Three and a half months have already passed by and so I would like to tell you a little something about my learning process of the Castellano.
I remember that when I first came here I understood next to nothing. Well, I have never attended any Spanish classes before and only taught myself some basic grammar and vocabulary. So I always listened very very hard when the people were talking to pick up as much as possible. My talking skills did not exceed the greeting and presentation. Furthermore, I wasn't able to tell if someone was talking Gallego or Castellano. I was limited to single words.
What did I do to improve my Spanish?
- watching TV with subtitles (depending on the difficulty I changed the audio or subtitles into English)
- reading Disney cartoons
- learning vocabs with my mobile or cards
- making posters with grammar rules
With all this I got better. Slowly. Step by Step. The Spanish classes I attend twice a week do help, as well, but are definitely not sufficient if you want to make a faster progress.
After two month I understood more or less everything the people were saying and I could hold the Gallego and the Castellano apart. By "understand" I mean that with the help of the context and some logic I could figure out what people were talking about even though I might not have understood everything. And of cause you also make mistakes with this strategy. However, the most frustrating thing was, that I couldn't participate in a conversation because I just wasn't fast enough. So until I processed all the data input in my head, built an appropriate sentence and opened my mouth, the people were already talking about something totally different. This is why I didn't really enjoy to go out because I felt stupid just sitting at the table without being able to understand enough. Or sometimes the people thought I'm bored or so because I wasn't talking although I was fine. When someone asked me a question all of a sudden without any context I mostly didn't understand. Yes. This was a period of FRUSTRATION!
I started to speak to my flatmate Sabrina in Spanish after hmmm... about one/one and a half months, I guess. Or at least I tried :D By now, we only talk in Spanish!
I also started to listen to the audiobook of Harry Potter in Spanish. I know these books very well and so I understand everything. It is an awesome listening practice!
After three month then I felt comfortable enough with my language skills to actually make conversation with people. It's no problem for me anymore to just ask when I don't understand a word or a sentence and when someone starts to talk to me the first thing I say isn't "Sorry my Spanish is very bad" anymore. I can speak without thinking about it too much. I make mistakes, but everybody understands what I'm saying or might be trying to say :D I'm reading Inkheart from the German author Cornelia Funke, which isn't too difficult too read and I, myself, am surprised that I can read fluently enough to enjoy the story! I've read the book before but I don't remember much of it.
I have the biggest problems with the tenses. Especially the past tenses...I always mix them up and don't know which and how and when...but I'm working on it! :) It's impossible to make a proper conversation without being able to use the past tense!
I remember that when I first came here I understood next to nothing. Well, I have never attended any Spanish classes before and only taught myself some basic grammar and vocabulary. So I always listened very very hard when the people were talking to pick up as much as possible. My talking skills did not exceed the greeting and presentation. Furthermore, I wasn't able to tell if someone was talking Gallego or Castellano. I was limited to single words.
What did I do to improve my Spanish?
- watching TV with subtitles (depending on the difficulty I changed the audio or subtitles into English)
- reading Disney cartoons
- learning vocabs with my mobile or cards
- making posters with grammar rules
With all this I got better. Slowly. Step by Step. The Spanish classes I attend twice a week do help, as well, but are definitely not sufficient if you want to make a faster progress.
After two month I understood more or less everything the people were saying and I could hold the Gallego and the Castellano apart. By "understand" I mean that with the help of the context and some logic I could figure out what people were talking about even though I might not have understood everything. And of cause you also make mistakes with this strategy. However, the most frustrating thing was, that I couldn't participate in a conversation because I just wasn't fast enough. So until I processed all the data input in my head, built an appropriate sentence and opened my mouth, the people were already talking about something totally different. This is why I didn't really enjoy to go out because I felt stupid just sitting at the table without being able to understand enough. Or sometimes the people thought I'm bored or so because I wasn't talking although I was fine. When someone asked me a question all of a sudden without any context I mostly didn't understand. Yes. This was a period of FRUSTRATION!
I started to speak to my flatmate Sabrina in Spanish after hmmm... about one/one and a half months, I guess. Or at least I tried :D By now, we only talk in Spanish!
I also started to listen to the audiobook of Harry Potter in Spanish. I know these books very well and so I understand everything. It is an awesome listening practice!
After three month then I felt comfortable enough with my language skills to actually make conversation with people. It's no problem for me anymore to just ask when I don't understand a word or a sentence and when someone starts to talk to me the first thing I say isn't "Sorry my Spanish is very bad" anymore. I can speak without thinking about it too much. I make mistakes, but everybody understands what I'm saying or might be trying to say :D I'm reading Inkheart from the German author Cornelia Funke, which isn't too difficult too read and I, myself, am surprised that I can read fluently enough to enjoy the story! I've read the book before but I don't remember much of it.
I have the biggest problems with the tenses. Especially the past tenses...I always mix them up and don't know which and how and when...but I'm working on it! :) It's impossible to make a proper conversation without being able to use the past tense!
This was a lot of text :D so to make this post more interesting I add some pics of the food I cook from time to time to prove that vegetarian food is not boring!
When I have time to cook or bake I really enjoy doing it!
When I have time to cook or bake I really enjoy doing it!
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