A rough outline of learning Spanish.
During college I had taken Spanish courses and studied abroad for a semester immersed in Spanish. Abroad I took Spanish grammar courses and the like. I spent an incredible amount of time listening to Spanish kusic, reading Spanish news websites, translating them, and studying on the http://www.wordreference.com forums
I took every opportunity in the U.S. to practice speaking with people and continued reading and studying independently.
By the time I got to Colombia, I spoke Spanish with a heavy gringo accent, to the point that people would just speak to me in English even when I was trying to speak Spanish. I could communicate myself but there were many situations where I did not really understand what was going on.
In Colombia I made lots of Spanish speaking friends, though I did of course also have English speaking friends. Probably half of my social life was in Spanish, half in English.
I had already gotten a formal education on Spanish grammar and the like during University, and I did not take formal classes in Colombia, although that may have helped me. Most of what I learned was through social immersion and self study.
Now when I speak Spanish, people no longer know I am a gringo, and begin to assume that I am Latino. My Spanish is not Perfect at all, I make errors in grammar and also do not know lots of colloquial things. But I am confident enough to do anything in Spanish that I would do in English in my day to day life.
One thing is, I never focused on studying literature much. I am literate in Spanish, but the language of literature is quite distinct from colloquial Spanish. As such, reading literature is a huge expenditure of energy because I never put in the effort to lern the higher register literary Spanish.
During college I had taken Spanish courses and studied abroad for a semester immersed in Spanish. Abroad I took Spanish grammar courses and the like. I spent an incredible amount of time listening to Spanish kusic, reading Spanish news websites, translating them, and studying on the http://www.wordreference.com forums
I took every opportunity in the U.S. to practice speaking with people and continued reading and studying independently.
By the time I got to Colombia, I spoke Spanish with a heavy gringo accent, to the point that people would just speak to me in English even when I was trying to speak Spanish. I could communicate myself but there were many situations where I did not really understand what was going on.
In Colombia I made lots of Spanish speaking friends, though I did of course also have English speaking friends. Probably half of my social life was in Spanish, half in English.
I had already gotten a formal education on Spanish grammar and the like during University, and I did not take formal classes in Colombia, although that may have helped me. Most of what I learned was through social immersion and self study.
Now when I speak Spanish, people no longer know I am a gringo, and begin to assume that I am Latino. My Spanish is not Perfect at all, I make errors in grammar and also do not know lots of colloquial things. But I am confident enough to do anything in Spanish that I would do in English in my day to day life.
One thing is, I never focused on studying literature much. I am literate in Spanish, but the language of literature is quite distinct from colloquial Spanish. As such, reading literature is a huge expenditure of energy because I never put in the effort to lern the higher register literary Spanish.