I have to agree with some of the Comments on this video. Learning isn't easy, nor is it hard. It's time & dedication. I use to think that learning Spanish was impossible, because I felt like I wasn't learning much as a result of me not putting in enough time on studying the language, plus the lack of motivation. So I saw Spanish as being hard, A half od year later I tried studying Spanish again, this time I learn so much and obtained a good lvl of fluency, because this time I was motivated and made time to study everyday a few times a day, doing study material, review and listen and watch movies and songs in Spanish. So for me learning Spanish ha nothing to do with difficulty, but just how much time and dedication you put into learning it.
Dude, Hell yeah. This type of mindset "oh this language is hard" is bullshit. Study and enjoy the process, youll become better and better. Just keep on moving forward
In Spanish, we use "¿" for indicating we are about to read a question, so we know that it's necessary to change the intonation in order to sound like a question, otherwise, it can sound like a statement, an affirmative sentence. The same occurs with an exclamation ("¡").
soy hispanohablante y solo te puedo admirar y felicitar por la gran cantidad de idiomas que manejas!! Bendiciones y Gracias por usar su tiempo para compartirlo con nosotros, en mi caso particular estoy aprendiendo francés y mejorando mi inglés bye.
As you know, many Spanish statements and questions can only be told apart from the intonation, unlike in English, where your "do" at the start provides the necessary clue. If a question starts on one line, but the only question mark is on the next line, chances are you'll read the question as if it was a statement... Before you realise you're made a mistake. The ¿ provides an univocal signal, plus both symbols allow us to change the and emphasis in the middle of a sentence wit absolute precision. In English you have to resort to shall tricks to do this.
There are a few things for how to learn Spanish Decide precisely why you want to learn Spanish Try to speak Spanish in your everyday life Decide what method works for you best. (I discovered about these and more on Alijha language course website )
the reason why he's saying that it's because other languages (such as Italian) have the same "intonation rule" but they don't use the question mark at the beginning of the sentence
Spanish is awesome. And when I decided to move on to Catalan (mainly for my girlfriend who's from Valencia) spanish proved itself as a real key to other languages. I must admit, I've grown to prefer the catalan language and culture more than spanish ahaha, but Spanish is still that language that I never get tired of. Greetings from Manchester England Steve!
+Gritty Spanish problem I have is that the conversational tempo of Spanish is quite swift so I get lost trying to hear what is being said. but I will not give up, been studying Spanish for a few years now and I ve improved but it can get quite frustrating when I cant understand what someone is saying because it sounds too fast...
indeed, we don't miss the upside down question mark or the exclamation mark at a front of a sentence or a word, we don't use it when we're chatting on the internet for example, we only use it at formal stuffs, like at school, when you write an essay or a test, you have to put those marks, but they dont do any difference really, they are just there idk why
spanish is my mother tongue it's an amazing language but I think that at first it could be difficult for some people to learn it, but like steve says by repetition anybody can learn a language. grandioso video
Hi Steve, thanks for the video! I'm about 4 months into learning Spanish and it's going slowly thus far. It's my first time learning a new language, I'm 32. I'm a subscriber at lingq now and have tried a few beginner 2 lessons without much comprehension, they were quite difficult, especially listening to the audio but I'm trusting that eventually it'll come together. Love your vids, as others have said make them as long as you want, your advice is invaluable!
I like your videos...they are practical and to the point... spanish is what I would like to learn and you have helpful tips for beginners... thank you for these videos
Great great vid! The first four minutes were really beautiful and tuned into why I want to learn another language. It's about culture and people and opening up other worlds. Committed to learning Spanish after this. ¡Viva espana! :)
Si hombre es un video superficial de 10 minutos. No es un tratado en profundidad sobre la cultura hispana. Sólo digo lo que me viene a la mente. Si este te decepciona, no tengo nada que decir.
Thank you so much for helping me along everyone with this journey. You mentioned the exclamation point and question mark in the front and the back of the sentence and not knowing why. I don't know either. But, if I were to imagine why they are in the front would be to make it easier to express the writing. Sometimes in while we are reading out loud to others in English, we have to quickly look to the end of the sentence to see the exclamation point or question mark to see if we put more energy into it or make the sound of a question. I am excited. I subscribed and I will keep watching your videos. Thank you :o)
...continuing, with the inverted marks at the beginning, one can correctly pronounce a question or exclamation, making it sound more natural for listeners. The marks also need to be inverted, otherwise one could misunderstand them as part of the previous sentence, which they're not.
Hehe I feel exactly the same as you. Also, he forgot to mention that there are a lot of people who speak it in over 22 countries (almost 500 million total). So you can have fun speaking it with so many people. Also some of the Latin American countries like Mexico, Argentina and even to a lesser extent Chile have large economies and are emerging nations
For Brazilian person learning Spanish isn't as difficult as you think, because when you're struggling to learn a language you must think in your target language, however to Latino people is so easy to understand what people are saying in Spanish because of similarity of both languages and that is my main aim now, learn as fast as I can Spanish.
doing really well. I'm almost at the 1-year mark and I haven't skipped a day on LingQ. About 9000 known words and I'm very happy with my comprehension level. @@sodacan1090
Si, tienes mucha razón, sin embargo yo prefiero poder poner el signo, así queda claro y sabes que entonación poner. Además: en español es correcto enmarcar una frase con la apertura de la admiración (¡) y el cierre de la interrogación (?), o viceversa, en casos que compartan claramente lo admirativo y lo interrogativo, como ¡Quién te has creído que eres?. También es correcto poner dos signos ¡¡Hala!! o simplemente uno al final como en inglés! Interesante, ¿no?.
Muy buenos consejos Sr. Kaufmann. El español es un idioma muy bonito y muy rico. Me gusto particularmente su analisis del idioma con respecto a las posibles dificultades de este. Como un plus, si estudias español puedes leer El Quijote de la Mancha en su idioma original. Saludos desde Peru :D
I already know Spanish cuz It's my native language but idk. It's kinda interesting to watch it ❤️ By the way, thanks for all your videos because they're help me a lot 😊🍒❣
I was taught that the upside down ? and ! at the beginning of sentences was to clarify as you read is an exclamation or question at the beginning before you read to the end of the sentence.
You just have to stay the course and not worry about you don't understand. I hope you enjoy the process. If this is your first foreign language, it will take longer for the brain to get used to the new language.
