Learning Spanish

[Triz]

Hey, so you know how English people generally don't learn another language... Well I've decided to take up learning Spanish - Lets see how long this lasts lol.

I figured since I often have a bit of time at the end of each day after work, I can set aside 15-20 mins a day just learning Spanish, I'm using the Duolingo app which is pretty decent tbh, it's laid it out like a game with levels and whatnot, which keeps me engaged because I am stupidly competitive, each category has 5 levels and in typical OCD fashion, I need to get to level 5 in each one before I move onto the next lmao.

So far it's going pretty well, but still trying to get my head around how they construct sentences, I'm getting the hang of it but then something always throws me off, which is mainly the accents, which completely changes a word/sentence.

Any advice that you can give me if you speak Spanish? Even if it's what you consider to be common sense might help as I'm fairly stupid lol

https://i.ibb.co/f2tRbcs/rsz-1clipart4407054.png

[-:Undertaker:-]

Hola. Tu hablo espanol? Yo habla un poco de espanol porque de DuoLingo.


Yo tengo clase de espanol en 2018... pero yo necessito mas DuoLingo porque es muy bueno.

[Triz]

Hola. Tu hablo espanol? Yo habla un poco de espanol porque de DuoLingo.


Yo tengo clase de espanol en 2018... pero yo necessito mas DuoLingo porque es muy bueno.

Right without Googling this I'm gonna try to translate this with little knowledge I have.

Hello, You speak Spanish? I speak a little spanish ??? from Duolingo.

I have a Spanish class in 2018... ??? I need ??? Duolingo ??? it is very good

[-:Undertaker:-]

Right without Googling this I'm gonna try to translate this with little knowledge I have.

Hello, You speak Spanish? I speak a little spanish ??? from Duolingo.

I have a Spanish class in 2018... ??? I need ??? Duolingo ??? it is very good

Pretty much! I can write basically an A4 page talking about my family, where I live, my job etc.



Hola. Tu hablo espanol? Yo habla un poco de espanol porque de DuoLingo.

Hello. Do you speak Spanish? I speak a little of Spanish because of DuoLingo.




Yo tengo clase de espanol en 2018... pero yo necessito mas DuoLingo porque es muy bueno.

I had Spanish class in 2018... but I need more DuoLingo because it is very good.

[Triz]

See it's words like that

"porque de" which means "Because of"
but take off the "de" and "porque" on it's own apparently means "why"

Hopefully I stick with it though

[-:Undertaker:-]

See it's words like that

"porque de" which means "Because of"
but take off the "de" and "porque" on it's own apparently means "why"

Hopefully I stick with it though

With some of those words you can often find a more simple word to use.

I think "porque" changes if it is split, so "por que?"

But yeah I am hoping to get back into it again! It's fun when you can more or less read notices in public in Spanish.

[Triz]

With some of those words you can often find a more simple word to use.

I think "porque" changes if it is split, so "por que?"

But yeah I am hoping to get back into it again! It's fun when you can more or less read notices in public in Spanish.

Yeah I can imagine with living in Spain, I'm surprised you're not fluent lol.
I'm only wanting to learn for fun really, I mean it would help since my mum current lives in Belize, and although their first language is English, being so close to Mexico, they all obviously speak Spanish too... though I fly to Cancun to go see her and take the trip down, whereby speaking Spanish would become very useful

[-:Undertaker:-]

Yeah I can imagine with living in Spain, I'm surprised you're not fluent lol.
I'm only wanting to learn for fun really, I mean it would help since my mum current lives in Belize, and although their first language is English, being so close to Mexico, they all obviously speak Spanish too... though I fly to Cancun to go see her and take the trip down, whereby speaking Spanish would become very useful

I should be.... but depression means I've spent most of time just working + laying in bed. Hopefully a new start next year and i'll move somewhere busier and go classes.

Nice! Yeah keep at the DuoLingo it does work I find, I just repeat over and over each category rather than doing loads at once.

[Triz]

I should be.... but depression means I've spent most of time just working + laying in bed. Hopefully a new start next year and i'll move somewhere busier and go classes.

