By: Ramses

Ramses — Fri, 01 May 2009 14:49:40 +0000

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.

By: ziRta

ziRta — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 04:52:49 +0000

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

By: Carrie

Carrie — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 21:31:40 +0000

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.

By: Brian

Brian — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 22:04:46 +0000

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.

Comments on: Is Spanish really that easy?

By: Ramses

By: ziRta

By: Carrie

By: Brian