Posted: Mar 30, 2010 9:17 am
GT2211 wrote:I have been attempting to learn Spanish. It is something I would like to be able to do, but I am unable to really motivate myself for. I am in my 3rd semester and feel like I have gotten no where. My first semester I was doing good, but it was a 10 week summer class so it was shorter than a typical college class. The 2nd semester, especially early on I felt like we spent all of our time memorizing words and none of it conversing. I managed an A, but that had more to do with my ability to cram then actually speak the language. Now my 3rd semester we are doing a lot more reading, writing, and reviewing grammar rules. It is a one day a week, four hour long class. I can read it fairly well. But my listening skills are almost non-existent. My writing skills are okay, although I usually need a dictionary because while I generally have no problem translating words when I see read, I tend to struggle remembering them off the top of my head.
Don't worry, the listening comprehension will come in time. Spanish is usually spoken very fast, that's what makes it difficult for beginners (I had the same problem with French!). When reading, you can slow down, read a sentence over again, so it's much easier. It's also normal that you understand more than you can actually say (passive vs. active knowledge). For example, I can read Spanish fairly fluently and understand quite a lot of what people say (that's because I speak two other Romance languages), but I can only produce some very basic sentences.