Hola Steve, me ha gustado mucho el vídeo y que bien que te guste tanto mi país. Un apunte solo, ya que dices que no sabes por qué nosotros usamos el signo de interrogación y exclamación al inicio y al final de una frase. Bien, en inglés, para preguntar, cambiais el orden del verbo y el sujeto: I can do it / Can I do it?. En español no se cambia, se dice igual y es por ello que necesitamos el signo al principio, para poder identificar que se trata de una pregunta: Puedo hacerlo / ¿Puedo hacerlo?
I'm Panamanian I speak English, Italian, Spanish in that order...Spanish has some advantages but it doesn't really teach you how to breakdown a lot of words quicker, how to decode words and the usage of certain letters when you're reading other languages quicker like Italian and French...For Example, Good Morning in Polish it's Dzien Dorby but the breakdown in English is Jen Dohbri (jean dobrah)
Steve, I would love to see you do a video about how many Anglicisms are becoming used in Spanish (and I'm sure other languages!). I don't know how I feel about it. For example, I just was listening to a Spanish guy, and he said "Yo pensé que el show fue muy cool! Escribanme con el hashtag..." etc etc. There's like an English word all the time with modern things. It is my second language, I absolutely love Spanish, I just wish English wasn't butchering it! I am moving to Madrid in 3 days! Woo!
8:26 You don't know why we open a question with the inverted question mark? That's because positive statements and questions have no difference when it comes to their construction. So, how is a reader supposed to know whether he should read it with a positive statement or question intonation? I'm pretty sure every language has a way to indicate whether what you're reading is a positive statement or question. Even English. In English you don't open a question with an exclamation mark, but you do use question words and auxiliary verbs. Thus the reader know how he should read it.
Ciro Galli Not really. In Polish you can build identically similar sentences, which differ just by the question mark. For example: "Jesteś studentem." and "Jesteś studentem?" Meaning respectively "You are a student." and "Are you a student?". I have to admit, though that in Polish there are lots of various syntax structures and this is just one of them.
Piotr Czajkowski No. In polish to make a question that has a yes or no answer you have to begin it with a "czy". So the grammatically correct question should be "czy jesteś studentem?"
I can speak about Arabic since I don't speak Arabic. However, I would like to learn Arabic because of the rich culture connected with that language. When I do, I will make a video in Arabic and I will speak about .
Gosto muito de ver estrangeiros que falam a minha língua! Eu sou um fanático por português, e acho que deveria ser mais estudado por pessoas que queirem uma segunda língua, ou até mesmo por aqueles que querem falar mais de 4 línguas! Até mais!
I BELIEVE the reason for the up-side-down question-mark at the beginning of a Spanish sentence is logical and necessary. Unlike English where you often change a sentence from a statement to a question by reversing the subject-verb order, Spanish tends NOT to do that. Most Spanish sentences are subject-then-verb order. Therefore often the ONLY way you know whether a sentence is a statement or a question is by context or vocal inflection. First of all, in written language, there is NO audible vocal inflection. And often, especially in a solitary written-sentence, there is no discernable context. Therefore, the up-side-down question-mark, preceding the sentence, is required and necessary to indicate whether the reader is contemplating a statement or a question. ¿That is clear?
Gracias por la explicación. Sin embargo, en portugués, que es muy similar al español, no se usa el punto de interrogación o exclamación al inicio de una frase. Bueno, cada idioma tiene sus particularidades.
I am in Spanish in school but of course I don't learn anything in school. Spanish interest me and I started studying at home but don't know where to start. If i should start with reading, audio books, or what. I was looking at Pimsluer but i can't learn Spanish just from a audio book.(i suppose it would be a good start)
If anyone, who speaks english, wants to practice the spanish with me, i would be glad to help (I'm a native from Venezuela). And of course, it should want to help me with my english.
I just wanna add a comment about Spanish inverted question and exclamation marks at the beginning of a phrase. One time I heard from a professor that they use this system to help a reader to easily note that a phrase is not an affirmation, but a exclamation or a question and correctly tone the sentence. For example, in other languages when people read loudly to an audience, is quite common to note only at the end of the phrase that it wasn't an affirmation...and it sounds a bit weird.
Mr Kaufman. Your Spanish is that of an high school dropout. But thank you for recommending italki.com Every evening I have 1 hour tutoring with a teacher from Mexico City.
Spanish language is one of the most studied in the world. And the second most spoken in the world in terms of native language by the number of countries that speak Spanish .If someone wants to learn Spanish " Argentine " and helps me improve my English bad , we can share knowledge . I am from Buenos Aires. Greetings
No, el termino despectivo que usan los ingleses es "argie" que tampoco es taaan terrible, es como un diminutivo. "Argentine" fue el gentilicio original acuñado por la enciclopedia británica, y no era nada despectivo. "Argentinian" fue la palabra que inventaron los yankees, que ni se gastaron en consultar la enciclopedia británica para enterarse que ya había una palabra y pusieron a lo cabeza el "ian" que usaron para un montón de paises del continente.
mandarin toma 2 años y medio para un nivel intermedio (mas o menos un B1) no depende de la inteligencia depende mas de la actitud y de las razones detras de aprender
Yo estudiando Espanol para tres razones (1) una novia colombiana (2) trabajo en organizaciones internacionles seis lenguas oficiales de Naciones Unidas y (3) cultura mas fascinate
Te voy a corregir un poco tu texto: "Yo estoy estudiando español por tres razones: 1) Tengo una novia colombiana. 2) Trabajo en organizaciones internacionales de Naciones Unidas que tienen seis lenguas oficiales. 3) Me fascina la cultura hispánica." Saludos.
Roman Soiko Teniendo una novia colombiana, vas a dominar muy rápido el español. ¡Éxitos! Having a colombian girlfriend will help you master spanish soon. Sucess!
¿Podrías hacer un vídeo explicando cómo se puede aprender a hablar mandarín por cuenta propia?. ¿Qué recursos hay disponibles?(aparte de tú website). Por dónde es preferible empezar a atacar al monstruo. Tiempo requerido para aprender por cuenta propia, con una inteligencia promedio. Gracias.
I was so against learning Spanish for the longest time. For some reason I just thought it was an ugly, ickly language. But lately, I've been changing my opinion. Portuguese is still better in my opinion though =P Great to hear your story, Steve. You are definitely right about all the advantages learning Spanish has.
