Faith Tong (Week 3) - hola amigos!
Hola Amigos!
By Faith Tong
Currently this school year I'm taking Spanish 3 (kind of regret it) and I've learned tricks here and there to help me remember vocabulary and grammar rules better. While head empty thinking about what to write for this week's blog post, I thought about how I have a Spanish test this Friday and how I'm supposed to pass with an A...Then I made the realization that I could talk about my experience in Spanish 3 in relation to my memory (how smart of me).
At first when I started taking Spanish 1, I thought it would be an easier language since it's similar to English in numerous ways, and I was half right on that assumption. To prove myself right, I decided to search it up and turns out, Spanish is one of the seven easiest languages to learn according to Jumpspeak. Apparently "everything from writing, grammar, and speaking will come more naturally to the English speaker because of the similar rules, structure, and Latin roots" (Jumpspeak).
I found it really interesting how our brain can easily make connections from English to Spanish. For me, if there is a Spanish word is similar in spelling to a word in English, I remember it easier and faster. For example, while doing a vocabulary list for Spanish, I easily recognized the words "analizar" or "consecutivo". I bet you probably thought it was analayze and consecutive, due to the similar structure and rules it has to English words.
These types of simple connections with similar looking words help me remember Spanish vocabulary words better, therefore improving my memory for my Spanish vocabulary tests. On the other hand, I will still have to use effortful memory to memorize the Spanish words that don't look nor sound like English words, which will take longer to remember (very sad). Anyways, I hoped you learned something new about how the similarities of different languages actually connect to how fast we learn!
Comments
The way that Spanish is kind of like English is similar to how some Korean words are like Chinese words, or some of the Chinese they use in Taiwan is similar to Japanese. I like it when the words are similar because it makes me feel good about knowing multiple languages. For memorizing language, I feel like writing, well at least in Chinese, is difficult. However, I feel like watching TV shows in different languages is really helpful in learning languages because then you can see the words applied in real life and also hear more of the language which makes it more familiar and easier to remember.
I do agree maybe that's why if I see Spanish, I could guess some things as related to the common roots of English. Sometimes in languages it is the writing that is different, other times it is the way something is pronounced.
I used to just watch Spanish tv programs with my brother and I was like how are you watching this when you don't know what they are saying. He stares at me and responds by the actions and the similarity of the words.
I took AP Spanish this year #donotrecommendplssaveme. Anyways, in class we are forced to read an article in spanish and answer MCQs, its literally like the SAT but in spanish, not fun. The funny thing is that I learned Spanish 1 completely, didn't even touch the book for Spanish 2, and had no idea what was going on in Spanish 3. With this knowledge I am officially failing the class, but words that look similar in spanish and english and literally holding up my grade.
Sincerely,
Mrinmayee
I remember taking my three years of Spanish starting from 7th grade! Honestly, the first two years of learning was really fun because my teacher was fun and engaging, but the third year completely ruined the learning experience for me (mostly because my new teacher was boring). I also decided to learn Spanish because it seemed like the easiest one to tackle due to lingual similarities. I think the best way for me to remember stuff back then was to actually have conversations with peers using the words I needed to remember. After around two years of not practicing the language, I have completely forgotten everything, which, I know, is a huge shame. At least it was a fun experience.
-Angel Susantin
Spanish class is literally the bane of my existence at times. I understand that learning other cultures is important, but I find it so difficult to learn the grammatical rules and words. Like you, I thought that Spanish would be an easy language to learn because it was similar to English, BUT BOY WAS I WRONG. I know that some people say that it is easy, but they are liars. There is no such thing as an easy language to learn in my opinion. Thank you for reassuring me that I am not the odd man out for being bad at Spanish.