Pura Buena Onda Blog

La tarea opcional para el 1 al 7 de octubre del 2018

La tarea opcional de esta semana es escribir un comercial de un minuto, parecido a los que ven en la tele. La próxima semana les vamos a pedir que lo representen en clase.

PERO…hay una condición.  ¡Tienen que escribir un comercial acerca de un producto que no recomiendan y nos tienen que convencer de que no deberíamos comprarlo! También les pedimos que usen un objeto directo un mínimo de una vez.  


Para los que les interese hacer más tarea, sigan con el capítulo 19 “Personal Pronouns” en  “Complete Spanish Grammar” de McGraw Hill, de la serie Practice Makes Perfect.  Por favor, lean las páginas 254 a 256 y hagan los ejercicios 19.23 a 19.25.  

Our in-house polyglot: on reaching fluency in English

Last week our in-house polyglot started a weekly mini-series on how he has become a 7 language speaker. Last week he wrote about how he became fluent in Spanish & Catalan, and this week he wrote about how he learned English. In case you missed last week’s post: https://purabuenaonda.com/our-in-house-polyglot-on-reaching-fluency-in-spanish-catalan/

Now on to today’s topic:

¡Hola a todo el mundo!

Today I’m going to share my experience learning and reaching fluency in English. It all started when I was 8 years old; yes, 8 years old only. English was not taught in schools in Spain, and only a very few people knew how to speak it. Both my parents are a rarity in Spain because they both speak English. They knew they wanted me to learn the language as soon as possible, so they found an Irish young guy who lived in the neighborhood and who offered private lessons. Since the first moment, he only spoke English to me. I was terrified in the beginning; a guy who I couldn’t understand was saying things to me that made no sense. Why would my parents do that to me? :)

Anyway, that was my first contact with English, and since that day I never stopped learning. A year later, the Catalan govern introduced English as an optional subject in schools, and 2 years later it became mandatory.

Although the language was being taught in schools, it really didn’t help me learn it. The approach was terrible: they only taught how to pass tests, not how to speak English. Besides, the teachers were not natives; I spoke better than my first teacher in school! That was the reason why my parents put me in a private language school the following year. I learned a lot more there and I’m very thankful for that.

After some years in the language school, I stopped taking classes. I thought I had learned enough and, in my mind, I was already a fluent speaker. How foolish I was! When I turned 20, I went to San Francisco alone. I remember very well how embarrassed I felt when I couldn’t understand the immigration officer at the airport. Later, during the whole stay in San Francisco, I realized how rusty I had gotten and how much I still had to learn. It gave me the motivation to push myself to read books, watch films and talk to people in English after I went back to Barcelona.

What really has helped me, however, has been meeting Ron, my husband. Since I’m with him, I have learned so much! I talk to him everyday, since 8 years ago, in English, and even though he doesn’t usually correct me, I’ve gotten immersed in the language. So, again, the more you use a language, the better you get at speaking it. If you can’t marry a Spanish speaker, at least you can come to our classes and… speak! :)

Stay around, because my next blog is going to be about another of my languages and my journey with it.

Hasta pronto!

Octavi

La tarea opcional para el 24 al 30 de septiembre del 2018

La tarea opcional de esta semana es traer un producto que te encanta a clase, la semana que viene. Vas a mostrárselo a la clase, vas a describirlo y contarles acerca de ello. ¿Dónde lo compraste? ¿Para qué se usa? ¿Por qué te encanta tanto? ¿Por cuánto tiempo lo has tenido o usado? Etcétera.


Para los que les interese hacer más tarea, sigan con el capítulo 19 “Personal Pronouns” en  “Complete Spanish Grammar” de McGraw Hill, de la serie Practice Makes Perfect.  Por favor, lean las páginas 252 a 254 y hagan los ejercicios 19.21 a 19.22.  