Steve, I just noticed that when I slow down a movie by 20 or 30 percent using VLC media, I can understand about 95 percent of what they are saying in Spanish. Is slowing down videos or asking Spanish-speakers to speak slower a good thing to do? Will I ever be able to understand them no matter how fast they speak?
hey don't worry that's normal when we are learning a new language we understand a certain amount of the language but as you get more used to the language and you listen more and more eventually you will understand people no matter how fast they speak, it happened to me in english, and now i can understand people when they speak faster , you only have to train yourself to the sounds of spanish through listening as much as you can but the key is to listen to native spanish speaker. if need more tips on how to understand when people speak fast, just let me know.
you're welcome. ok. email me here this is my email : bladythereby@gmail.com i'm on google in case you're interested in practicing speaking or need some help with your spanish.. i also need to practice my english speaking as much as i can.
Steve, you don't need to spend the first five minutes trying to convince us why we should learn Spanish, especially when the video is called tips for learning Spanish. Most of us know why we learn it and each has to decide for himself if it is worth the effort. I understand that motivation plays a large role in determining your success, but that applies to language (actually pretty much any subject) in general, not just Spanish.
I can Recomend you "Cadena Ser" www.cadenaser.com/ Also you can check the National Spanish Radio (channel 5 is all about news) www.rtve.es/radio/radio5/ :) Hope you find them interesting
i have a question if you don't mind .. after i finish spanish it will be easy to learn french ? is learning spanish make me ahead to learn french or not ?
+Khaled Fadl hi everyone ,if anyone else wants to learn about how to speak spanish language easily try Megarno Spanish Software Magician (Have a quick look on google cant remember the place now ) ? Ive heard some unbelievable things about it and my cousin got great success with it.
es solo un dato como para tener en cuenta. si te acostumbras a usar el tu, como en la mayoria de los piases de habla hispana, puede q te llame la atencion cuando escuches hablar a un argentino, uruguayo o un tico.
lo que si creo es que si vas a un pais que usa el voseo , lo mejor es no utilizarlo si usas el "tu" , porque igual te van a entender y puede resultar confuso para uno mismo tratar de recordarlo. es mi consejo al menos de mi experiencia
si, va estar bien. sino puede generar confusión en recordar cuando se usa. el mejor ejemplo es que cuando un español viaja a un pais donde se usa el voseo, no cambia para hablar con la otra persona. Mucho menos un aprendiz de este idioma
Good videos... but the caption above verges on tautology... if one didn't have "the motivation".. Why would one want to learn Spanish in the first place?
not been rude but in the beginning of the video you said haiti speaks spanish. just to correct you they speak french and french creole. but very interesting video sir steve
Admittedly I was having some fun with the pedantry, but I'd expect some more cultural and geographic sensitivity from someone like Steve. Yes he did skip all the small countries (but he remembered haiti?) which is why I called him out on it because he said ALL of Latin America. And he did imply that Spain is a part of Latin America by saying "all of latin America except [A, B, and C]", but I agree at this point nitpicking is not constructive since most likely he was mashing together two different thought processes on the fly to say that Spain is not a part of America.
A mí parecer, el español es relativamente fácil para las personas que lo aprenden solo para conversar y no para utilizarlo a nivel profesional porque incluso para nosotros, los nativos, este idioma tiene demasiadas reglas que sino fuera por la carrera que escogimos y que nos exige precisión léxica nunca corregiríamos.
I'd suggest replacing the word 'easy' with 'straightforward' :) Sure Spanish is relatively straightforward, but it still requires a couple of years of solid passionate effort, with a huge desire to improve (for a typical person who also has a job/studies that aren't Spanish related). 'Easy' for me, means a task that you can do with minimal effort and near certainty of success... like going into a supermarket and buying a pizza....
His tip is that the motivation makes it easier to learn, and he is giving reasons why one should be motivated to learn and go visit these great cultures.
As a native spanish speaker I also find a little absurd and funny that we are the only ones who use opening exclamation and interrogation simbols ¿¡ actually in informal writing we don't even bother to use them, there's no practical need.
se entiende tu idea, pero unas pequeñas correciones....español es muy facil,''el problema es grande con la conjugacion de los verbos porque hay muchos'' asi seria mas correcto pero como tu lo pusiste si se entiende saludos
NO LANGUAGE IS EASY TO LEARN, AND THIS STATEMENT SHOULD "NEVER" BE USED WHEN ENCOURAGING SOMEONE TO LEARN A SECOND LANGUAGE! What I find easy will not be easy to someone else! Asians think their languages are easy; are they easy to you Mr. Kaufmann? The two killers of folk's dreams in becoming bilingual is to be told that it is easy or a certain language can be learned rapidly. No language is hard or easy, it's the commitment. The emphasis is on your commitment in becoming bilingual. When I was in college, I made straight A's because I put in the time. My friends did not care as much and did not make straight A's. I generally like the advice Mr. Kaufmann gives, but he is wrong on the "easy" part. When it comes to learning a given language, it is neither easy nor difficult. It is all about one's motivational level and his desire to achieve his goal. I love Spanish, and it is not difficult TO ME! My friends find it extremely vexing. I by no means would ever contradict their beliefs but would attack their motivation. There is a language acquisition theory much like there is in Music Theory that I have come to realize. In other words, there is a psychosocial aspect of acquiring any language, and there are do's and don'ts that should NEVER be said to an eager learner It is akin to someone liking Calculus and spends most of his time telling others how easy it is. The key to conquering Spanish or Calculus is motivation and commitment!
I totally agree with your comments. It drives me insane when people like Lord Steve makes such comments which can upset a lot of people yet I find this incredible as he has his own language learning system (Lingqs) that he wants to flog to us plebs who struggle daily with this language learning... Thanks for stickin up for the little guy...aka me and about 1 Billion others...................
Actually some languages are easier to learn than others at the beginning. The operative word is 'at the beginning'. Like Chinese, for example, is very hard at the beginning, it has a 'high barrier to entry' if you will, a lot of people start learning it but get discouraged later on. However, once you get through that high barrier to entry Chinese gets a lot easier. Spanish is the other way around, especially for English speakers: it's really easy at the beginning. If you already know English, it's really easy to pick up 'basic Spanish' - but it gets harder as you go along. The verb system in Spanish is the main difficulty, it's really complex but you don't have to deal with that at the beginning, so it seems easy.
