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- Home
- Motivation and Success Stories
- How I Learned Spanish
How I Learned Spanish
- By Neal Walters
- Published 01/1/2009
- Motivation and Success Stories
-
Rating:
After a year of Latin in high school, my parents and I moved to a new
town for us, Seminole, Texas - about as far West Texas as you can get,
without being in New Mexico. Since I enjoyed Latin, I signed-up for
Spanish, since that was the only language offerred. We had a great
teacher, and I took Spanish my sophomore through senior years.
I talk to people all the time that took a language in high-school, but they still graduate without being able to speak the language. Often, a person can read and write the language, but cannot teach it. Our teacher emphasized conversation and actually speaking the language.
In high school, I had part time jobs at a fast food place, and as a janitor. In both of these jobs, I was surrounded by Spanish speaking co-workers; so I picked up some Spanish that I cannot repeat in mixed company. But in general, it did help enforce the "proper" Spanish that I was learning in school.
At the end of my junior year in high-school, I went on the Spanish Club's trip to Mexico. Travelling to a Spanish-speaking country is obviously a great way to boost your skills. I created an audio-scrapbook for the trip, and got 3 hours of transferrable college credit from a junior college.
When I went to college, I took CLEP tests - advanced
placement tests
for Spanish. They actually awarded me 14 college credits from my test
results. Wow - that saved me one entire semester in college.
In college, I didn't major in Spanish, but almost got a minor. If I remember correctly, I had one class in conversational Spanish, and two classes in Spanish literature. I was also involved with Spanish Clubs and Honor Society on campus.
Then, back in the early 1980s, I tried some French, Portuguese, and Hebrew, using the Pimsleur system. After trying other courses that didn't work, I was very impressed with how easy Pimsleur was. I made two trips to Brazil, in which I was able to "convert" my Spanish into Portuguese by learning a few additional words.
Finally, in 1995 I got to live and work in a Spanish-speaking destination, San Juan, Puerto Rico. While I could have used English on the job, I tried when possible to use Spanish, and the co-workers were encouraging. I was there about nine months, and often found myself starting to "think" in Spanish instead of English. I would have learned even more if I had stayed in someone's home, instead of living by mself.
After studying a few more languages, I have learned what works and what doesn't. I decided to create my own Spanish online learning community. We have several native Spanish speakers supporting our forum and creating short lessons.
I talk to people all the time that took a language in high-school, but they still graduate without being able to speak the language. Often, a person can read and write the language, but cannot teach it. Our teacher emphasized conversation and actually speaking the language.
In high school, I had part time jobs at a fast food place, and as a janitor. In both of these jobs, I was surrounded by Spanish speaking co-workers; so I picked up some Spanish that I cannot repeat in mixed company. But in general, it did help enforce the "proper" Spanish that I was learning in school.
At the end of my junior year in high-school, I went on the Spanish Club's trip to Mexico. Travelling to a Spanish-speaking country is obviously a great way to boost your skills. I created an audio-scrapbook for the trip, and got 3 hours of transferrable college credit from a junior college.
When I went to college, I took CLEP tests - advanced
In college, I didn't major in Spanish, but almost got a minor. If I remember correctly, I had one class in conversational Spanish, and two classes in Spanish literature. I was also involved with Spanish Clubs and Honor Society on campus.
Then, back in the early 1980s, I tried some French, Portuguese, and Hebrew, using the Pimsleur system. After trying other courses that didn't work, I was very impressed with how easy Pimsleur was. I made two trips to Brazil, in which I was able to "convert" my Spanish into Portuguese by learning a few additional words.
Finally, in 1995 I got to live and work in a Spanish-speaking destination, San Juan, Puerto Rico. While I could have used English on the job, I tried when possible to use Spanish, and the co-workers were encouraging. I was there about nine months, and often found myself starting to "think" in Spanish instead of English. I would have learned even more if I had stayed in someone's home, instead of living by mself.
After studying a few more languages, I have learned what works and what doesn't. I decided to create my own Spanish online learning community. We have several native Spanish speakers supporting our forum and creating short lessons.
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