Nice! Yeah keep at the DuoLingo it does work I find, I just repeat over and over each category rather than doing loads at once.

Ah, yeah that'll do that... You're luckier in a way, I imagine it's easier to learn another language when you're living there, as you're constantly surrounded by the language and even when you're not 'learning' you'll still be taking it in.

and yeah I'm making sure I fully understand everything in each category before I continue to the next one, complete it to level 5, then every now and then I'll go revise a category, currently up to the "Shopping" one, ignoring the Flirting and Idiom categories as I don't intend to be flirting with Spanish people just yet lmao

I just honestly wanna get to the stage where I don't have to translate anymore, and just be able to read/speak Spanish, as atm I can read and speak basic Spanish, but like I first have to translate it into English because my brain can't think Spanish

[Hola.]

Spanish captain here:


-Hola. Tu hablas espanol? Yo hablo un poco de espanol por DuoLingo.

Hello. Do you speak Spanish? I speak a little of Spanish because of DuoLingo.



-Yo tuve clase de espanol en 2018... pero necesito mas DuoLingo porque es muy bueno.

I had Spanish class in 2018... but I need more DuoLingo because it is very good.



"Por qué" needs to be always between "¿ ?" (means why) so it refers always to a question.

"Porque" it refers to the answer/reasons.

Good luck with duolingo!
*Flies away*

[Triz]

Question

Why does: "pero necesito" mean "but I need"
when both words apart mean "but" and "need" respectively...

Where does the "I" come into play?
As If I was reading that assuming I knew the words, I'd translate it as "but need more Duolingo"

Is the "I" something you just add in when translating to make it grammatically correct in English?

also...

"porque es muy bueno"
I understand "es" means "is" - Yet in this sentence it seems to mean "It is" - would it be wrong to use the word "esta" there?
- "So porque esta muy bueno"

[LUCPIX]

https://i.imgur.com/bnXnbiH.png

Oh it's because, unlike English, one most likely identifies the subject straight from the way the verb/adjective is written since it varies depending of the amount of subjects and — SEXIST? — their gender;

For instance:
A tired male is "cansado"
A tired female is "cansada"
>1 tired males are "cansados"
>1 tired females are "cansadas"
>1 tired... beings... (when at least one of them is male AND female) are "cansados"

...but it's also technically valid to insert their equivalent of "I" before the verb — which happens the most during spoken speech; yet, a bit redundant. Do note that some words do not have any types of variations but its plural (virgem, redundante, feminista)

´´´´´´´´´´´´´´´´
To the thread's subject! The only thing I can recommend you to do, that, from personal experience, is the most effective and enjoyable way of learning a language (not necessarily Spanish) is being fearless and faking it until you make it without wanting to be constantly aware of the progress you've made until the present moment. Try not to be inherently app-driven theoretical — give an actual utility to what you want to learn instead of only storing words and phrases in your head. If you enjoy reading the news online, consider adding sites like El Mondo to your notification list — as the title suggests, its subject radius is not only limited to the Spanish fields! And, hmm... by reading your signature, I believe you have tons of Steam games. Does at least one of them contain complete Spanish localizations/translations, with Spanish voice tracks and everything? Consider that, too. Find a Spanish movie that you think you'll enjoy! Or, if you can't find of any, a English film that somehow manages to capture the ways of a Spanish-speaking culture should definitely go. "Stand and Deliver" is one of my favorite ones! But... remember: Spanish audio, Spanish subtitles! But, Lucas, how do you want me to understand what they're saying?? You will eventually, you eventually will! Remember when we were babies whose code of vocabulary would only be consisted of googoodada, cries and sobs until the moment we were rightfully exposed to the omnipresent language stimuli until we "miraculously" did say "mommy" for the first time ever? The dynamics are similar. One beautiful day, you will simply understand those seemingly funny words. Trust me! Oh, and enjoy the final days of Flash player by creating an account there at the Spanish Habbo, whose (rumour has it) contains one of the biggest base of members these days, after the Brazilian Hotel, of course. You will certainly find someone to talk to. I would basically pay to have an English speaking person there in the Brazilian Hotel, we cannot find it anywhere around there! Just don't be afraid of saying things incorrectly to the point of making your face blush — you will have this phase. We natives normally think very highly and admire the efforts of an English speaking person practicing another language, even if just for the fun of it. If you're being unlucky and find someone who makes you feel bad for your attempts, say them to fuck themselves (as I do), invent your own equivalent of the meme from the beginning of this post and move on. Take a screenshot of the random words you find interesting and save it in a folder you always aim your eyes to. Here in the real world of real time foreign language speaking *stares at myself yo* you will learn precious words, idioms and acronyms that the formal education from schools and apps don't normally teach. At least that is how I, a broke youngster living in a place where the system of instruction still is embarrassingly elitist and unequal, found my way of learning a few languages without emptying my pockets. Still a long road to travel but one is always trying. I mean, you're a coder too, aren't ya? We can all agree you know more than one language! You'll nail it

