My First Conversation in Spanish
July 27, 2008
This day is definitely a landmark in my Spanish learning process. After seven months of vocab-learning, chat-listening and grammar-drilling I have had an unforgettable experience of having a REAL conversation in Spanish. With a real native speaker!
How was it? Absolutely, mind-bogglingly a-w-e-s-o-m-e! I was a bit hesitant at first whether I should even start a chat in Spanish but I boldly decided to have a go and now I definitely do not regret having jumped at the opportunity. Although I don’t remember the name of my Spanish partner, I can proudly say that I understood and still remember most of the details of the conversation. Sure, it wasn’t about any profound ethical issue. But still, the most important conclusion is that despite learning individually I managed to hold quite an animated conversation on tourism of Spain. This proves once again that the alleged essentialness of having mates in learning a language is just BS.
The whole experience really uplifted my spirit. Your first successful attempts to communicate in a foreign language you learn are one of those moments that make you feel that trying new things in life really does make sense. Could there be a more optimistic conclusion of a post? Probably not.
END
July 30, 2008 at 2:46 pm
Hi there… I have just stumbled upon your blog. It’s really great to have something to put things in order and keep your interest of the language (for example, a blog
). I started learning Spanish yesterday… Well, not exactly because 6 months ago there was my first attempt but my motivation was gone very quickly.
I am learning on my own too. I just don’t like attending courses (They always disappoint me).
All the things I need are: my student book with an exercise book (they cost about $45), my notebook where I jot down new wordsand some grammar notes etc., a free online Spanish-English dictionary, my ipod with podcasts and vidcasts en espanol…
My student book has 15 unidades… the author says that it is made for a 120 hours course… In my case it will be something around 50 hours. And I hope I will achieve the A2 level within a month (I am not exactly sure where you are from so you possibly couldn’t know what A2 level means
)… Anyway keep blogging cause I am curious about your progress.
Saludos!
July 30, 2008 at 2:51 pm
PS Yeah, I think the worst thing you can do while learning a foreign language is keeping your mouth closed and being scared to say ‘hi’. Once I used to do so with my English when I was in the UK or Ireland. It didn’t make any sense but I was so wicked scared and concerned what people would think about my bad English.
But fortunately I overcame it at last (as you can see it) and I just don’t bother making mistakes. Whatever! So keep talking, talking, talking and talking!
July 30, 2008 at 7:20 pm
@ Rafael
Thanks for your inspiring comment.
It’s great to see that someone thinks along the same lines. Being myself a foreign language teacher I found myself thinking ‘What am I doing here? These intelligent students are able to understand all the grammar without my help! So, why are they paying through the nose to be here?’. When I realized I could leave my native Poland, it dawned on me I should learn Spanish. Bearing all the thoughts in mind, I decided to have a go and learn completely on my own.
My intention is to pay nothing for materials. No books, no tapes, nothing. Everything (e.g. materials developing each and every skill) is available free on the web. The only things to invest are time and motivation.
I guess most people don’t really appreciate how easy and cheap it is to successfully learn a language these days.
Warm Regards from Krakow.
P.S. A2 level is a bit below Level Inicial. From TELC website you can download the sample exams on A1, A2, B1, B2, C1 levels. I recommend using these tests as learning aids. This tells you much more about your language skills than grammar drills. However, DELE does a better job – probably because their full attention goes into Spanish exams, whereas TELC has a wide language offer.
July 30, 2008 at 9:02 pm
Nie no niemożliwe, polak
Też myślałem nad nauką na przykład z podkastów i internetu i chodzeniem na okrągło z słuchawkami w uszach, słuchając wcześniej nagranych słówek z tłumaczeniami. Jednak ja dla własnego komfortu muszę mieć podręcznik i zeszyt. Zapewnia mi to jakiś porządek oraz umożliwia mi sprawdzenie w każdej chwili, na jakim poziomie jestem i ile przede mną (co jest strasznie motywujące). Korzystam z podręcznika Español De pe a pa Anny Wawrykowicz (mam takżę jej Gramatykę funkcjonalną i El mundo hispano z tekstami, których tematyka często pojawia się na różnych egzaminach – to na zapas). Książka nowoczesna, lekko strawna, może trochę zbyt kolorowa. Ogólnie okej.
¡Buena suerte estudiar español!
August 7, 2008 at 5:40 am
Congrats! It is such an adrenaline rush to use what you’ve been learning and experiencing that feeling of “yes! I’m really communicating with this person!”
There was one thing I didn’t understand in your post though, where you wrote the following: “This proves once again that the alleged essentialness of having mates in learning a language is just BS.” What did you mean by that?
Anyway, keep up the good work. It’s obvious you’re enjoying the process immensely.
Salu2
August 7, 2008 at 6:28 pm
@Bilingual Blogger
“This proves once again that the alleged essentialness of having mates in learning a language is just BS.”
Well… I meant here that you don’t really need a group or partner to learn a language. You can do the work on your own, which I think works in my case. In the middle of August I’m gonna write another mock exam. Can’t wait !
August 11, 2009 at 12:51 am
Congrats to learn Spanish in 7 month. Spanish is the world 2nd position language. I am also learning Spanish….
October 9, 2009 at 2:12 am
The era of internet and e-books is so amazing, because we know that most of us have financial trouble these times, and there are books that are really hard to find.
Me and my friends, we love literature, and sometimes there are books that we could not find in the bookstore, so we search for e-books in the internet and after we read them we borrowed from one another.
Sometimes it is nice to buy an e-book, especially if it is very significant. The time comes in my life that I need to learn spanish fast because I really fall in love with a new friend; she is a very pretty Spanish woman, and I need to be with her.
The e-book about learning how to speak Spanish really makes me close to her, she loves all the prose and poetry that I wrote to her, and until today I still wrote to her so she could read my emotions in Spanish every time she woke up in the morning.