deano--
Try not to worry too much about how fast some people do it... we've all got our own circumstances, strengths and weakness, and have to do the best we can. The people I've known who learned languages the fastest were those who grew up bilingual--they have a major advantage over those who didn't, because their brains process language differently.

I lived in France in a total immersion situation as a 19-20-year-old. I became very competent in four months and after a almost a year was very fluent.

Later I went to live in Barcelona and got caught between French, Spanish and Catalan. I learned a lot but also got really confused (and I'm not sure I ever recovered).

Fast forward over 10 years. Now I'm 34, living in Madrid, and it is much, much harder this time around. I go to school (hispanic studies) four hours a day. My comprehension and writing is going well--as well as it went when I was younger. But speaking--ack, I make so many stupid mistakes and I often feel I'm forgetting just as much as I'm learning every day.

Maybe it's true what they say about not getting those damaged brain cells back... But I think it also has to do with the fact that my day is evenly split between Spanish and English. I feel torn in both directions, so any progress comes in fits and starts. I have to speak English at home with my son, if I want him to be bilingual. I also have to work and I'm tired 90% of the time. And I absolutely refuse to watch Spanish TV--I know it's a good educational exercise, but life's too short to watch disturbing crap!

I read a lot for school and that is great for adding vocabulary, but--at least for me--the grammar really only sticks when I say it out loud. Maybe you do what we do and buy those "Barrio Sesamo" dvds from the quiosco. Kids videos and books are great for learning, because they use simple sentences with tons of ordinary vocabulary, and lots of past tense and subjunctive.

Oh, and all that great fluency I achieved in French all those years ago is gone with the wind... All that comes out when I try to speak it now is Spanish... So I guess to make a long story short, it's not going to get any easier, so we might as well dig in now and do the best we can.

Hey deano - don't sweat how long it takes you - it really is a matter of having an "ear" for language. As improbable as it seems, I am sure there is such a thing. I absolutely suck at math - cannot do it to save my life but I can pick up languages fairly easily (but as I get older - I notice I don't hear the small language nuances anymore - sounds, pronunciation....). If you run into someone that seems to be picking up Spanish faster than you - its not that you are doing something wrong - your brain might not be wired to process and learn languages as fast.

Thanks for the advice guys n gals, i appreciate all of it.

One final question: How did you learn all the new words? I know that once you get to a cergtain level you just pick them up in daily conversation or through the context of the chat.

e.g i have almost 50 words to learn by Wednesday, i intent to link the words to an english sound and form a picture, but it can be tricky to do. Any other suggestions on memorizing the words?

yeah, just don�t try to memorise them. At least that works for me. I try not to memorise them and then whenever I need a word I�ll just grab it from this spot in the back of my brain. Reading helps too, lot�s of books and also the newspaper. But I have never made lists of new words.

Don't memorize... When you see a TV, think of it as a televisor instead of a TV. When you see a CD, think of it as a disco. Just try to forget the English and replace it with Spanish. That works for me, even though it makes retelling things in English difficult at times.

i must admit i am very envious of all you guys n gals that say "Dont memorize the words". I understand what you mean, but i think that until you get to a decent level then its hard to achieve that.
Also, i have lessons every week, and a large part of it is remembering the vocab that we discussed in the previous lessons. (I am even tested on them)

Therefore i have no choice but to learn them properly, so if you have any techniques? or does or donts for remembering words? please let me know.

Deano-
I took spanish 4 years in school(high school), and lived in Spain for 1 year, dated a guy who didnt speak english, and now i live in LA with alot of mexican friends.... and my spanish is still bad. To memorize the words for class helps alot.. you will remember them for a while.. but if you dont use the words ... you will forget them. In my dreams i speak alot of spanish(i am always dreaming of Madrid) and my spanish is perfect when i am sleeping.. but when i wake up its gone. I now try to watch at least 1 hour of spanish tv (cheesy game shows seem to hold my interest). The TV thing is really helping.

not updated my story for a while, so for those of you are interested.....

My hardest challenge thus far was the past tense, especially the imperfecto & the Indefinido. I wish i could just use: he hablado, ha comido etc.... but unfortunately it isnt that easy.

So, i need to learn and perfect the above 2 methods. Personally i call them COMPLETE & INCOMPLETE, simply because the way of knowing when to use them is to decide whether the thing you are talking about is a completed action e.g:

he spoke to me yesterday
(Habló conmigo ayer)

as opposed to an incomplete event:

(He was speaking to me yesterday, and afterwards we went to eat)
(El estaba hablando conmigo ayer, y despues fuimos a comer)

Anyway...

