I'll be a Spanish pro shortly
My first Spanish classes with the lovely el maestro, also known as Ada. A professor in languages (if I have understood correctly), who speaks fluent English (although we mostly speak in Spanish, well, at least she does, I speak in bla bla language), and is really nice and quite well structured.
We spent two hours together this first day, and I think we were both surprised of how much I actually manage to understand. And even how much I can say.
Words only though, sentences are always a pain because of conjugation of verbs and so. I guess I have picked up more Portuguese than I thought, and I use this in combination with my fluent French, especially to understand, but also for guessing how to say a word.
For speaking however, the French-Portuguese mixture in my head has a tendency to screw up my pronunciation and make me mix words partly (I was saying eu instead of yo for the first 3-4 hours of classes). I have also already encountered my first 'fake friend' (faux amis in French), as créer in French means to create, while in Spanish it means to believe.
But in general, I can feel that knowing another latin language fluently and understand the grammar, plus having heard Portuguese spoken for the last 3 years and picked up some expressions and words, really does help.
So, my conclusion after this first day was that 'I rock' ;) and will learn Spanish super quickly. Not to become fluent and speak without mistakes, but to be able to communicate. Two days later, my impression was the opposite as I struggled with every word, but let's blame that on an overheated brain.
We spent two hours together this first day, and I think we were both surprised of how much I actually manage to understand. And even how much I can say.
Words only though, sentences are always a pain because of conjugation of verbs and so. I guess I have picked up more Portuguese than I thought, and I use this in combination with my fluent French, especially to understand, but also for guessing how to say a word.
For speaking however, the French-Portuguese mixture in my head has a tendency to screw up my pronunciation and make me mix words partly (I was saying eu instead of yo for the first 3-4 hours of classes). I have also already encountered my first 'fake friend' (faux amis in French), as créer in French means to create, while in Spanish it means to believe.
But in general, I can feel that knowing another latin language fluently and understand the grammar, plus having heard Portuguese spoken for the last 3 years and picked up some expressions and words, really does help.
So, my conclusion after this first day was that 'I rock' ;) and will learn Spanish super quickly. Not to become fluent and speak without mistakes, but to be able to communicate. Two days later, my impression was the opposite as I struggled with every word, but let's blame that on an overheated brain.
Comments
But I know from my own experience, trying to learn slovenish, that learning a language that way is the best way, to be in the country of the language you want to learn. So you just have to use your usual sense of humor and laugh about all the mistakes you are going to make. Just keep on trying. And you rock, you always do! So keep up the good spirit! Lol / mamma