Our in-house polyglot on reaching fluency in Spanish & Catalan

Hola a todos de nuevo :)

Last week I wrote about what fluency meant to me, and I mentioned that it is different for everyone and, in my case, for every language too.

In the following weeks, I’ll write about my experience with languages with more detail. I’ll start with Spanish and Catalan, since those two are both my mother tongues.

I guess that for some people, speaking two languages as mother tongues is quite a mystery. For bilingual speakers, though, it just comes naturally.

I learned them differently, though. At home and with my family, we only speak Catalan. At school 90% of the subjects are taught in Catalan, and 50% of them, at least, are taught in Catalan in High School (In Catalonia).

I learned Spanish at school and speaking with other kids and other people. Both languages are spoken everywhere in urban areas, so you end up learning both if your first language is Catalan. It’s not necessarily the same if your first language is Spanish. A lot of people have the habit of switching from Catalan to Spanish the moment someone says something in Spanish. It is a habit that has its roots in the years of Franco’s dictatorship, because Catalan was banned from public life and spaces from 1939 to 1975. Due to this, a lot of Spanish speakers feel comfortable only speaking Spanish in Catalonia, because most Catalan speakers will switch to Spanish with them. The younger generation has studied Catalan in school, but a good amount of them don’t speak it very well, or even at all, because of the reason I mentioned before (people switching from Catalan to Spanish). This happens too to a lesser extent with some Catalans who live in areas where Spanish is not largely spoken.

Are those speakers bilingual? It really depends. Some people struggle if they have to speak Catalan, and some do better; and vice versa. Usually, in the case of Spanish speakers with Spanish as their main language, the ones that speak Catalan frequently do better in Catalan. Again, this proves that speaking a language is crucial to really mastering it, and just learning it passively doesn’t assure fluency.

Stay tuned for future blog posts where I write about my experiences learning English, Italian, French, Korean & Japanese!

Hasta la próxima semana :)

Octavi

Las clases de martes a viernes:
La tarea opcional es escribir en un diario cada día de esta semana. Escriban un párrafo acerca de su día, de algo que hayan leído o visto, o acerca de algo que hayan tenido en mente últimamente.

Las clases de lunes y sábado:
La tarea opcional es practicar la canción “La Bicicleta”, de Carlos Vives y Shakira, hasta que se sientan cómodos cantando la canción, ya que la vamos a cantar en grupo la semana que viene.


Para los que les interese hacer más tarea, sigan con el capítulo 19 “Personal Pronouns” en  “Complete Spanish Grammar” de McGraw Hill, de la serie Practice Makes Perfect.  Por favor, lean las páginas 247 a 251 y hagan los ejercicios 19.15 a 19.20.

Our in-house polyglot, on language fluency

 

Hola, queridos estudiantes.

 

After a long absence, your beloved teacher Octavi is back. Since the last couple of blog articles covered how to achieve fluency and what fluency really means for everyone, I would like to share what it means to me.

As many of you already know, I speak 7 languages. However, that doesn’t mean that I speak them all perfectly, of course. I speak 2 languages at a native level, Spanish and Catalan, and even in those two languages I have some doubts every now and then. I think that is pretty normal, though. In my opinion, English is the language I speak better after those two. Let me tell you that I make mistakes and forget words all the time, and I speak English every day! I started learning it when i was 8 and even now, 30 years later, I keep making mistakes of all kind. Does that mean I am not fluent in English? I wouldn’t say so, because to me fluency is not being perfect, but rather communicating effectively with others while being more or less accurate. In French and Italian I have no big problems either, but not using those languages in my everyday life makes it harder to get to a very advanced level. I am happy with where I am with my French and my Italian, and I know I will only be able to keep them at a certain level, but I still think that I am fluent thanks to the fact that both languages are similar to Spanish and I don’t need to practice them as much as my last two languages, Korean and Japanese. Obviously, Korean and Japanese are so much different from Spanish that just in order to speak them at an intermediate level you need to practice them almost everyday, and that’s what I do. I practice Korean and Japanese everyday, and even then my level is not as high as in any of the other languages I speak. Nonetheless, for a Westerner, I consider I speak Korean and Japanese at a pretty high level.

