How I Became Fluent in Spanish Studying On My Own
TLDRThe speaker shares their journey to becoming fluent in Spanish, emphasizing that fluency involves the ability to engage in extended, real-time conversations with native speakers, understand complex grammar, and use the language in professional settings like court translations. They recount their initial struggles with learning Spanish in high school and later as a deputy sheriff in Florida, where they were immersed in the Mexican Spanish-speaking community. The speaker highlights the importance of embracing the subjunctive mood in Spanish, which they initially overlooked, and offers tips for learning it effectively. They also discuss the use of cognates to expand vocabulary and the strategy of using set phrases or sentence fragments to construct sentences more quickly in real-time conversations. The video provides practical advice for learners, including the use of three key verbs (poder, querer, and tener que) to form sentences and the speaker's personal techniques for thinking in English while translating to Spanish for fluent conversations.
Takeaways
- 🗣️ Fluency is defined as the ability to have extended conversations with native speakers in real time, with an understandable accent and complex grammatically correct sentences.
- 📚 The speaker became fluent in Spanish in about a year and a half, using Spanish for work as a deputy sheriff, where it was crucial for translations to be legally sound.
- 📚🌱 Starting with basic Spanish, the speaker learned present tense and preterite, which are important for law enforcement due to the nature of discussing past events.
- 📚🇲🇽 Recognizing the differences in regional Spanish dialects is important; the speaker focused on Mexican Spanish due to the local population of migrant farm workers.
- 📚🔍 The subjunctive mood was a significant aspect of Spanish that the speaker initially overlooked, but later embraced as crucial for fluency.
- 📚🔑 Understanding and using both the indicative and subjunctive moods in Spanish is essential for correct language use.
- 📚🔠 The importance of learning grammar as a blueprint for language construction, which was a pivotal realization for the speaker's fluency.
- 📚📈 Utilizing cognates (words with common linguistic roots) to expand vocabulary quickly without memorizing every word.
- 📚✅ The effectiveness of using set phrases or sentence fragments to construct sentences more rapidly in real-time conversations.
- 📚🔄 The strategy of thinking in English and translating using learned phrases, which can be faster than attempting to think directly in Spanish.
- 📚🌐 The speaker's continued use of Spanish in personal and professional life, emphasizing the long-term benefits and practical applications of language fluency.
Q & A
How does the speaker define fluency in a language?
-The speaker defines fluency as the ability to carry on extended conversations with native speakers in real time, with an understandable accent, creating complex grammatically correct sentences, and being able to understand and respond to the majority of what is being said without significant delays.
What was the speaker's profession that required him to learn Spanish?
-The speaker was a deputy sheriff and needed Spanish for his work, particularly for communication and translations in a county with a large population of Spanish-speaking migrant farm workers.
What was the speaker's initial experience with learning Spanish in high school?
-The speaker almost failed high school Spanish, barely passing with a grade of D, and found the teaching methods unhelpful and frustrating.
Why did the speaker initially struggle with learning Spanish despite buying a basic Spanish book?
-The speaker struggled because the book was not tailored to Mexican Spanish, which was the dialect predominantly spoken in his area, and it lacked information on the subjunctive mood, which he later discovered was crucial for fluent conversation.
What is the significance of the subjunctive mood in learning Spanish according to the speaker?
-The subjunctive mood is significant because it is intertwined with the indicative mood throughout the language, and knowing both is essential for speaking Spanish correctly. The speaker emphasizes that avoiding the subjunctive will hinder one's ability to speak the language well.
What is the speaker's opinion on the advice given by some YouTubers about not learning Spanish grammar?
-The speaker strongly disagrees with this advice, considering it to be the dumbest advice ever heard. He argues that learning grammar is more efficient than trying to acquire the language solely through immersion, as it provides a blueprint for constructing sentences.
How did the speaker increase his vocabulary in Spanish without memorizing every word?
-The speaker focused on cognates, words in two different languages that share common linguistic roots. He used tricks like converting English words ending in 'tion' to Spanish by changing the 't' to 'c' and adding an accent over the 'o', thus expanding his vocabulary without memorizing each word individually.
What are the three verbs the speaker used as sentence starters to speak more quickly in Spanish?
-The three verbs are 'poder' (to be able to), 'querer' (to want), and 'tener que' (to have to). These verbs were already conjugated, allowing the speaker to quickly insert other unconjugated verbs into sentences.
How did the speaker view the language to keep up with real-time conversations?
-The speaker stopped viewing the language as separate words and started viewing it as a series of sentence fragments or phrases, which allowed him to create more complex sentences in real time.
What technique did the speaker use to construct sentences in real time without translating the entire sentence in his head first?
-The speaker used the technique of stringing together pre-learned phrases or 'train cars' to form sentences. This method allowed him to speak fluently while buying time to think of the next part of the sentence.
