I’ve been learning Spanish for the past 3 months—with reading, writing, and listening consistently everyday for several hours a day. I’ve also been working with a Spanish tutor from Mexico who has been excellent and extremely patient with me. My problem that I have is with speaking because I don’t get enough practice with it (I work 5 days a week full-time and have to do other things too). Also, I have found it to be easier for me to read as I can focus on that on my break times when I do get those opportunities. I also try to spend the rest of the time after work studying by reading and listening, as much as I can, in Spanish.
My reason to learn Spanish:
I am learning Spanish for work reasons as I am trying to get extra pay, and to stand apart from the crowd here because I live in a busy area with a competitive work force. Spanish is rather much a necessity here for me to sustain my life.
I’m currently also using Pimsleur, RocketLanguage, YouTube, and several other platforms for my progress. My tutor has said I am making very fast progress, but I really do believe I need WAY more help with speaking because I simply do not have proper words or sentence structures flow out of me. I know the words and I know the tenses but they just won’t apply for me off of the fly, making me feel insecure about my progress.
I currently live with an ex who grew up speaking Spanish (she comes from a Mexican family). I have asked her for help on numerous occasions and she has made disparaging jokes about my efforts. She has said things like, “You spend all of this time learning Spanish and you still don’t know anything?! What in the hell were you doing the whole time?!” There was even a time several weeks ago where she made fun of me in a Mexican restaurant for trying my best to order food. It really sucks, and I find it absolutely disgusting and disrespectful because I really am trying.
Sorry if I am venting but I really don’t know what to do. I can read and understand almost everything very clearly, and I know how grammar is structured in most cases. The issue I have is opening my mouth because I don’t get as much time to second guess what is going to be said. I got rid of HelloTalk and some other social platforms because it wasn’t really helping me at all (flaky people, selfish learners, or conversations would run dry).
All I wanted to know were: Has anyone put you down for learning Spanish? How did you handle that? What measures did you take to help your progress? How long did it take for you to become comfortable to get to conversational level Spanish?
I appreciate all insights and comments.