Being it motivational or not, here's an old email I sent to an indie game maker that I loved very much! God, what a shit show of a fucking post!

https://i.imgur.com/DkHFNV4.png

Good luck,
/ˈluːkəs/

[Hola.]

"necesito" is already referring to the first person "I" so there's no need to use it. The "I" is basically here : "Yo tuve clase de español en 2018..."

Also, you can say "tuve clase de español en 2018" (Implicit "I"), and, "Yo tuve clase de español en 2018..." (explicit "I") ~~> both allowed.

Translating "but need more Duolingo" would be "pero necesitar mas duolingo" and that's incorrect.



You can use "está" too in that sentence. The main difference is that if you are referring to a state or something progressive/fact.

"La comida está mala" -> ~ "the food is bad" ~ (but wasn't bad in the past or is not going to be bad in the future) -> temporary state
"La comida es mala" -> ~ " ' ' ' " ~ (assumed and known as bad) -> permanent state

[Triz]

Oh wow thank you Lucas, I agree that it would be best to just learn without keeping track and let it naturally progress which I guess I'll try to do.. I'll start trying to read kids books in Spanish I think.. I feel that'll be a good place to start haha.

But yeah English people generally don't learn another language as typically there is no need as half the world speaks English so there is no real desire to speak another language... I'm kinda just doing it for fun, I'm on day 22 at the moment so still early doors and I hope I stick with it because I think it'll be really cool to be able to speak another language, kinda always wanted to learn.. so thanks for the words of wisdom and advice!!!
Hola.; Thanks as well for that explanation, I suppose it's probably best to learn enough so that I can converse with people, even if it's broken Spanish, and then once i can hold a convo, I can then learn to use the correct words, like esta Vs es etc... I feel that'll be easier to learn as that's just perfecting as opposed to learning completely... Already having way too much information thrown at me on Duolingo lol, I think I'll keep revisiting the categories I've already completed until I'm 100% on them as I just started another one yesterday and I can tell it's getting harder and harder... I'm much better at reading Spanish than understanding it verbally, as some of the words get lost as it's hard for me to differentiate between multiple words, especially the smaller words such as "es".

[LUCPIX]

But yeah English people generally don't learn another language as typically there is no need as half the world speaks English so there is no real desire to speak another language... I'm kinda just doing it for fun, I'm on day 22 at the moment so still early doors and I hope I stick with it because I think it'll be really cool to be able to speak another language, kinda always wanted to learn.. so thanks for the words of wisdom and advice!!!

YVW — By the way: Sigmund Freud learnt Spanish solely to read Dom Quixote :-)


I'll start trying to read kids books in Spanish I think.. I feel that'll be a good place to start haha.

If when I was tiny crawling English speaker wannabe I was consciously aware that I was a tiny crawling English speaker wannabe I'd 101% do similar by, er, I don't know, say, watching Teletubbies (which of course would contain the 2x victory of giving me Habbox people's supercool British accent) — though the people around me would find that a little strange...