Igor Faslyev We simply have to agree to disagree because again, one can only speak for himself. It is akin to telling my child that a certain beginner course is easy because I excelled in it. There are too many secondary variances that you are overlooking when you or anyone else makes blanket statements as such. If you were to say that you found Chinese to be very difficult and Spanish to be rather easy, that is a true statement of fact. A person who is not necessarily gifted but has always liked anything and everything to do with Asians, Asia or the orient might beg to differ. I simply think we thread a slippery slope when we tell folk what should come easy or hard to them. THERE ARE NO EASY OR HARD LANGUAGES IN THE WORLD! THERE WE NO EASY OR HARD COLLEGE COURSES! It simply depends on where one's motivation lie. All statements should be qualified with "I have found" or "It has been my experience that." I am interested in AMHARIC which is the equivalent of calculus in my mind's eye, but I have always been fascinated with Ethiopia and Ethiopians. I did quite well in college, having graduated twice Summa Cum Laude. I took courses that I really enjoyed and did not understand why my friends received lower marks. Should I have made a declarative statement and said that the courses were easy, and they should have gotten an A? My point is, overstatements causes thousands of folk to drop out of language due to discouragement. I have seen it too many times! Perhaps Asians might find English, Spanish, or any other Western language to be very difficult. Remember YOU found certain languages easier than others. YOU represent Igor Faslyev and no more. I cannot tell another person what he/she will find difficult. Everyone told me that certain courses and certain teachers were impossible to pass; I found them to be quite the opposite and earned an A. I heard Mr. Steve Kaufmann state that acquiring any language depends heavily upon "MOTIVATION!" When I speak with Igor, I want Igor to tell me what languages he found easy or difficult.
***** Not wanting to jump on the band wagon but I have to agree with Richard on this. I am a late learner (Almost 50 years of age) and have lived in Spain for almost 5 years now and decided that as this was going to be my new adopted country I should try and learn the language. For me it is extremely difficult. For the majority of ex-pats that I know they agree and most of them give up at the first hurdle. Therefore to blindly say that this is an easy language to learn is like saying climbing Mount Everest is an easy thing to do. My son on the other hand, he is 15 years old and speaks fluent Spanish. Being in school 5 days a week, having Spanish friends, classes taught in the language and general exposure all helps as does his age. All I am trying to say is that people should not generalize on how easy/hard a language is to learn but instead try and focus on the best ways to learn. It’s either that or I am totally thick and comments like this make me want to quit...they certainly do not stimulate me or encourage me to continue learning; what I consider to be a fantastic beautiful language that is Spanish....
Andy Stewart I lived in Germany for three years and did not learn German because it overwhelmed me. The same with 99% of the soldier there. I lived in El Paso (which is practically Mexico) for ten years and did not learn a thing. What I basically did for over 20 years was listen to others tell me what was best for me. I have tried everything at least 25 times but to no avail. When I did find certain Spanish classes I liked, folk were adamantly about telling me why I should not like them and how their methods were better. I recent told a certain person as to my excitement about a new method, and he immediately began to convince me why I should do it his way. The BIGGEST deterrent to acquiring another language and listening to "others. Due to continual disappointments in the last 11 months, I found a method want works for me without any other human intervention. I befriended a Mexican who used it and became fully bilingual in English. I also spoke (via internet) with an Egyptian who learned to speak, read and write perfect English by using it. It is not for everyone, but it is for me. Spain has been my fantasy since the age of 19. I do understand where you are coming from.
It's amazing to find a ten year old video that is as fresh and educational as when it was filmed. Thank you Steve for all of your wonderful content.
I have to agree with some of the Comments on this video. Learning isn't easy, nor is it hard. It's time & dedication. I use to think that learning Spanish was impossible, because I felt like I wasn't learning much as a result of me not putting in enough time on studying the language, plus the lack of motivation. So I saw Spanish as being hard, A half od year later I tried studying Spanish again, this time I learn so much and obtained a good lvl of fluency, because this time I was motivated and made time to study everyday a few times a day, doing study material, review and listen and watch movies and songs in Spanish. So for me learning Spanish ha nothing to do with difficulty, but just how much time and dedication you put into learning it.
Dude, Hell yeah. This type of mindset "oh this language is hard" is bullshit. Study and enjoy the process, youll become better and better. Just keep on moving forward
Spanish is my mother language but if it wasn't I'd totally learn it after this video, I feel flattered. Thanks a lot for this series of videos!!!
In Spanish, we use "¿" for indicating we are about to read a question, so we know that it's necessary to change the intonation in order to sound like a question, otherwise, it can sound like a statement, an affirmative sentence. The same occurs with an exclamation ("¡").
soy hispanohablante y solo te puedo admirar y felicitar por la gran cantidad de idiomas que manejas!! Bendiciones y Gracias por usar su tiempo para compartirlo con nosotros, en mi caso particular estoy aprendiendo francés y mejorando mi inglés bye.
Very good video, I almost understood you everything, I try to learn Eglish and you speak very easy, thanks Steve.
As you know, many Spanish statements and questions can only be told apart from the intonation, unlike in English, where your "do" at the start provides the necessary clue. If a question starts on one line, but the only question mark is on the next line, chances are you'll read the question as if it was a statement... Before you realise you're made a mistake. The ¿ provides an univocal signal, plus both symbols allow us to change the and emphasis in the middle of a sentence wit absolute precision. In English you have to resort to shall tricks to do this.
There are a few things for how to learn Spanish
Decide precisely why you want to learn Spanish
Try to speak Spanish in your everyday life
Decide what method works for you best.
(I discovered about these and more on Alijha language course website )
the reason why he's saying that it's because other languages (such as Italian) have the same "intonation rule" but they don't use the question mark at the beginning of the sentence
Thanks for commenting. I would also like to learn Catalan one day!
Spanish is awesome. And when I decided to move on to Catalan (mainly for my girlfriend who's from Valencia) spanish proved itself as a real key to other languages. I must admit, I've grown to prefer the catalan language and culture more than spanish ahaha, but Spanish is still that language that I never get tired of.
Greetings from Manchester England Steve!
How is your level now
You're a great booster of the Spanish language. Very inspirational.
Motivation!!!!! thats it right there, it's really easy to get boreddddd and just give up..
+Gritty Spanish problem I have is that the conversational tempo of Spanish is quite swift so I get lost trying to hear what is being said. but I will not give up, been studying Spanish for a few years now and I ve improved but it can get quite frustrating when I cant understand what someone is saying because it sounds too fast...
indeed, we don't miss the upside down question mark or the exclamation mark at a front of a sentence or a word, we don't use it when we're chatting on the internet for example, we only use it at formal stuffs, like at school, when you write an essay or a test, you have to put those marks, but they dont do any difference really, they are just there idk why
I fully agree. Learning any language is a long road. However if the voyage is pleasant and enjoyable, we don't mind.