How long did it take the speaker to become fluent in Spanish using these techniques?
-The speaker became fluent in Spanish in less than two years, approximately a year and a half, using the techniques he describes.
Outlines
🗣️ Defining Fluency and Personal Spanish Learning Journey
The speaker shares their definition of fluency, contrasting superficial fluency—such as being able to ask for prices in a local market—with true fluency, which involves engaging in extended, complex conversations in real-time and understanding the majority of responses. Fluency, to them, means their translations could be legally dependable, a necessity in their former role as a deputy sheriff. Using their own experiences, they describe how they achieved fluency in Spanish in about a year and a half by immersing themselves in the language amidst a community of predominantly Mexican migrant farm workers in Florida, overcoming initial struggles with Spanish in high school.
📘 Embracing the Complexities of Spanish: Indicative vs. Subjunctive
This paragraph details the discovery of the subjunctive mood in Spanish, which the speaker initially confused with the indicative mood. Realizing the importance of mastering both moods to achieve fluency, the speaker encourages learners to embrace the subjunctive and learn its proper usage. They recount buying an advanced grammar book that helped understand and apply grammatical rules, ultimately speeding up their learning process. The speaker argues against the notion of learning Spanish without understanding grammar, emphasizing the efficiency of learning through grammatical structures.
🚀 Techniques for Speaking Spanish Faster
The speaker outlines practical techniques to improve Spanish conversation speed, focusing on using conjugated sentence starters to quickly form thoughts and sentences. They detail using three main verbs—poder (to be able), querer (to want), and tener que (to have to)—pre-conjugated to streamline speaking. Additionally, they describe how viewing language as phrases or sentence fragments, rather than individual words, aids in forming complex sentences more quickly. Using specific phrases that trigger the subjunctive mood is highlighted as a technique to maintain grammatical accuracy while speaking fluidly.
🔗 Stringing Phrases Together to Enhance Conversational Fluency
The speaker explains using set expressions and sentence fragments as a technique for maintaining fluency in conversation. They use examples to demonstrate how they start sentences with phrases that buy time to formulate further thoughts, enabling them to keep up with native speakers. The approach allows for complex sentence construction using various triggers for the subjunctive mood. The speaker advocates for this method as a means to fluency, emphasizing its effectiveness over simply trying to translate thoughts from English to Spanish directly.
🌟 Recap of Learning Spanish: Practical Applications and Continued Use
The speaker summarizes their journey to Spanish fluency, noting the importance of the subjunctive and indicative moods in speaking correctly. They recount how Spanish played a significant role in their professional life as a law enforcement officer, including conducting undercover operations in Spanish, and how it remains a vital part of their personal life with their Colombian wife. They encourage learners to explore the language techniques discussed on their channel, emphasizing how such strategies have enriched their understanding and use of Spanish in various contexts.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Fluency
💡Subjunctive Mood
💡Indicative Mood
💡Cognates
💡Sentence Fragments
💡Law Enforcement
💡Spanish Grammar
💡Tips and Techniques
💡Translation
💡Language Immersion
💡Personal Experience
Highlights
Fluency in a language is defined as the ability to carry on extended conversations with native speakers in real time, with an understandable accent and complex grammatically correct sentences.
The speaker became fluent in Spanish in less than two years, with a focus on real-world application for work as a deputy sheriff.
Fluency was also measured by the ability to provide translations that could stand up in a court of law.
The importance of choosing the right Spanish dialect book based on the region you intend to communicate with, as there are significant differences in vocabulary.
The discovery of the subjunctive mood in Spanish, which is crucial for fluency and was not well-covered in the speaker's high school education.
Grammar is a blueprint for the language and embracing grammatical rules was a key to reaching fluency.
The misconception that learning grammar is a waste of time is debunked; grammatical knowledge significantly aids in language acquisition.
Utilizing cognates, words with common linguistic roots, can greatly increase vocabulary without needing to memorize every word.
The 'tion/cion' cognate trick can convert many English words into Spanish by changing the last 't' to 'c' and adding an accent over the 'o'.
Relying on three sentence starters (poder, quiero, tener que) can help construct sentences quickly without conjugating every verb.
Viewing the language as a series of sentence fragments or phrases rather than separate words can facilitate real-time conversation.
Learning sentence fragments that trigger the subjunctive mood can streamline the process of constructing sentences in Spanish.
The technique of stringing phrases together to create sentences in real-time is highly effective for achieving fluency.
The speaker's fluency in Spanish was not only for personal use but was also a critical tool in a 25-year law enforcement career.
The integration of Spanish into the speaker's personal life with a Colombian wife and living in Mexico further solidified their language skills.
The channel offers various resources such as cognate tricks, subjunctive lessons, and videos on Spanish phrases to aid viewers in their language learning journey.
Transcripts
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