How many different versions of Spanish do you speak?

Chip · #1 05-21-2009, 04:20 PM

In my somewhat long journey over the years trying to perfect my Spanish, I have come to realize that I speak normally two to three "versions" or "grades" of Spanish and typically do not always have control over when I use them.

For example, the lowest "grade" is with a overly strong English accent with a penchant for not using unfamiliar words and expressions. The second grade is an intermediate one that is much more serviceable but that lacks the fluidity of my best Spanish. The highest grade I speak I think is pretty good for a non-native speaker, however, I am not always capable of speaking at this level on demand.

As it has been some time since I was able to distinguish between the levels of Spanish I speak, I have been on an investigative journey to understand how these great variations in quality have occurred. What I have generally found is that my worst Spanish is reserved for my family, my wife's family and friends and my best for formal meetings or casual conversations with strangers.

I have come to understand that the worst version I have is really motivated by laziness and the apathy at the fact that my wife's family knew me when my Spanish was really bad and thus since they have already formulated an opinion about my Spanish their is no reason to disappoint them by proving otherwise. My best Spanish, as I mentioned, is used in unfamiliar and new situations and is motivated by a deep desire to prove myself with no fear of old baggage "ie previous mistakes" to bring down my confidence. Also, too, I have noted that I typically use better Spanish in phone conversations, which would leave me to believe that there is less stress of failure - and thus the "free thinking" mentality one needs to speak fluidly predominates.

What got me really thinking about how to tap into this "higher grade" Spanish were two things. One because as my daughter's advance in school and I have to help them with homework, it is only naturally I would want my Spanish to be a free from defects as possible in order to give my daughters the best advantage possible and two, I recently got some work here in the DR and I don't want to embarrass myself using my lazy Spanish.

The end result is I have been looking for motivational tools/impetus to keep me sharp. Obviously, wanting to do better for my daughters and my career goals are important and the real reason I am doing this, but apart from that I have been trying to recognize other things that I can do or think about that provide a real mechanism to focus on.

As I have mentioned before in other threads, sometimes I speak my best Spanish is when I play a mental game as if I were actually of Hispanic descendancy - basically an imitation act. Apparently, I do this because I have a feeling that tells me that the real me could never speak Spanish well and this is a good way to get around it - as "I'm" not really talking but merely imitating a native speaker. I have wanted to tap into this potential, but have had difficulty doing it for the most part. However, with these new motivations to speak well I have found that I am actually now more comfortable speaking Spanish well, ie I don't have the mental block so much that I really couldn't do it. Furthermore, I have also come to realize that Dominicans or other Spanish speakers honestly don't appreciate my lower grade Spanish and do so much more prefer the higher grade, whether imitated or not.

As I still constantly looking for "models" of spoken Spanish to emulate, I have grown somewhat out of imitating common overbearing Dominican Spanish accents and idiosyncrasies and instead am modeling my Spanish after more "generic" influences. One such influence is an older gentleman that I have played golf with and is also a member of my church. He is Spanish but came to the DR some 50 years ago and really speaks some of the prettiest Spanish I have heard.

Any, thought I would share this with you guys and am interested in hearing about other peoples journeys to speak Spanish well as a second or third language.

Roshe! · #2 05-21-2009, 05:14 PM

The JOURNEY to Spanish fluency and mental block free Spanish is really dependent on the method with which you have learnt it.

Spanish..lizing an English fluent mind could really be an herculean task without the right approach.Boy, l struggled relentlessly when l first came..... but l kept at it.In my search,l came in contact with Marcus Santamaria,an American who now teaches Spanish in Mexico/Australia and to the world via internet.He also narrated his experience of mental blocks and his failed attempts trying to tap into the high grade Spanish that you talked about.

I came close to his learning resources as he began to show how to avoid those mental block,findtune one's ear to fast speakers and observe native speaker as they speak.I speak a lot better now with minimal mistakes & my Spanish speaking is not two years old.I learn and improve dialy,rehearse conversations ahead of time in my mind,replay my Spanish speaking every night,correcting myself and my Spanish diccionary is a great companion.It is an active but fun-packed process for me.I love to initiate discussions with Spanish-speakers,made friends and l learnt more.

My Spanish self training is one l cant graduate from,because l have come to develop a strong passion for Spanish.One of the days l should maybe publish my thoughts on concepts..l have mastered in Spanish.
Cheers!

Chip · #3 05-22-2009, 09:14 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Roshe!

The JOURNEY to Spanish fluency and mental block free Spanish is really dependent on the method with which you have learnt it.

Spanish..lizing an English fluent mind could really be an herculean task without the right approach.Boy, l struggled relentlessly when l first came..... but l kept at it.In my search,l came in contact with Marcus Santamaria,an American who now teaches Spanish in Mexico/Australia and to the world via internet.He also narrated his experience of mental blocks and his failed attempts trying to tap into the high grade Spanish that you talked about.

