Quote:
Originally posted by hertz
I remember from high school French that the ordering of the sentence structure was different. I think that will be the hardest thing - forming sentences that don't sound jumbled up.
|
If you already have some experience with French, Spanish shouldn't be too big of a jump, other than pronunciations.
Quote:
|
By that, do you mean that you learnt the nouns first by using them in your day to day English sentences?
|
The best way to describe it is like this--think of preschool all over again. Where the professor points to an item, and you say what that item is...only in Spanish. So, if the professor pointed to my pen, I would say "el boligrafo." (Articles are also extremely important, especially in the Romance languages.)
Quote:
|
I've noticed a few bilingual chat rooms, set up specifically to help with proficiency. Pronunciation would still be an issue, but they could definately help with fluency.
|
Chat rooms are good for reading and writing Spanish. But actually speaking or listening to it is crucial. I got lucky--my ex-fiance spoke Spanish in her home, so we used it occasionally. When I would travel to Hispanic parts of Chicago, I would go out of my way to use Spanish. Not only did it help me on the pronunciation end, but most native speakers seem appreciative of the fact that you're willing to try.
Quote:
|
Someone suggested Spanish as a good place to start, as it has elements of other languages in it or forms a basis for other languages. It also seems to be fairly widespread in some countries.
|
IMO, definitely the best language to start with. Given the growing number of Hispanics in this country, I believe Spanish will continue to be used more in this country as a whole. Unfortunately, my Spanish is now rusty, but it was invaluable when I used to visit Chicago.
Quote:
|
After that, an Asian language. But I'm not sure which one yet. I'd be more likely to get into the Indonesian areas than into Japan or China.
|
Interesting. I would definitely start with Spanish first...at least you won't have to learn a whole new alphabet yet.
