Sorry guys, totally forgot to make a Word of the Day post today (had class until 7 PM, so things are a bit hectic). I do have a post I want to share with you.
Recently, I asked my Twitter followers the following question: “Do you consider Spanish to be an easy language? If so: why? If not: also… why?”
This were the answers I got:
lisibo @spanishonly – yes! you say what you see and it has more rules you follow than it breaks IMO
Hola_Spain @spanishonly It’s TOUGH! As a beginner (with no other language but my own) I find the verb conjugations really difficult. And por/para.
LaPingvino @spanishonly relatively easy, e.g. easier than French. But I do speak French better for now
joebjr @spanishonly It was “easy” because there was practical application and enough native speakers around that I wanted to speak with.
Most people (especially Americans, sorry guys) consider Spanish to be an easy language. Next to that, they consider languages like Chinese and Japanese to be hard. Personally, I always thought more or less the same: Spanish is easy and Asian languages are simply really hard to master. I mean, Spanish has the same alphabet as English (and Dutch), is spelled phonetically and has many words that have an English counterpart that looks a lot like it. So yes, you’d consider Spanish to be easy. Right? Right?
Luckily I’ve grow older and became a little bit wiser (juuuuust a little bit). Now, it looks pretty ridiculous to think one language is “easier”. Sure, there are exceptions like learning German while your mother tongue is Dutch (this means a massive advantage regarding vocabulary), or learning Portuguese when you already know Spanish. But still, don’t you need to get raw input? It could be that you start off fast because you can pick up a lot, but that doesn’t mean that you can leave the input out. You still need to work, still need to do your SRS reps, still read books in order to be able to… read the language. There’s simply no language that’s “easy”; you’ve got to work, no matter what.
So, how easy would it be to learn Spanish? I don’t want to be negative, but to truly learn Spanish you still need to work. It’s funny that many Americans (and other people) consider Spanish to be an easy language, but most of them don’t speak it that well. You can smash a bunch of grammar rules in your head and cram a word list, but that won’t teach you a language. Even if you get massive input and are starting to get the language, there’s still the pronunciation that many people just suck at. Yes, you can understand things after a while, but can you say things youself? And I mean; say things yourself in a way that’s correct, with a fairly good pronunciation? Often, people can’t because they thought Spanish was an easy language, a language that they’d just learn. Like mastering it within weeks. Sorry people: you can’t fully master Spanish within a few weeks, it needs some serious work and effort.
Having said that, I really think that anyone can get fluent at Spanish. Even if your native language is Chinese and you barely speak English at the moment; you can learn Spanish, and you can become good. But you need to be realistic and understand that learning a new language – any language – won’t be easy, that it needs your attention and massive time. What do you think?
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{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
I agree that any language is going to require a lot of input and preparation. Even if one language may be considered “easy,” it takes work. Esperanto, which was designed to be extremely easy, is certainly far easier than Mandarin, but that doesn't mean you don't have to invest effort; to become completely fluent, you'd still need to practice for months speaking and writing constantly. Spanish is the same way, in that it might be relatively simple, but still takes a lot of time and effort.
I definitely agree with joebjr. I am a Romance Languages major and have been studying the Spanish for some years now, and it is in no way something that you can just pick up and master with the ease that some people (or language learning programs!) say. Of course, there are people who think that being able to say “hola ” and “mas cerveza, por favor” (who also tend to be the people that believe that if you add an ‘o’ to the end of any English word, it automatically becomes its Spanish equivalent.) When my brother-and-law and I get on the topic of languages, he always says, “Now I can read Spanish just fine! I just can’t speak it” and to be honest with you, that really makes me upset. He has never received any sort of Spanish instruction/visited a Spanish-speaking country/anything, but simply believes that it is SO similar to English (once again, the addition of the ‘o’), that he can just pick up anything written in Spanish and be able to understand what it’s saying. Personally, there are still a lot of words and expressions I don’t understand when I’m reading a newspaper article or novel in Spanish, so for him to say that to me is actually pretty offensive. Of course, he means nothing bad by it, but sometimes I wish I could go at him for it!!
Now, just like anything else, some people have a capacity for learning languages that others simply don’t, so I really believe that it all depends on the individual. While studying Spanish has been fairly easy for me (grammar, vocab, etc.), it will forever be a learning process. Think of all of the words and phrases we use in English, and now imagine how long it would take to not only learn but have a true understanding of all of the components. In my Spanish literature class this semester, we studied a unit called “Los Codigos Semanticos” which was actually based on this same idea. What if your first language was not English, and you were thrown into a place where people were saying things like, “I totally bombed that test” or “Stop pulling my leg” or… you get the idea. What about a bomb?! I’m not even touching your leg!! It’s the same story in every language, and unless it is your native tongue (and that’s not even a guarantee!), you’ll never, never, ever know all of them.
As joebjr said, pronunciation and being able to communicate verbally are also a huge part of learning another language. Sure, you can read and write, but what about speaking? Understanding a question from a native speaker? It’s not so easy.
I really don’t want to come off sounding pessimistic here, because learning Spanish certainly is something that’s within reach. It’s a blast, too, not to mention the opportunities that it can create. If you want to learn it, just keep your head up and remember that although some days you’ll feel like you want to quit, in the end (or I shouldn’t say ‘end’, because there is no end!) everything is worthwhile. Todo vale la pena.
Agreed, Carrie. I am Mexican, Spanish is my mothertongue and yet the grammar seemed harder to me to learn than English! Really! All our verb forms… When I started my English classes at ten, I was surprised at how easy it was, for me. No wonder it’s the most universal language
You know that English has more irregular forms than Spanish? That´s why I don´t like to compare languages and say “this one is harder than that one”, because it isn´t.