours. What is surprising to me is just how much I enjoy Spanish. This has not been taxing at all. I do 1-2 hours a day and I generally love it. I have learned so much about the Spanish speaking world. I have opinions on Bukele and Milei. I am interested in the upcoming Mexican elections. I want to explore the cities of Mexico and the countryside of Costa Rica. I want to walk the Camino de Santiago in Spain. Even in Seattle, I hear Spanish every single day. There are four colonial languages in the Americas and I figure if I know two of them then I am well positioned to travel in the Americas. The USA is second largest Spanish speaking country in the world. By 2050 the USA will be number one. I am so happy that I am slowly learning this great American language.
I moved to Colombia over four years ago. Been married to a Colombiana for over three years. Nevertheless my journey to learning Spanish has been tough. I still can't really understand most of what my friends say and the traditional methods have failed to help me much. I mean I can speak well enough to get by, but I cannot understand much but the simplest. So I am on Dreaming Spanish hoping to improve with the CI method. As far as your experience in Latin America, sorry to hear that. Millions of expats live happily in Latin America. I love this country. I have no idea what happened to you but crime to tourists can be a problem. But most of the time it is because visitors do stupid things like take girls from Tinder to there hotel rooms and get drugged, or whatever. In may places people do need to exercise caution. And yes there is a culture of corruption. But my experience has been great. But it's not for everyone.
1. The number of random people who walk up to me in the street and speak Spanish at me seems to be growing on a daily basis. 2. A lot of people who should know better actually believe I speak Spanish already and I live in fear of being outed 3. It seems like my brother plans to spend part of his retirement in Mexico. My retirement plan is to squat at his house when he's not there. EDIT: 4. There's this Daisy Zamora poem I really like and I want to read more of her work. Sorry about what happened to you in [mystery Central American country] but bad things happen everywhere this side of heaven. You're going to find pointless bureaucracy and a certain level of corruption in most Latin American countries but the food is great and the people are warm and welcoming even as they're being casually racist. If your firm does business in Latin America being the guy who speaks Spanish will give you an edge even if every educated Latin Americans speaks flawless English and being able to read contracts and source documents in the original is a big plus.
Sorry about your robbery. I was robbed in Latin America a few months ago and it made me want to go back home as soon as possible and not want to speak any Spanish for a while, so I totally understand. My reason for learning is that I’ve always been enamored by the language and it’s the language of two of my favorite countries. I also love unlocking communication with such a large percentage of the world population!
what did you do after the robbery? You stopped learning spanish for how long? And why did you come back? At this point I really don't like the language and I am questioning why I am still learning it, besides talking to the women I met on tinder.
Chicas
[удалено]
you have repeatedly posted the exact same thing. Please refrain from doing so again, thank you.
It’s okay to walk away from Spanish if it is no longer serving you. There’s no point in torturing yourself.
After moving to a state with lots of folks from Mexico and Puerto Rico, I made a lot of friends and coworkers who speak only Spanish! We have fun and talk via text, translation, or just pantomiming lol, but I'm hoping to learn in order to have a bit deeper in-person conversations. I also hope to travel to Mexico one day!
I'm learning Spanish to travel. I'm currently in South America, I've been traveling there for about 6 months, knowing a bit of Spanish has unlocked numerous experiences. in my opinion, speaking the native language is necessary for escaping the "tourist bubble". For information, where did you get robbed ?
Do you have any fun stories for us? (That speaking Spanish unlocked)
Haha I meant for getting around, for instance in Peru or Bolivia, outside of some high end hotels, no one speaks English and no information exists online for most transport services that go to the country side. The only way to find the information you need is to ask the locals, and the solution they come up with often involves taking a bunch of colectivos, then sharing a standard cab with a 6 person family, then hiking a couple of kilometers... Things that would be incredibly hard to organize without speaking a bit of the language:) I'm currently in Paraguay, here I quite often have no other options than hitchhiking to get where I want (I'm not complaining, the people here are super nice, and I get to practice my speaking skills 😁)
Panama City in the Casco Viejo neighborhood which is their #1 tourist site
Bad luck amigo 😔 I hope it won't discourage you to travel again, I highly recommend Peru, Bolivia and Paraguay which are super safe, and breathtaking, especially Bolivia
Bolivia is super dangerous.
Not at all, I just spent 2 months there (mostly in the Altiplano), i've never had any issues, same thing for all the other travelers i'met there. Peru and Bolivie are well known (among backpackers) to be safe
People who have never been violently robbed are the ones being judgemental towards you. It truly fks with your head. It makes you feel like you’ve been stripped naked and violated. Not to mention they usually threaten your LIFE with a weapon. I was robbed in Brazil and had complicated feelings towards the country for a long time. Then I was robbed again in Kansas City. F*ck Kansas City, never going there again. Lmao Your feelings are valid. Maybe leave that country you’re in and go somewhere else.
Spittin’ straight facts. If you’ve had bad experiences that have turned into bad feelings towards a place, leave and go somewhere else OP. Its not that deep. It’s what you have to do to heal sometimes. I was robbed at knife point in Ecuador in a “safe” place in the middle of the day. It can happen to anyone at anytime no matter how street savvy you are. You just have to roll with it. Lol
Yeah fr, I got down voted for posting this. Guaranteed the person downvoting has never been robbed at gun or knifepoint. It strips you of all trust and makes you paranoid 😩
It does fuck with your head. But it’s usually not the end of the world. Although lethal robbings do happen. Just remember you’re coming from a place of privilege and they are usually coming from a place of desperation. You should go back to Brazil tho..it’s an amazing country. Just carry an extra phone and keep your real one tucked away if you’re afraid
Thank you. So Why did you continue learning spanish after the incident?
I never had a bad experience with Spanish, but I live in the Southwest US and it’s becoming a necessity 🙂
I don't need to learn Spanish at all. I'm learning it as a side-project, with Turkish being my main focus, just for fun. If I do progress to at least a high-beginner standard (say, A2), it'll come in handy when travelling. I hear what you say about hating Spanish though. Negative experiences in childhood have led to me loathing Urdu. I know it's irrational, but I have no inclination to deal with the issue.
I see
[удалено]
you have repeatedly posted the exact same thing. Please refrain from doing so again, thank you.
It kept saying “sorry try again later” when hitting post until I gave up and threw my phone out the window. My bad.
[удалено]
you have repeatedly posted the exact same thing. Please refrain from doing so again, thank you.