Comments on: How to Ignore Grammar

By: daveyboy

daveyboy — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 09:09:51 +0000

I think Ramas has got some great tips on learning spanish. I have been learning spanish over 2 years now.. and can i speak it good..? can i understand spoken spanish from a native..? errrr NO i cant.. why ? because all i have really done is use grammer books and flash cards [ single words ] dont get me wrong they do help, but there not enough. i have been listening to alot of audio the last few weeks, and today i started searching the net for spanish words but this time in context, i honestly think this way is the way to go. Maybe later when i can speak and listen to spanish without many problems i will get stuck in to the grammer and the single words again but for now i will just study the grammer un poco. I have a few friends here in madrid, a few from russia and a few from romania, everyone of them can speak fluent spanish with no problems..!! they did not study from books or take lessons they did it from listening and talking, they do have mistakes in there lingo [ bad habits ] but they got fluent within 2 years mas o menos, the romanians were quicker though, within a year..!!

By: Ramses

Ramses — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 09:13:56 +0000

Here we go again… It’s not because learning a language will become easier (although it will), it’s because learning grammar extensively in the beginning of your learning messes up your skills.

I know what I’m talking about because most second language speakers of grammar I know struggle with the language because they have to construct sentences themselves instead of just doing things by feeling. The weird thing is that their English is often superb and guess how they learned that; BY IMMERSION!

I actually study grammar at this point of my SPanish study, but it’s only because I’m fluent in it. You’re absolutely right that we need a formal knowledge of grammar to a certain point, that’s actually what most natives have as well. But they don’t bother to learn it until high school (often).

By: Miguel Gómez-Arboccó

Miguel Gómez-Arboccó — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 21:16:47 +0000

That is absolutely nonsensical.
The less we know about grammar the less we know how to read and even speak and if you don’t you better start barking instead.
It makes no sense whatsoever to advocate ignorance in the name of an easy and fast satisfaction.
I know nothing is “easy” in life but what really matters takes time and effort, rules exist for a reason in the world and language is not an exception to that. The less you know the more ignorant you become, the more ignorant you are the worse you live.

By: Ramses

Ramses — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 20:09:34 +0000

I already covered that: http://www.spanish-only.com/2009/06/learning-grammar-shortcut-fluency

By: Montoya

Montoya — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 16:53:10 +0000

Good, but if you know Krashen’s theory grammar could be useful to ‘monitor’, for example when writing instead of speaking you could be more accurate if you learn some grammar, the grammar rules that are ‘portable’. Waitin for some structures to be acquired could take a long time, so you should of course expose yourself to massive amounts of input, but also learn some grammar to be more accurate.

By: Ramses

Ramses — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 17:46:22 +0000

Wow man, two comments on the blog and both are insulting. Could you please comment in a normal way?

By: Zuzuarregui

Zuzuarregui — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 17:17:39 +0000

Man, you’ve got issues. Were you abused by the grammar nazi when you were a kid? Sexually?

By: Ramses

Ramses — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 12:04:14 +0000

I should've linked to my earlier post How to threat the rules: read about them but don’t learn them.

By: Vincent Pace

Vincent Pace — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 19:14:50 +0000

I'm largely with Tess on this one. My full response is here: Don't ignore grammar, learn without grammar, or use it only for decoding.

By: Tess

Tess — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 02:29:14 +0000

I agree and I disagree. If your aim is to become a fluent speaker, then I, for the most part, agree with your assessment of grammar. Mostly. But if your goal is fluency in reading, writing, and speaking than I completely disagree. Of course we didn’t grow up using perfect grammar in our mother tongue…that’s why we went to school around age 5! We were taught grammar in our native language starting with our parents – they corrected our sentences when we started talking. But, we still made mistakes. So we were sent to school where we heard more native language and learned grammar. All the way through university. The biggest difference is that we were NOT translating our native tongue AND it was full immersion AND we spoke/heard/saw/read it constantly. THOSE are the keys.