Why Spanish is difficult for native English speakers

I had an idea that the best way for a native English speaker to learn Spanish was to replicate the way a child learns to speak (any language).

This process can be summarised as 1. learning sounds (phonemes), 2. words and word boundaries and 3. sentences.  It takes about 3 to 5 years for a child (allowing for individual differences) to be using relatively complete sentences. And, amazingly, this can easily be in more than one language, with the right level of interaction with fluent speakers.

The problems arise, for adults, firstly because at about the age of 12 months a child will ignore any sounds that are not used in the language/s they are learning and starting to use. Adults who have only grown up learning English will have long since dropped any sounds that are not normally used in speaking that language. English uses 44 of the approximate 150 phonemes in language use worldwide.

Spanish poses some additional problems for English speakers, which can be summarised as:

1. Spanish speakers do not emphasise words within a phrase or sentence in the same way native English speakers do, for example: HE loves her; he LOVES her; he loves HER. In Spanish, what usually happens is that words are added for emphasis, as in the addition of 'Yo' for 'I' when it is intended to emphasise that it is 'I', even though this is known because of the 'first person' conjugated verb in the sentence.

2. As indicated above, children will learn words and word boundaries, which means they not only learn nouns (and later verbs, pronouns, etc.) but they learn about how words are separated in their learned language. In Spanish, not only are many words different, but the boundaries are different. Spanish speakers join words together in different ways, generally with fewer gaps, making it hard for an English speaker to hear the words clearly, not even allowing for accent and, as mentioned below, rapidity of speech.

3. Spanish speakers speak quickly. In part this is because they often need slightly more words to convey the same message and meaning. There are also cultural, perhaps even genetic or congenital, factors in play. Life is short; life is good, let's go!

4. Whether 3. as above is true or not might be argued, but one other thing is certain - Spanish sentences are constructed differently - that is, the order of words is often different. For example, the subject and object are often treated differently, verbs and pronouns have complex rules and relationships, and quite often literal translation of phrases is impossible. This is despite the fact that there are many words that are essentially the same in English and Spanish (after all both have Latin roots).

It is difficult for an adult language learner to overcome most of these obstacles. Our brains are not as malleable as those of young children and we have a lot to unlearn as well as learn.

We also have the problem of 'fear of failure' or 'fear of mistakes' and confirming our incompetence. This might even be the biggest barrier of them all for native English speakers learning Spanish (or any other language).

Somehow, we need to find a way to develop the courage to have a go, all the while maintaining a solid routine of practice in actually listening and speaking Spanish. Too much grammar, too many exercises, too little trial and error, will simply slow the learning process. Anyway that's my take on why Spanish is difficult for native English speakers. More on what to do about this will follow.

Up there for thinking

Learning a language is one of the recommended ways of keeping our brains active as the years roll on and we start to experience the effects of the good life. And although I can't quite recall, I think memory loss is one of the main ones.

Anyway, a couple of years ago I decided to pursue my interest in Spain and the Spanish language (espanol). I enrolled in some introductory courses and investigated available online resources. I've also been fortunate in having some family members interested in language learning. All good.

Er, well, not so fast. Language is actually more than just a means of communication; it is a cultural phenomenon. The languages spoken in various countries around the world (including the hispanic world) reflect the various cultural and personal norms and characteristics of the inhabitants of those countries.

The upshot of this is that to speak a language Spanish well you have to try to change more than the words you utter, you need to change the way you speak - the animation, the intensity, the formality and move your mouth and tongue and even your whole body in different ways.

So the challenge is not just vocabulary or grammar or the memory test mentioned above. This cultural challenge is what needs to be kept in mind as we struggle with irregular verb conjugations, indirect pronouns and the reflexive and all the other paraphernalia of the language. Ay caramba!

Before we get too depressed, let's think about first steps - knowing some words in the foreign language is a good start - and luckily we all know quite a lot of them, because they will be the same or very similar to our English words thanks to the common Latin origins of most European languages.

This, in fact, is where most introductory Spanish language courses begin because the teachers don't want to scare you off; they don't want to alert you to the horrors and heartache ahead.

But I exaggerate, it's only when you try to speak in a foreign language to a local or listen to a native speaker in full flight that the realisation that learning that language is going to be REALLY DIFFICULT!

Don't let anyone tell you learning Spanish is easy. It's not ... but anything worth doing well is going to take you out of your comfort zone. Trial and error, especially the error part - not being afraid to make mistakes - is the journey. It's rough. I should know - I've got the mental bruises to show for it.

That's it for now - too much thinking is counterproductive. And my tiny brain needs a rest.

Adios and hasta lavista.