So what is it to be fluent? As you can see, the first thing to be considered is the language in question. Secondly, we have to think about what it means to ourselves. For some people, just being able to have simple conversations is going to be enough, while for other people being fluent will mean to be able not only to have conversations, but also to talk about any kind of topic, in any context or level (it’s not the same to talk in Spanish with a friend about your week and to give a speech about Biology in Spanish). Once you get to a certain level, being fluent really depends on what you want to achieve and how satisfied you are with your progress.

In any case, most of us need at least a couple of years to reach fluency. Mi advice is: don’t be too obsessed with getting to a certain level; enjoy the journey!

 

Saludos a todos,
Octavi

Para las clases de lunes y sábado:
La tarea opcional de la semana es 1) echarle un vistazo a la letra de la canción que ganó la votación, “La Bicicleta” de Carlos Vives y Shakira, y 2) escucharla varias veces mientras la cantas para practicarla. La semana que viene vamos a repasar la letra y la semana siguiente la cantaremos en clase.

Para las clases de martes, miércoles, jueves y viernes:
La tarea opcional es practicar la canción “La Bicicleta”, de Carlos Vives y Shakira, hasta que se sientan cómodos cantando la canción, ya que la vamos a cantar en grupo la semana que viene.


Para los que les interese hacer más tarea, sigan con el capítulo 19 “Personal Pronouns” en  “Complete Spanish Grammar” de McGraw Hill, de la serie Practice Makes Perfect.  Por favor, lean las páginas 244 a 247 y hagan los ejercicios 19.10 a 19.14.  

How long will it take me to become fluent in Spanish? Part 2

 

Last week I blogged about the most popular question I get on an ongoing basis, which is “How long will it take me to become fluent in Spanish?”

I mentioned that there are numerous factors to consider, such as:

  • What is your experience & current level of Spanish?
  • Is Spanish a 2nd language for you or 3rd, 4th, 5th, etc.?
  • How much time do you have to dedicate to learning Spanish?
  • Will you be able to be consistent with your language learning or will you be taking breaks often?
  • How motivated are you to learn to speak Spanish?
  • What do you consider to be a fluent Spanish speaker?
  • What is your natural ability for languages?

I covered a few of these last week, and will cover the rest today.

Let’s start with:

What do you consider to be a fluent speaker?

  • For some people fluency means reaching a high intermediate level, which is the ability to speak with practically anyone about practically anything (it just may not be as fast paced, deep or as refined as an advanced speaker). If this is your goal, you could potentially get to a B2 level in 2 – 3 years; but again, it really depends on many factors.
  • Now if you consider fluency being able to attend college or do your job in Spanish, it will probably take you much longer, as there is a huge difference between these goals.

Please consider that according to several experts it takes between 600 and 1200 hours to learn Spanish (most say 780 hours). So let’s see, if you work on your Spanish for 3 hours a week, that’s 156 hours a year, so it would take about 5 years to reach fluency, if 780 hours is the target. If you work on your Spanish for 2 hours a week, it would take 7.5 years.

From what I have seen however, it usually takes 1-2 years of living abroad and listening to & speaking Spanish 18 hours a day to become fluent, or 10-15 years when you do not live in a Spanish speaking country.

Why so long? Because people have lives and tend to live them in their native language. To truly become fluent (not book fluent, but conversationally fluent), you need to live a good portion of your life in Spanish. The people I have seen become fluent in 5 years without living abroad, all have jobs where they use their Spanish on a consistent basis, or their significant other speaks Spanish, and it is the primary language they use. These people are using their Spanish 20-50% of the time, thus advancing at a much faster pace.

So bottom line, how long it takes for you to reach fluency often depends on how much time you devote to learning and using the language.

