The Unconfident Spanish Learner's Blog

Spanish
#41

" have a colleague who speaks Spanish but as he started learning as a child at school and also has a degree in it, I’m not in a rush to admit to him about my learning"

If i was only going to give you one piece of advice…it would be to form a Spanish learning relationship with this person. Hopefully its a person you get on well with. If so, its perfect. Greet him every opportunity you get
Hola
Buenos días
Buenos tardes
Buenos noches
Cómo estás
Que tal
And much much more. Probably preferable to let him know you are learn (struggling, should you want to let him know) youll know very soon of his intentions to help or not. If he’s happy to practice with you. This could be your kryptonite. Believe me its not easy stepping forward. But its the only ( fastest) way. He just might surprise you.

4 Likes
#42

I agree with what Alan has said above. If you can tell the person you’ve just started learning, and you can’t say a lot yet but you’d like to use the Spanish words you have when you talk to him, that could be a huge help.

Knowing that you can say Hola qué tal? then lapse into English will take the pressure off, and you can add more words and phrases as you learn them. If he responds with something you don’t understand, just say “I haven’t learnt that yet. What was it again?”, get him to repeat it slowly, then next time you’ll recognise it and you’ll be building your vocabulary.

It’s worth a try!

3 Likes
#43

Trying the Main Course Again and Philosophical Ramble

I’m sorry this update is so long! Please feel free to skip the second part because it is really just a stream-of-consciousness -type thing!

I tried Challenge 10 of the main course. I have forgotten an awful lot of stuff. Much of it was stuff I struggled with since the beginning, like anything involving hace, desde or llevar and whether to use me gustaría or quisiera.

I felt just ‘OK’ throughout which though it doesn’t sound like it is actually an improvement on my mood. I set a timer for half the challenge but went on to do the whole lot. I’m in two minds about whether to go back to even earlier challenges or press on. I don’t think I ought to go much beyond 10 though for now (I got up to Challenge 17 originally, but from 13 onwards it was not going well).

One positive point that stood out for me was how naturally I said usted lo ha hecho muy bien which I used to find very hard to construct.

I do get on well with the colleague I mentioned who speaks Spanish (and another language) but I’m a bit apprehensive because when I said at the start of the year I might try to learn, he said several times that the grammar was hard. Made me wonder if he was trying to put me off :confused: He hasn’t brought it up since and neither have I. He probably things I never started it. I’m overthinking a lot about it. One god thing is that he maybe be starting to learn Welsh soon, and so there wouldn’t be such a power imbalance then as I’d been able (and willing) to help with that. I will have to find somewhere to learn greetings in Spanish to use.

I’m a bit bothered by a few pronunciation points at the moment. I do tend to hyperfixate on pronunciation.
1. I can do a rolled r but the other r I am not sure I’m saying correctly. I think I’m saying it too much like an English r. I think I manage it in words like pero but I recordar it’s a lot harder.
2.I can’t exactly decide how to pronounce ll. I know it varies a lot over the world but that makes it hard to pick one pronunciation
3.My b, v sound is more like English w still
4.I find it hard to pronounce the p t c as ‘non-aspirated’

I think I’d benefit from a traditional night school course, but when I contacted a few before Christmas they were all fully-booked and with no waiting list. Welsh courses are subsidised so I got a nasty shock about how much other languages cost! :upside_down_face:

Part 2 (ramble)

At the moment everything I do is either a need (housework, paying council tax etc. etc.) or something I enjoy or gives me a sense of satisfaction (hobbies), and as learning a language does not fall into either category, I find myself not doing it. I’m here again feeling annoyed about the way I feel, but I do wish I could be more passionate about it. I’ve been reading a book on botany (I’m a complete beginner) and now that’s something I do find fascinating! I’ve been trying to think why and I’m not sure but I do find that even when I fail to remember something or don’t understand, it doesn’t bother me too much. It’s the attitude you’re supposed to have with languages. It’s not just languages though- I tried a beginners’ course in indoor climbing a few years ago and well, all I can say is that you are all very lucky I did not do a blog about that!!

I often wonder why I write this stuff. I suppose I hope that there are other people out there who struggle or feel down about their ability and are trying to ‘break through’ to become one of the successful learners we read about here and also in publications aimed at learners. I do feel there’s a lot of emphasis placed on fluency nowadays by society. It’s not so encouraged to just ‘have a go’ and maybe reach a conversational level- instead you have to aim for nothing short of being mistaken for a native speaker.

#44

Back to Main Course- Challenges 11, 12 and 13 again

Well, I can barely believe it but I’ve done three challenges today!