I came close to his learning resources as he began to show how to avoid those mental block,findtune one's ear to fast speakers and observe native speaker as they speak.I speak a lot better now with minimal mistakes & my Spanish speaking is not two years old.I learn and improve dialy,rehearse conversations ahead of time in my mind,replay my Spanish speaking every night,correcting myself and my Spanish diccionary is a great companion.It is an active but fun-packed process for me.I love to initiate discussions with Spanish-speakers,made friends and l learnt more.

My Spanish self training is one l cant graduate from,because l have come to develop a strong passion for Spanish.One of the days l should maybe publish my thoughts on concepts..l have mastered in Spanish.
Cheers!

Sounds like you are really doing well after only two years. Based on how long it has taken me to speak relativley well you are on a real fast track, keep up the good work.

Fiesta Mama · #4 05-22-2009, 10:17 AM

I too am strongly motivated to constantly improve my Spanish. Like you Chip, it’s a necessity for me as my husband is Dominican and few family and friends speak any English so if I want to be part of the family in an interactive way (which is very important if you want to fit in), I need to make the effort to speak the best I can. I have consistently improved my Spanish over the past five years to a level that I would consider verbally fluent, however, at times, I too feel like I have varying levels of control over how well I am able to speak in any given situation. I am still at a much lower level when it comes to reading and writing but I am able to read and write at a level that would be okay in everyday situations but not if I wanted to work in an office or something like that.

I think the way you learn initially has a big impact on the way you speak but over time, the way you learned becomes less important because the better you get, you are able to improve with less help from outside sources because you have a better grasp on the language to see yourself when you are making mistakes and are able to correct them. For example, I mostly learned from immersion from interacting with my husband’s family and friends and listening to the way they pronounced things and they way they spoke. I took a few Spanish classes but I did not find that they really helped a lot because I found that I was usually much better at the pronunciation and conversation than the other students but sometimes my grammar and proper sentence structure was lacking so classes were frustrating. Therefore, I have found that in order to improve my Spanish in terms of grammar and sentence structure, self-teaching has worked the best. I started by buying easy readers in Spanish and looked up words I did not understand. I also bought text books and worked through the exercises. I found that writing down verbs and all of the proper forms for I, you, he/she, we, they, etc. and then studying them really helped.

Being able to practice on a daily basis is key and it must be with a native speaker. If it were not for the fact that my husband and I communicate in Spanish as much as we do in English, I don’t think I would have progressed to where I am now. I am no longer in the Dominican Republic but by talking to a native speaker and constantly talking on the phone to friends and family, I am constantly able to improve and evaluate my pronunciation, etc. I am now at a level that on a subconscious basis I am able to think in Spanish. Also, at times, I will be speaking to someone in English and a Spanish word comes out, which is quite weird but I am usually able to catch myself before it comes out. Does this happen to anyone else?

I still find at times that some people that speak Spanish at a lower level and really fast are harder to understand than those who speak proper Spanish. Why is this? I don’t have that same problem in English. I have heard some pretty bad English from native speakers but I am always able to completely understand what they are saying. Maybe I am still at a level that I am only able to process “proper” Spanish and I’m not able to distinguish well between different accents or levels of Spanish?

You mention the types of situations in which your level of Spanish varies. I find that I am able to speak at a higher level with people I know possibly because I feel more comfortable? However, I think it’s because when I am speaking to people that I have not seen for a long time, I want them to see how I have improved so it’s like I have something to prove to them that I am now one of them and can communicate at their level. Also, I don’t know if anyone else has had this experience but I find that if I have had a few drinks, my Spanish improves exponentially. My husband has even commented that at times when I have had a few drinks and we are at a party, etc., if it were not for the fact that I am blonde and obviously not a native to the Dominican Republic, one would not know that I was not a native Spanish speaker. I don’t think this is because I feel less shy about speaking when I’m drinking because right from the beginning I have never been shy about speaking to people, even when my Spanish was very basic, so I don’t know why I am better able to drop my accent in this situation and not at other times?

One thing worth mentioning that I am pretty certain of is that if you are not a native Spanish speaker, it would be much easier to lose what you have learned if you depart from the country or from speaking it on a regular basis. For example, I don’t think it would be easy for me to lose my English if I were to live in the Dominican Republic full time and didn’t speak English regularly but if I were to not continue practicing Spanish regularly, no matter how fluent I am now, I think I could eventually lose it. Does anyone else agree with me and why do you think that is? I suppose the longer we speak a language the more ingrained it is in our mind?

Chip · #5 05-24-2009, 12:01 PM

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