I'm studying Spanish as my partner is from Seville. Your description of Spain was spot-on.
spanish is my mother tongue it's an amazing language but I think that at first it could be difficult for some people to learn it, but like steve says by repetition anybody can learn a language. grandioso video
Hi Steve, thanks for the video! I'm about 4 months into learning Spanish and it's going slowly thus far. It's my first time learning a new language, I'm 32. I'm a subscriber at lingq now and have tried a few beginner 2 lessons without much comprehension, they were quite difficult, especially listening to the audio but I'm trusting that eventually it'll come together. Love your vids, as others have said make them as long as you want, your advice is invaluable!
How is your level now
I have a decent grasp of Spanish and now want to tackle Portuguese
I like your videos...they are practical and to the point... spanish is what I would like to learn and you have helpful tips for beginners... thank you for these videos
Great great vid! The first four minutes were really beautiful and tuned into why I want to learn another language. It's about culture and people and opening up other worlds. Committed to learning Spanish after this. ¡Viva espana! :)
Yes. In Spanish an upside down question mark is placed at the beginning of a question and then a regular question mark at the end of the sentence.
Excelente, hablemos español!
Let's get started
Si hombre es un video superficial de 10 minutos. No es un tratado en profundidad sobre la cultura hispana. Sólo digo lo que me viene a la mente. Si este te decepciona, no tengo nada que decir.
Learning: The Human Brain and the School of Life by Manfred Spitzer. Cheers.
Thank you so much for helping me along everyone with this journey. You mentioned the exclamation point and question mark in the front and the back of the sentence and not knowing why. I don't know either. But, if I were to imagine why they are in the front would be to make it easier to express the writing. Sometimes in while we are reading out loud to others in English, we have to quickly look to the end of the sentence to see the exclamation point or question mark to see if we put more energy into it or make the sound of a question. I am excited. I subscribed and I will keep watching your videos. Thank you :o)
Thanks Steve! I am trying to convince my son to study Spanish in college so that I can work with him on it together.
Great video, thanks for posting!
...continuing, with the inverted marks at the beginning, one can correctly pronounce a question or exclamation, making it sound more natural for listeners. The marks also need to be inverted, otherwise one could misunderstand them as part of the previous sentence, which they're not.
Hehe I feel exactly the same as you. Also, he forgot to mention that there are a lot of people who speak it in over 22 countries (almost 500 million total). So you can have fun speaking it with so many people. Also some of the Latin American countries like Mexico, Argentina and even to a lesser extent Chile have large economies and are emerging nations
For Brazilian person learning Spanish isn't as difficult as you think, because when you're struggling to learn a language you must think in your target language, however to Latino people is so easy to understand what people are saying in Spanish because of similarity of both languages and that is my main aim now, learn as fast as I can Spanish.
Learning Spanish now and loving it. I like using LingQ to read Stephen King novels in Spanish :-)
How is your level now
doing really well. I'm almost at the 1-year mark and I haven't skipped a day on LingQ. About 9000 known words and I'm very happy with my comprehension level. @@sodacan1090
Si, tienes mucha razón, sin embargo yo prefiero poder poner el signo, así queda claro y sabes que entonación poner.
Además: en español es correcto enmarcar una frase con la apertura de la admiración (¡) y el cierre de la interrogación (?), o viceversa, en casos que compartan claramente lo admirativo y lo interrogativo, como ¡Quién te has creído que eres?.
También es correcto poner dos signos ¡¡Hala!! o simplemente uno al final como en inglés! Interesante, ¿no?.
Muy buenos consejos Sr. Kaufmann. El español es un idioma muy bonito y muy rico. Me gusto particularmente su analisis del idioma con respecto a las posibles dificultades de este. Como un plus, si estudias español puedes leer El Quijote de la Mancha en su idioma original. Saludos desde Peru :D
There is not any tip except it is easy language to learn!
I already know Spanish cuz It's my native language but idk. It's kinda interesting to watch it ❤️
By the way, thanks for all your videos because they're help me a lot 😊🍒❣
I was taught that the upside down ? and ! at the beginning of sentences was to clarify as you read is an exclamation or question at the beginning before you read to the end of the sentence.
You just have to stay the course and not worry about you don't understand. I hope you enjoy the process. If this is your first foreign language, it will take longer for the brain to get used to the new language.
Trinidad and Tobago, French Guyana, Suriname and Guyana, these South American countries do not speak Spanish, not just Brazil.
Hola Steve, me ha gustado mucho el vídeo y que bien que te guste tanto mi país. Un apunte solo, ya que dices que no sabes por qué nosotros usamos el signo de interrogación y exclamación al inicio y al final de una frase. Bien, en inglés, para preguntar, cambiais el orden del verbo y el sujeto: I can do it / Can I do it?. En español no se cambia, se dice igual y es por ello que necesitamos el signo al principio, para poder identificar que se trata de una pregunta: Puedo hacerlo / ¿Puedo hacerlo?
I like the longer videos haha
lindo el video, buena enseñanza, espero que usted me enseñe ingles, pues que bien que este enseñando nuestra idioma.
Thanks a lot for this motivating video.
I'm Panamanian I speak English, Italian, Spanish in that order...Spanish has some advantages but it doesn't really teach you how to breakdown a lot of words quicker, how to decode words and the usage of certain letters when you're reading other languages quicker like Italian and French...For Example, Good Morning in Polish it's Dzien Dorby but the breakdown in English is Jen Dohbri (jean dobrah)
such beautiful way of explaining it, thank you :)
muchu gracias por su ayuda
I like how you listed anime before business when talking about Japanese. I see you ;)
I enjoyed this video! Learn Spanish!
Hola Steve, un dato interesante la gran mayoría de los países de habla hispana utilizan el tu en lugar del vos para referirse a una persona.
Eso no es cierto, no solo en argentina se usa hay mucho paises que lo utilizan
En varios países se utiliza el "vos" también
No solo en un país!! 😑
Great video
Steve, I would love to see you do a video about how many Anglicisms are becoming used in Spanish (and I'm sure other languages!). I don't know how I feel about it. For example, I just was listening to a Spanish guy, and he said "Yo pensé que el show fue muy cool! Escribanme con el hashtag..." etc etc. There's like an English word all the time with modern things. It is my second language, I absolutely love Spanish, I just wish English wasn't butchering it! I am moving to Madrid in 3 days! Woo!