But the even more amazing thing is that I’ve felt “OK” about them. I don’t think I am up to “enjoying” yet but I am getting there again.

Some thoughts:
-él quería/quiere que yo le dijera/diga-type sentences are coming easier to me.

-I think it is time I try to find a supplementary learning programme. Evening courses are sadly fully booked (apparently up until January 2026!!) so it may just be Duolingo (it’s free, I can’t complain) because I need to know greetings and vocabulary.

-I’ve decided I really like revisiting old lessons, or doing them more than once. It makes me feel better about myself and my ability because it proves I can do a hard challenge like 13. Perhaps for new lessons I will split them into several chunks and then revise them in one go.

-I think I need to start delving into grammar. As I’ve mentioned before, when I know the explanation behind something, it helps me construct the sentence for myself. For example, I know conozco, conoce and conocí but I want to fill in the blanks.

Also, I mentioned casually to my colleague who has learnt Spanish that I am learning, but I didn’t get any response. He may be worried he’ll become a ‘free tutor’ which I know is a bit of a bug-bear with plenty of Welsh speakers. I’m unsure how to progress with that one for now.

I am going to do one more challenge tonight and try to get back to where I was (Challenge 17) next week.

I almost have the feeling approaching satisfaction!

Work has been horrid these last few weeks, but I think the light is at the end of the tunnel for me to have some mental ‘space’ and time back to put into this instead.

2 Likes
#45

Challenge 14

Well… I have to say I lost my cool and got utterly frustrated with this. I think this is the third time I’ve tried this challenge. I do know the correct answers and I can say them before the narrators but by around 22 minutes in am getting tired, frustrated and seriously agitated by the non-stop nature of the SSi method. My brain just felt too tired. I had a quick break but didn’t feel much better after going back to it. Just skipped answering the very long sentences. Had nothing gone into my brain from this lesson??

I was feeling pretty good about myself and how well the above three challenges had gone. Isn’t it weird how much pressure I put on myself to do well in language learning? I’ve given it the power to derail my feelings about myself and my day completely. Why do I put so much stock in whether I can be a flawless language learner?

I remember in my Welsh evening classes being told by other students that they thought I was good at remembering things, at pronunciation and speaking, so why do I struggle and fight so much with this method which is more natural and intuitive? Aarrrrrrghhhhh!!

My brain is just too tired tonight.

And I just been looking on the forum for what other people thought of Challenge 14 and I think I’ve been saying all the sentences wrong with dijo in them…
Is it *él ME dijo… *? I was not including me. Does it mean 'He said to me? I think I’m going to have to start giving challenges my undivided attention and watching the subtitled version. So far I always have SSi playing in the background while I do something else.

#46

Wait! I’ve just started Challenge 15 this morning and answered my own question! :sweat_smile: Need to learn to be patient (and not panic!)

#47

If you feel your brain is tired, there’s no point trying to learn anything, not just languages. It won’t go in and you’ll feel frustrated. When you reached that point at 22 minutes where you were feeling “tired, frustrated and seriously agitated”, that’s the signal that yoúve done enough for the day! If that was in the morning, and you’ve then had a siesta or done something which has refreshed you, then try a little more later in the day, but otherwise leave it until the next day. Remember that it’s not a race! You’ll learn far more doing it in smaller chunks that your brain can handle without getting overly tired, than pushing yourself on when you’re not feeling up to it. Be kind to yourself! :hugs:

1 Like
#48

Challenges 15, 16, 17

I’ve now done up to where I was before ‘going on hiatus’.

I found 15 fine, 16 less so and 17 -though I was still getting around 80% correct- frustrating.

I have tried to accept that it will take me a while to get este, esta, ese and esa correct. I know which is which, but I cannot produce them correctly at speed.

I tried to concentrate on saying pronouns correctly today. I had the impression they were always optional unless for emphasis, so I wasn’t saying them at all, but from what I can glean from the speakers I think sometimes you do have to use them.

I’m a bit reluctant to look too far into grammar at this stage as I don’t want it to put me off, but I think looking for some verb tables would benefit me.

The ‘little words’ like para, por, a, de are tripping me up constantly. I am trying to remember which goes with what verb or person, trying to pluck rules out of the chaos! I think these words are the hardest in any language and it’s the part of speech I fear (yes, fear) getting a telling-off about the most… A holdover from my learning Welsh days! (Perosnally I think if I knew someone who used all the wrong ones of these type of words when speaking English I’m sure I’d still know what they were saying…)

Overall I think I am feeling a bit better about it all. I am going to see what free apps are about so I can extend my vocab a bit. I must get back into watching videos in Spanish. I had a few weeks where I would pick a different Spanish-speaking country and cook some recipes from there each week. I know a lot of food words! And as the format of a cooking video encourages short, simple sentences with visual clues, it seems a good way.

