Had a conversation in Spanish yesterday

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Stelth

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I went out on a 3/4-day boat out of San Diego yesterday, looking for Yellowtail. As we were heading out, I saw a pescador viejo (old fisherman) rigging up his lines. I knew he spoke English, since I had heard him speaking to other people, but his accent was pretty strong. I walked up to him.

"Hola, 'migo", says I. "¿Como estas?"

"Bien, bien," comes the reply, "¿Y tu?"

"Muy bien. Necesito consejo." "I'm very well. I need advice."

So we went from there, mostly in Spanish, sometimes in English. What was exciting to me was that I could actually understand most of what he said to me, and respond intelligently. I've been slowly learning Spanish for years now, and in kind of a desultory fashion. I'm wondering where to go next, to dig deeper, and to retain it.

So if anyone here on REEVDEPM (Roberto es el vato de aceite para motor) has any advice on good language learning tools, I'd appreciate it.
 
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Rosetta Stone. I took Spanish through h.s. and college but got a better understanding with just a few lessons. Sadly my computer died and I cannot find the disc. But I am working in Swedish now.
 
Kudos to you for making the effort.
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Personally... being surrounded by people that spoke both english/spanish well and learning how to read it (phonics)helped tremendously.
 
If you want to speak a language you have to know that you will fail at it. Nobody starts out fluent but as long as you try you will get it. Best luck
 
the book learning of a language never quite stuck in my brain. i think the only way for me to pick one up now would be a total immersion course.

like drop me off in a foreign city, with some money, and i'd have to pick it up from the people around me.

I already subconsciously pick up and adopt regional accents when i travel...First time I spent a week in Canada, it took me 2-3 weeks back home to loose the "Canadian Accent" (Peterborough/Rice Lake Ontario Region)
couple years back, I was watching a lot of a certain Cardiff Wales based TV Show, and caught Myself at times Talking, and sometimes thinking with the main Character's Welsh(Swansea) accent.
 
Originally Posted By: LT4 Vette
Hispanics are the fastest growing population in the USA.

You will need to know spanish.


I'll be the first:

People need to learn the current native tongue in the country they settle. Not the other way around.
 
Originally Posted By: Propflux01
Originally Posted By: LT4 Vette
Hispanics are the fastest growing population in the USA.

You will need to know spanish.


I'll be the first:

People need to learn the current native tongue in the country they settle. Not the other way around.
Exactly!
 
Originally Posted By: earlyre
the book learning of a language never quite stuck in my brain. i think the only way for me to pick one up now would be a total immersion course.

like drop me off in a foreign city, with some money, and i'd have to pick it up from the people around me.

I already subconsciously pick up and adopt regional accents when i travel...First time I spent a week in Canada, it took me 2-3 weeks back home to loose the "Canadian Accent" (Peterborough/Rice Lake Ontario Region)
couple years back, I was watching a lot of a certain Cardiff Wales based TV Show, and caught Myself at times Talking, and sometimes thinking with the main Character's Welsh(Swansea) accent.

We don't have an accent though?
wink.gif
We do have a few regional language oddities too, "screw nails" for screws and pronouncing the G in Monaghan.
I pick up accents quickly too, spent a couple weeks on a tour of the rockies with some Aussies and found myself starting to talk like them. Kind of embarassing, but they thought it was funny.
I pick up an accent quickly
 
Originally Posted By: Blaze
Originally Posted By: Propflux01
Originally Posted By: LT4 Vette
Hispanics are the fastest growing population in the USA.

You will need to know spanish.


I'll be the first:

People need to learn the current native tongue in the country they settle. Not the other way around.
Exactly!


You both speak Native American?
 
Originally Posted By: surfstar
Originally Posted By: Blaze
Originally Posted By: Propflux01
Originally Posted By: LT4 Vette
Hispanics are the fastest growing population in the USA.

You will need to know spanish.


I'll be the first:

People need to learn the current native tongue in the country they settle. Not the other way around.
Exactly!


You both speak Native American?



A first language (also native language, mother tongue, arterial language, or L1) is the language(s) a person has learned from birth.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_language
 
Originally Posted By: Kuato
Rosetta Stone. I took Spanish through h.s. and college but got a better understanding with just a few lessons. Sadly my computer died and I cannot find the disc. But I am working in Swedish now.


I can help you with the Swedish if you get stuck.
Have you gotten to the words that can mean 2 or 3 different thing but are spelled exactly the same?.

I can give you this example of a ladder (stege in swedish)
I climbed up the ladder = Jag klättrade upp för stegen.
We followed the 10 steps in the instruction = Vi följde dom 10 stegen i instruktionerna

Same word 2 completley different uses for it.
 
Originally Posted By: Propflux01
Originally Posted By: LT4 Vette
Hispanics are the fastest growing population in the USA.

You will need to know spanish.


I'll be the first:

People need to learn the current native tongue in the country they settle. Not the other way around.


As much as I agree that we should all speak a common language, in this case English, my goals are twofold: one, to break down communication barriers and communicate more effectively, and two, I've always wanted to be fluent in a foreign language. Not only that, I live in a border town.
 
Anyone here ever heard of Esperanto? It was created some time ago to be a politically, culturally and religiously agnostic "2nd language" for the world. It'd be nice if we all learned this relatively simple-to-learn language while still using our native tongues primarily. Threads like this might soon become unnecessary.
 
Originally Posted By: uc50ic4more
Anyone here ever heard of Esperanto? It was created some time ago to be a politically, culturally and religiously agnostic "2nd language" for the world. It'd be nice if we all learned this relatively simple-to-learn language while still using our native tongues primarily. Threads like this might soon become unnecessary.


Yep; kind of a blend of many languages but never caught on.

The US is the only industrialized country that does not have any official languages. However I agree that if you move somewhere you should try to adapt to the local idiom. But LOL surfstar's right - by that reasoning we in the US should be speaking a Native American dialect, and the Australians would be speaking one of the numerous Aboriginal tongues .

The world may be moving to one language, but diehards on many sides will not go along with that. If you never leave your country then you don't need a second(or third) language except maybe in Switzerland. But if you travel, having some facility in speaking the local language is a really good thing. Expecting someone in another country to know your single language is ignorant and rude - and is part of the reason that Americans have a bad reputation in many countries abroad.
 
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Originally Posted By: Kuato
Expecting someone in another country to know your single language is ignorant and rude - and is part of the reason that Americans have a bad reputation in many countries abroad.


I read that loud and clear.
whistle.gif


english-only-movement.jpg


misspelled-tea-party-sign-respect-our-are-country-speak-english.jpg
 
Originally Posted By: uc50ic4more
Originally Posted By: Kuato
Expecting someone in another country to know your single language is ignorant and rude - and is part of the reason that Americans have a bad reputation in many countries abroad.


I read that loud and clear.
whistle.gif


english-only-movement.jpg

misspelled-tea-party-sign-respect-our-are-country-speak-english.jpg


Yeah, what is they, ignant or something'?

There are many that will be unable to manage one language, much less any more than one. History has shown this to be true. I guess there aren't many who are multilingual in the US.
 
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It's funny how times change with regards to assimilation.

My grandparents came to the US around the turn of the 20th century. Their generation often complained to my parents generation of how hard it is for them because they didn't speak English.

My Mom used to tell Grandma, "Stop complaining. You've been here for 50 years already. That was plenty of time for you to learn English."

Note: Grandpa DID speak English and he got the better paying jobs as a "foreman" in the sugar beet fields in Salinas.
 
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