Spanglish is becoming more and more common. Perhaps it will one day be our native tongue?
8:26 You don't know why we open a question with the inverted question mark? That's because positive statements and questions have no difference when it comes to their construction. So, how is a reader supposed to know whether he should read it with a positive statement or question intonation? I'm pretty sure every language has a way to indicate whether what you're reading is a positive statement or question. Even English. In English you don't open a question with an exclamation mark, but you do use question words and auxiliary verbs. Thus the reader know how he should read it.
Ciro Galli Not really. In Polish you can build identically similar sentences, which differ just by the question mark. For example: "Jesteś studentem." and "Jesteś studentem?" Meaning respectively "You are a student." and "Are you a student?".
I have to admit, though that in Polish there are lots of various syntax structures and this is just one of them.
Piotr Czajkowski No. In polish to make a question that has a yes or no answer you have to begin it with a "czy". So the grammatically correct question should be "czy jesteś studentem?"
He's taking about the one at the front of the language.
I can speak about Arabic since I don't speak Arabic. However, I would like to learn Arabic because of the rich culture connected with that language. When I do, I will make a video in Arabic and I will speak about
.
Gosto muito de ver estrangeiros que falam a minha língua! Eu sou um fanático por português, e acho que deveria ser mais estudado por pessoas que queirem uma segunda língua, ou até mesmo por aqueles que querem falar mais de 4 línguas! Até mais!
I BELIEVE the reason for the up-side-down question-mark at the beginning of a Spanish sentence is logical and necessary.
Unlike English where you often change a sentence from a statement to a question by reversing the subject-verb order,
Spanish tends NOT to do that. Most Spanish sentences are subject-then-verb order. Therefore often the ONLY way you
know whether a sentence is a statement or a question is by context or vocal inflection. First of all, in written language,
there is NO audible vocal inflection. And often, especially in a solitary written-sentence, there is no discernable context.
Therefore, the up-side-down question-mark, preceding the sentence, is required and necessary to indicate whether the
reader is contemplating a statement or a question. ¿That is clear?
I agree.
Gracias por la explicación. Sin embargo, en portugués, que es muy similar al español, no se usa el punto de interrogación o exclamación al inicio de una frase. Bueno, cada idioma tiene sus particularidades.
I am in Spanish in school but of course I don't learn anything in school. Spanish interest me and I started studying at home but don't know where to start. If i should start with reading, audio books, or what. I was looking at Pimsluer but i can't learn Spanish just from a audio book.(i suppose it would be a good start)
If anyone, who speaks english, wants to practice the spanish with me, i would be glad to help (I'm a native from Venezuela). And of course, it should want to help me with my english.
Hi! I would like to learn spanish and want it to practice with someone. Me puede ayudar?
Norsi Omar of course. K.khloe88
Kath Trimarchi is this for skype?
Norsi Omar yes, is for the Skype
I'm latin i only to hear these great poligrot
Please do "About learning Swedish"!
Испанская "Р" как в русском языке. Много аспектов произношения очень похожих.
I just wanna add a comment about Spanish inverted question and exclamation marks at the beginning of a phrase. One time I heard from a professor that they use this system to help a reader to easily note that a phrase is not an affirmation, but a exclamation or a question and correctly tone the sentence. For example, in other languages when people read loudly to an audience, is quite common to note only at the end of the phrase that it wasn't an affirmation...and it sounds a bit weird.
We use the upsidedown question mark at the beggining of a sentence to kind of open the question and then at the end of it to close it ¿-----------?
Mr Kaufman. Your Spanish is that of an high school dropout. But thank you for recommending italki.com
Every evening I have 1 hour tutoring with a teacher from Mexico City.
Spanish language is one of the most studied in the world. And the second most spoken in the world in terms of native language by the number of countries that speak Spanish .If someone wants to learn Spanish " Argentine " and helps me improve my English bad , we can share knowledge . I am from Buenos Aires. Greetings
Se dice argentinian y no argentine, es una apodo de los ingleses y no para bien.
No, el termino despectivo que usan los ingleses es "argie" que tampoco es taaan terrible, es como un diminutivo. "Argentine" fue el gentilicio original acuñado por la enciclopedia británica, y no era nada despectivo. "Argentinian" fue la palabra que inventaron los yankees, que ni se gastaron en consultar la enciclopedia británica para enterarse que ya había una palabra y pusieron a lo cabeza el "ian" que usaron para un montón de paises del continente.
mandarin toma 2 años y medio para un nivel intermedio (mas o menos un B1)
no depende de la inteligencia depende mas de la actitud y de las razones detras de aprender
Yo estudiando Espanol para tres razones (1) una novia colombiana (2) trabajo en organizaciones internacionles seis lenguas oficiales de Naciones Unidas y (3) cultura mas fascinate
Te voy a corregir un poco tu texto:
"Yo estoy estudiando español por tres razones:
1) Tengo una novia colombiana.
2) Trabajo en organizaciones internacionales de Naciones Unidas que tienen seis lenguas oficiales.
3) Me fascina la cultura hispánica."
Saludos.
gracias Joseph para los correciones de Espanol
Roman Soiko Teniendo una novia colombiana, vas a dominar muy rápido el español. ¡Éxitos!
Having a colombian girlfriend will help you master spanish soon. Sucess!
Roman Soiko Si quieres puedes agregarme. Skype: Sebastianedux. (I'm a Sp. Native Speaker ;-)
Roman Soiko muy hermoso y yo estudio español en mi casa y me encanta la cultura de español
¿Podrías hacer un vídeo explicando cómo se puede aprender a hablar mandarín por cuenta propia?.
¿Qué recursos hay disponibles?(aparte de tú website).
Por dónde es preferible empezar a atacar al monstruo.
Tiempo requerido para aprender por cuenta propia, con una inteligencia promedio.
Gracias.
You see, for me Español is simple due to the flow consistency and etiquette of the formalities of that language.
I will help you!! but I am native speaker so I do not understand english at all.
Is it a good idea to take Spanish and French at the same time.
I prefer to focus on one at a time.
Any youtube channel or blog where I can find materials? Like texts and audios to read and listen at the same time?
Steve what is the name of that book, you mentioned it some months ago about learning and the brain?
I was so against learning Spanish for the longest time. For some reason I just thought it was an ugly, ickly language.