I am still struggling with knowing when to use which of the following:

Estuvé
estaba
era
fue

any tips would be great.

Ok, so technically i know the above, but i dont know it nearly well enough to use it in every day conversation. (practicaré)

I am now being taught the basics of the subjunctive. If someone can explain the damn point of subjunctive? I was told that it adds an extra dimension to the language and helps add emphesis to the language. Personally I dont think it achieves much, but then again, i am a beginner so shouldnt be making such assumptions.

What i am really after is someone who is currently learning Spanish. Ideally this person should be at a basic/intermediate level. I would be happy to meet up in Madrid every now and then for a few beers, but generally we could learn via msn.

If you are interested then please msn me at:

fish4tackle@hotmail.com

And any advice on the past tense would be great.

It may pay to join some conversation classes, making sure that some others in the class are at a fairly advanced stage. Failing that, you should listen to radio or tv chat programmes. There's no guarantee that you will always hear perfect Spanish, but you should start picking up common usages of tenses especially when people are talking about past events.
Good luck with the lingo - are your other enterprises coming on well?

Hi Mark,

good to hear from you again, are you over here yet?

My project is coming on leaps and bounds, the past month has been hectic, and in June i launch 4 websites and 1 desktop program

Hi, unfortunately I'm not going to be in Spain any time still. I have some debts to pay off in the UK first; hoping to get out there next year. Until then relying on this board to keep me updated...
Looking forward to your new websites; keep us informed!

here is a mistake i have been making, and have only recently been informed that i was making such an error, thus i have been doing this for 8 months and no one has said anything

MISTAKE: I was told that all words that end in "ING" become "ando/iendo" endings in spanish.

so, the other night i wasnt feeling to well, and the missus` mum kindly made my tea for me. Later that night i said "Gracias para preperando mi comida"

She looked at me and didnt seem to understand it, so i repeated, and once again i got a blank look. So the next day whilst in my spanish lesson i mentioned this story to my tutor, who then went on to explain that you can ONLY use the ando/iendo words in spanish when an action is being carried out.

for example. "look at that building" would NOT qualify.
Nor would. "Speaking is fun"

however, "They are building a house" or "we are speaking too quickly" would both end in ando/iendo.

Jer probably has the exact rules, but its something like "Dont use it for nouns"

Anyone else make this mistake? or is it just me?

i believe what i should have said to my partners mother was: Gracias por preperar mi comida"

I was told to use ando/iendo for an action that is happening now, or will be happening in the very near future. I have used it out of context, and been understood (after a few blank looks too!!)

Be grateful you haven´t made the mistake I made for the first year I lived here! That was saying to someone "con yo"..........no-one corrected me for ages and it took an english person to tell me, my spanish friends were too polite!!!!!

hehe,

nice one Sue.

Thankfully I avoided the con yo mistake, I still make plenty though.

The worst thing thus far has been knowing when to use Era,Fui,estuve,estaba.

I know that its Ser vs Estar and preterito imperfecto vs the other one (cant remember the name)

But i really struggle on these.

I have been told that its completed action vs description/ongoing action. But i still get it wrong all the time. Perhaps Jer can give me a quick lesson

Also trying to master the conditional tenses, but i will come back to that next time.

Gracias.

Deano.

Deano,

A couple of points:

You were correct. "...ing" words are translated as "...ando" or "iendo" in Spanish. Where you made the mistake was translating literally from English into Spanish. STOP THAT NOW. Just because we use the continous tense in English (and we use it a LOT), it does not mean that´s the case in Spanish. Why should it be? They are after all different languages.

So what should you do then?

Well, in this case you should have said "Gracias por preparar(me) la comida" for the simple reason that a) gracias is AWAYS followed by "POR" and not para and b) in Spanish the infinitive rather than the continuous tense is used, hence "PREPARAR".

Or, you could have kept the sentence short and sweet. "Muchas (depending on your satisfaction level) gracias POR la comida" would have been sufficient and understood by all parties. I really would recommend going for the short and sweet option whilst you are still learning as it saves getting tongue-tied or receiving blank looks all around.

Anyway, keep up with studying, don´t get disillusioned or fustrated at such moments as you´ll achieve your goal eventually.

Explain the past tense? Uff, that will have to wait for another day, month.... I, after donkey years of studying and speaking Spanish still get it wrong on occasions so "tranquilo".