Whatever you do, don’t get discouraged. If you want to be PHENOMENAL at something, it takes a lot of hard work. I’m pretty sure that no Olympic Athletes got to where they are by practicing their sport a few hours a week for just a few years. Right?

Will you be able to be consistent with your language learning or will you be taking breaks often?

  • One of the biggest mistakes people make is to start and stop their language learning. The only way to make progress is to be consistent. The students who take breaks are often in the same level during most of their lifetime, because everytime they take a break (and I don’t mean 1-2 week breaks a few times a year), they forget quite a bit and have to start again. What a waste of time!

Now, life throws you curveballs all the time, which means that at some point Spanish may not be a priority in your life…and that’s ok. We all need to go with the flow; but remember that if you are consistent, you will advance much faster.

Ok chicos, I hope that this has been helpful in answering your questions!

Since we have an in-house polyglot (the amazing Octavi that speaks Spanish, Catalan, English, French, Italian, Korean & Japanese), I will ask him to write a few blog posts, sharing how he learned to speak all these languages.

Besitos,
Caro

To read part 1 of this post please visit: https://purabuenaonda.com/how-long-to-become-fluent-in-spanish/

La tarea opcional de la semana es 1) echarle un vistazo a la letra de la canción que ganó la votación, La Bicicleta de Carlos Vives y Shakira, y 2) escucharla varias veces mientras la cantas para practicarla. La semana que viene vamos a repasar la letra y la siguiente semana la vamos a cantar en clase.


Para los que les interese hacer más tarea, sigan con el capítulo 19 “Personal Pronouns” en  “Complete Spanish Grammar” de McGraw Hill, de la serie Practice Makes Perfect.  Por favor, lean las páginas 242 a 244 y hagan los ejercicios 19.7 a 19.9.  

How long will it take me to become fluent in Spanish?

 

Not a week goes by when someone doesn’t ask me “How long will it take me to become fluent in Spanish?” or “How long will it take me to move into the next level?”

This is such a difficult question to answer, as there are numerous factors to consider. For example:

  • What is your experience & current level of Spanish?
  • Is Spanish a 2nd language for you or 3rd, 4th, 5th, etc.?
  • How much time do you have to dedicate to learning Spanish?
  • Will you be able to be consistent with your language learning or will you be taking breaks often?
  • How motivated are you to learn to speak Spanish?
  • What do you consider to be a fluent Spanish speaker?
  • What is your natural ability for languages?

 

I have a lot to say on this subject, so this will be a 2 part series.

 

Let’s consider the above:

  • If you’re starting from scratch, it will obviously take you a bit longer than someone who has a foundation in Spanish. I think that’s pretty obvious.

 

  • If you have already learned more than one language, picking up a 3rd or 4th will be easier than learning a 2nd language. Why? For one, you have more to pull from. Most languages have cognates in common with several other languages, making it easier to recognize words. For example, everyone thinks that Spanish & Italian have a lot in common, but may be surprised to hear that Italian & English also share many cognates (such as concert/concerto; fork/forchetta; democrazia/democracy). Another factor is if you learned a previous language as an adult (or older child/teenager), you already know what is involved with language learning, and what exactly works best for you.

 

  • Motivation plays a key role in learning a language. If you’re doing this because you feel like you should, your lack of enthusiasm will be present more often that you may think. If you’re excited about learning the language, every time you see a street sign in Spanish or an audio version of something in Spanish, you will be tempted to look up the word or listen to the audio, thus spending more time on the language which will ultimately help you reach your goal much faster.

 

  • Whether we like to admit it or not, natural ability plays a part in language learning. Some of us are better at sports, some of us are better at building things. Some of us are better at math, some of us are better at languages. This however does NOT mean that you can’t learn to play sports or to build things; it simply means that for some of us it will be naturally easier to learn a language than for others. It is what it is…just like with everything else in life.

 

Ok chicos, that concludes part 1. This will give you a bit to think about, and next week we will move on to part 2.

 

Besos,
Caro