But lately, I've been changing my opinion. Portuguese is still better in my opinion though =P
Great to hear your story, Steve. You are definitely right about all the advantages learning Spanish has.
youre amazing, sir :)
I paid for the LingQ, but keep asking me to upgrade to use the apps further example clicking the blue words it takes me to the upgrade page 😟
If you are paying you should not be asked to upgrade unless there is some problem in which case please email support at lingq. Thanks.
Steve, I just noticed that when I slow down a movie by 20 or 30 percent using VLC media, I can understand about 95 percent of what they are saying in Spanish. Is slowing down videos or asking Spanish-speakers to speak slower a good thing to do? Will I ever be able to understand them no matter how fast they speak?
hey don't worry that's normal when we are learning a new language we understand a certain amount of the language but as you get more used to the language and you listen more and more eventually you will understand people no matter how fast they speak, it happened to me in english, and now i can understand people when they speak faster , you only have to train yourself to the sounds of spanish through listening as much as you can but the key is to listen to native spanish speaker. if need more tips on how to understand when people speak fast, just let me know.
Thank you, Bladimir, I need all the help I can get. So please give me more tips.
you're welcome. ok. email me here this is my email : bladythereby@gmail.com i'm on google in case you're interested in practicing speaking or need some help with your spanish.. i also need to practice my english speaking as much as i can.
Steve, you don't need to spend the first five minutes trying to convince us why we should learn Spanish, especially when the video is called tips for learning Spanish. Most of us know why we learn it and each has to decide for himself if it is worth the effort. I understand that motivation plays a large role in determining your success, but that applies to language (actually pretty much any subject) in general, not just Spanish.
Well, I guess you should make some videos yourself then, eh?
How’s your level now
Hi there,
can someone recommend me some good Spanish speaking NEWS radio stations? Some I could find online?
I often listened to the COPE podcasts. Just google for it.
They are great, just no transcripts unfortunately
I can Recomend you "Cadena Ser" www.cadenaser.com/ Also you can check the National Spanish Radio (channel 5 is all about news) www.rtve.es/radio/radio5/ :) Hope you find them interesting
***** Google News in slow spanish, Spanishpodcast.org is another great free reasource but is not specificaly news
I suggest you visit LingQ to work on your Spanish. Let me know how it goes.
i have a question if you don't mind ..
after i finish spanish it will be easy to learn french ?
is learning spanish make me ahead to learn french or not ?
Khaled Fadl Yes because much of the vocabulary and grammar is similar.
+Khaled Fadl Hi Khaled, I am native Spanish, and I learning English if you want we can interchange morenop72@yahoo.com.this is my E-mail
+Khaled Fadl hi everyone ,if anyone else wants to learn about how to speak spanish language easily try Megarno Spanish Software Magician (Have a quick look on google cant remember the place now ) ? Ive heard some unbelievable things about it and my cousin got great success with it.
Yes, once you learn spanish french will be a whole lot easier.
los países que utilizan el voseo son Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay y costa rica, los que recuerdo
es solo un dato como para tener en cuenta. si te acostumbras a usar el tu, como en la mayoria de los piases de habla hispana, puede q te llame la atencion cuando escuches hablar a un argentino, uruguayo o un tico.
lo que si creo es que si vas a un pais que usa el voseo , lo mejor es no utilizarlo si usas el "tu" , porque igual te van a entender y puede resultar confuso para uno mismo tratar de recordarlo. es mi consejo al menos de mi experiencia
si, va estar bien. sino puede generar confusión en recordar cuando se usa. el mejor ejemplo es que cuando un español viaja a un pais donde se usa el voseo, no cambia para hablar con la otra persona. Mucho menos un aprendiz de este idioma
En argentina se usa el "usted" para situaciones formales y el "vos" para informales:
Soy de argentina y esta correcto utilizamos el voseo pero si hablas con el tu entendemos igual.
Good videos... but the caption above verges on tautology... if one didn't have "the motivation".. Why would one want to learn Spanish in the first place?
Sal Migondis There is a difference between "Gee I would like to be able to speak Spanish", and really throwing yourself into the task.
+Steve Kaufmann - lingosteve you are right
stev why u dont speak about arabic?
😊😊😊😊😊
not been rude but in the beginning of the video you said haiti speaks spanish. just to correct you they speak french and french creole. but very interesting video sir steve
I said no such thing.
maybe it wasn't clear. I said that lots of people speak Spanish, "all of Latin America , except Brazil and Haiti, and Spain ."
Steve Kaufmann - lingosteve also Suriname and Guyana and a couple more, and Spain isn't Latin America
Jerry Kim He didn't say Spain is in Latin America. - And he just skipped all the small countries that don't speak Spanish.
Admittedly I was having some fun with the pedantry, but I'd expect some more cultural and geographic sensitivity from someone like Steve. Yes he did skip all the small countries (but he remembered haiti?) which is why I called him out on it because he said ALL of Latin America. And he did imply that Spain is a part of Latin America by saying "all of latin America except [A, B, and C]", but I agree at this point nitpicking is not constructive since most likely he was mashing together two different thought processes on the fly to say that Spain is not a part of America.
A mí parecer, el español es relativamente fácil para las personas que lo aprenden solo para conversar y no para utilizarlo a nivel profesional porque incluso para nosotros, los nativos, este idioma tiene demasiadas reglas que sino fuera por la carrera que escogimos y que nos exige precisión léxica nunca corregiríamos.
Otra característica está en su propio nombre "Español"... La letra "ñ",única en nuestro abecedario.
I'd suggest replacing the word 'easy' with 'straightforward' :) Sure Spanish is relatively straightforward, but it still requires a couple of years of solid passionate effort, with a huge desire to improve (for a typical person who also has a job/studies that aren't Spanish related). 'Easy' for me, means a task that you can do with minimal effort and near certainty of success... like going into a supermarket and buying a pizza....
where the actual tips?
His tip is that the motivation makes it easier to learn, and he is giving reasons why one should be motivated to learn and go visit these great cultures.
As a native spanish speaker I also find a little absurd and funny that we are the only ones who use opening exclamation and interrogation simbols ¿¡ actually in informal writing we don't even bother to use them, there's no practical need.
Эта испанская "Р" она как в русском языке или отличается ? Гласные дык вообще точно как в русском. Как будто произношение очень похоже...
Don't forget the all important siesta!
Yes, isn't Spanish supposed to be the most regular romance language?
I meant I can't speak about Arabic since I don't speak Arabic.