Muchas gracias everyone for sticking with my through a rough few weeks!

2 Likes
#49

A Happy Update! (for once!)

Over the last few days I’ve tried Challenges 18 and 19 (both new ones on me).

I am delighted to report that, just like the weather, my feelings about learning Spanish have picked up, a lot!

Found these two challenges very manageable.

As I was in my own at work this week I decided to listen to the challenge first, with no pressure to speak (speaking a foreign language out loud in my workplace would arouse the most crazy rumours an suspicions I’m afraid to say :/) but I actually did find myself responding in my head. No as good as speaking out loud, but better than nothing! :slight_smile:

I then did the challenges later properly… And it went very well!

I started making a page at the back of my notebook just for sentences that have lo and some that don’t to try and work it out for myself. I think I am closing in on a few ‘rules’. Not something involving the correct grammatical terms I’m sure, but maybe something like a ‘working theory’ that helps me use it correctly.

I am as surprised as I’m sure you guys all are at what a positive update this is! It’s really had a snowball effect on how keen I am.

I started Duolingo again too. Not my favourite resource but maybe good for when I don’t have time for a full SSiS challenge. And learning individual vocab word.

:slight_smile:

3 Likes
#50

Yay! I’m so happy to read this!

1 Like
#51

Challenges 20, 21 and 22

I’m still mostly progressing OK, though I found that when I tried doing a challenge ‘properly’ and speaking out-loud on the first go, it didn’t go as well as when I let myself just listen to it with no pressure then speak on the second attempt.

There were a few days this week when I did no Spanish at all, as well as struggling to get round to listening to the listening challenge or any other content- I worked 50+ hours this week instead of my normal 35 and suffered as a result.

As I said, things are mostly OK but I just wanted to list some of the things I’m finding hard to get them off my chest:

-I still don’t really understand when to use -le with preguntar and ayudar or when not to. Other Spanish learners- did/do you understand this? I’m worried I’m just dense…

-para, de and a continue to cause me a lot of grief. I get them muddled constantly.

-I’m still struggling with the pronunciation of ll and y. I know they’re not like an English y sound but it’s so variable with the Spanish-speaking world I don’t want to get the incorrect one and have a ‘weird’ accent.

-When to use lo and friends… :frowning: Again I feel like I ought to know this by know. The -les when referring to the third person I expected, but throwing (reflexive??) -se/-selo into the mix caused some issues for me. Does anyone have any recommendations about where (books/websites/videos) I can learn about this? I’m worried it’ll be too high-brow for me to understand but I can try I suppose. Did anyone else struggle with this too? I don’t know if it’s something to do with indirect/direct and the type of verb that’s being used? Now I feel like I’m just spewing grammar words…

I know I ought to have studied grammar by now but I just can’t seem to find the time or the inclination :frowning: Things just seem to busy at the moment and to tell the truth, I’m intimidated by Spanish grammar and feel I’d probably feel worse if I did research into it.

I also feel guilty about not having spoken to anyone in Spanish yet. I know a few doanihs speakers but one is a very critical person anyway in all areas of life and the others have learned it and do tend to lord it over others a bit with all their language skills. Feeling pretty down about this aspect as it’s the whole ‘point’ of learning a language.

Anyway, that is my long update! I wish I could focus on the positives a bit more but I am at Challenge 22 so I suppose that is a good thing. I just don’t feel like I’m much further along than I was when I was at Challenge 2!

1 Like
#52

Well done! I find Duolingo irritating beyond measure, but, as you say, handy for a quick practice. I have also been using Memrise, it uses videos of Spanish speakers and not cartoon characters so doesn’t have that annoyance factor but can be done in bite-size chunks.

2 Likes
#53

Im still stuck fairly happily on 4 and 5 tourist challenges as with the first 3. I should say embarrassingly so. But im NOT embarrassed. Im learning. Im not ashamed. Im learning. Thankfully the weather is improving so an hours walk is fantastic for many reasons really. Fresh air, fitness, sunshine occasionally. But primarily i listen to challenge 4 when i walk out and challenge 5 when im coming homewards. And ill continue in the structure until im fairly confident. And ill move on to 5/6 6/7… and im quieter areas ill actually speak them. Just my thoughts and current practices.
Hasta pronto

3 Likes
#54

I am glad I’m not the only one who repeats challenges!

1 Like