Espanol es muy facil la problema grande es los conjugaciones de verbos
acuerdo!!
se entiende tu idea, pero unas pequeñas correciones....español es muy facil,''el problema es grande con la conjugacion de los verbos porque hay muchos'' asi seria mas correcto pero como tu lo pusiste si se entiende saludos
Joe Peso seria mejor.....de acuerdo o estoy de acuerdo contigo saludos
Gracias waldo
Joe Peso even when the word "problema" ends in "a" it is a male word, so it is "EL problema" :)
Hey Steve Kaufmann
Why not learn Filipino. Its easy for you because you know Spanish. And why don't you learn languages such as Greek and Arabic
Cajun French has trilled Rs like Spanish, so not as far away.
'd's are not pronounced easily by English speakers. They are muted..almost like a 'th'
much like Spanish
NO LANGUAGE IS EASY TO LEARN, AND THIS STATEMENT SHOULD "NEVER" BE USED WHEN ENCOURAGING SOMEONE TO LEARN A SECOND LANGUAGE! What I find easy will not be easy to someone else! Asians think their languages are easy; are they easy to you Mr. Kaufmann? The two killers of folk's dreams in becoming bilingual is to be told that it is easy or a certain language can be learned rapidly. No language is hard or easy, it's the commitment. The emphasis is on your commitment in becoming bilingual. When I was in college, I made straight A's because I put in the time. My friends did not care as much and did not make straight A's. I generally like the advice Mr. Kaufmann gives, but he is wrong on the "easy" part. When it comes to learning a given language, it is neither easy nor difficult. It is all about one's motivational level and his desire to achieve his goal. I love Spanish, and it is not difficult TO ME! My friends find it extremely vexing. I by no means would ever contradict their beliefs but would attack their motivation. There is a language acquisition theory much like there is in Music Theory that I have come to realize. In other words, there is a psychosocial aspect of acquiring any language, and there are do's and don'ts that should NEVER be said to an eager learner It is akin to someone liking Calculus and spends most of his time telling others how easy it is. The key to conquering Spanish or Calculus is motivation and commitment!
I totally agree with your comments. It drives me insane when people like Lord Steve makes such comments which can upset a lot of people yet I find this incredible as he has his own language learning system (Lingqs) that he wants to flog to us plebs who struggle daily with this language learning... Thanks for stickin up for the little guy...aka me and about 1 Billion others...................
Actually some languages are easier to learn than others at the beginning. The operative word is 'at the beginning'. Like Chinese, for example, is very hard at the beginning, it has a 'high barrier to entry' if you will, a lot of people start learning it but get discouraged later on. However, once you get through that high barrier to entry Chinese gets a lot easier. Spanish is the other way around, especially for English speakers: it's really easy at the beginning. If you already know English, it's really easy to pick up 'basic Spanish' - but it gets harder as you go along. The verb system in Spanish is the main difficulty, it's really complex but you don't have to deal with that at the beginning, so it seems easy.
Igor Faslyev We simply have to agree to disagree because again, one can only speak for himself. It is akin to telling my child that a certain beginner course is easy because I excelled in it. There are too many secondary variances that you are overlooking when you or anyone else makes blanket statements as such. If you were to say that you found Chinese to be very difficult and Spanish to be rather easy, that is a true statement of fact. A person who is not necessarily gifted but has always liked anything and everything to do with Asians, Asia or the orient might beg to differ. I simply think we thread a slippery slope when we tell folk what should come easy or hard to them. THERE ARE NO EASY OR HARD LANGUAGES IN THE WORLD! THERE WE NO EASY OR HARD COLLEGE COURSES! It simply depends on where one's motivation lie. All statements should be qualified with "I have found" or "It has been my experience that." I am interested in AMHARIC which is the equivalent of calculus in my mind's eye, but I have always been fascinated with Ethiopia and Ethiopians. I did quite well in college, having graduated twice Summa Cum Laude. I took courses that I really enjoyed and did not understand why my friends received lower marks. Should I have made a declarative statement and said that the courses were easy, and they should have gotten an A? My point is, overstatements causes thousands of folk to drop out of language due to discouragement. I have seen it too many times! Perhaps Asians might find English, Spanish, or any other Western language to be very difficult. Remember YOU found certain languages easier than others. YOU represent Igor Faslyev and no more. I cannot tell another person what he/she will find difficult. Everyone told me that certain courses and certain teachers were impossible to pass; I found them to be quite the opposite and earned an A. I heard Mr. Steve Kaufmann state that acquiring any language depends heavily upon "MOTIVATION!" When I speak with Igor, I want Igor to tell me what languages he found easy or difficult.
***** Not wanting to jump on the band wagon but I have to agree with Richard on this. I am a late learner (Almost 50 years of age) and have lived in Spain for almost 5 years now and decided that as this was going to be my new adopted country I should try and learn the language. For me it is extremely difficult. For the majority of ex-pats that I know they agree and most of them give up at the first hurdle. Therefore to blindly say that this is an easy language to learn is like saying climbing Mount Everest is an easy thing to do. My son on the other hand, he is 15 years old and speaks fluent Spanish. Being in school 5 days a week, having Spanish friends, classes taught in the language and general exposure all helps as does his age. All I am trying to say is that people should not generalize on how easy/hard a language is to learn but instead try and focus on the best ways to learn. It’s either that or I am totally thick and comments like this make me want to quit...they certainly do not stimulate me or encourage me to continue learning; what I consider to be a fantastic beautiful language that is Spanish....
Andy Stewart I lived in Germany for three years and did not learn German because it overwhelmed me. The same with 99% of the soldier there. I lived in El Paso (which is practically Mexico) for ten years and did not learn a thing. What I basically did for over 20 years was listen to others tell me what was best for me. I have tried everything at least 25 times but to no avail. When I did find certain Spanish classes I liked, folk were adamantly about telling me why I should not like them and how their methods were better. I recent told a certain person as to my excitement about a new method, and he immediately began to convince me why I should do it his way. The BIGGEST deterrent to acquiring another language and listening to "others. Due to continual disappointments in the last 11 months, I found a method want works for me without any other human intervention. I befriended a Mexican who used it and became fully bilingual in English. I also spoke (via internet) with an Egyptian who learned to speak, read and write perfect English by using it. It is not for everyone, but it is for me. Spain has been my fantasy since the age of 19. I do understand where you are coming from.
Spanish does have dipthongs....
Sí tiene, pero fonéticamente se pronuncian las vocales separadas
Who wants to eat dinner at 23.00?? 😱