Agree, there is no easy way, it takes a lot of time and a lot of effort. Forget the adverts, "Learn Spanish in 3 months" etc. it ain't going to happen. It also depends on what level you want to take your Spanish to, if you're content to just be able to order a beer, you won't need all the grammar, if you want to have a decent level, you will. And learning all the various verb tenses, irregulars, subjunctive especially, is not easy. Anyone that tells you it is easy is either an incredibly gifted linguist, or more likely, has a very poor command of the language.

you're right , there IS no easy way


however, all you have to do to become confident is to keep practising

it doesn't matter if your level isn't great, if it's good enough for what you need - it's having the confidence to actually speak that matters


teaching my group this morning, some friends of one of my students walked in the bar &, not realising at first that he was interrupting a Spanish class,one of them came over & started chatting

when he did realise, he said 'lo siento para les mumblemumblemumble' (no idea what the mumble bit was & he was standing right next to me)

now, he wasn't really speaking Spanish (would have been better just to stop at 'lo siento' ) but he was confident & we all knew what he meant

he's clearly comfortable with his level - he's making an effort to speak - and even speaking as a Spanish teacher I reckon that's more important than getting your bragas in a bunch about being correct & never saying anything!


eventually you WILL get it right if you want to

I know it's an intensely personal thing and I'm probably wrong, but for me a book called something like 5,000 Spanish verbs (it might even have been 50K) held me back for a while until I binned it.

I remember the first phone calls, I used to say, 'Lo siento, no hablo espanol,' but then I got braver and added, 'Pero . . . hablo un poco . . . quien es?'

Now I prattle on regardless, I don't even bother with 'despacio' any more, the best way to slow down a rapid Spanish speaker is to wait until they finish and then calmly say, 'Repito,' it winds them up no end.

yes 501 Spanish Verbs.......... useful for reference, but I use loads of verbs that aren't in it & don't use a lot that are!

that's how you're meant to do it HBG - just try a bit more each day, don't worry about making a prat of yourself.....that's pretty inevitable

but better a prat who gradually improves than one who never opens his mouth

I was the same...bought a series of books on amazon until I realised the best way to learn was to throw yourself in at the deep end! I had to learn quick because no one in my daughters school speaks any english, so I didnt want to be lost at all the meetings/school events. She also has health issues and no one in the hospital we attend speaks any english!

I haven't quite mastered the phone calls yet though....absolutely dread them! It's so much easier to understand someone when they are speaking to your face rather than down the phone...

Or, Es mejor estar callado y parecer tonto, que hablar y despejar las dudas definitivamente. Bit like saying repito (I repeat) when you want them to repeat something, probably gives them a good laugh.

I chose not to correct him.....



I don't agree that it's better to be silent & look like a fool

the true fool never tries

the vast majority of Spanish people I know would prefer that you try at least - & most would laugh with you when you inevitably make a mistake - it breaks the ice

One must be a god to be able to tell successes from failures without making a mistake. ~Anton Pavlovich Chekhov

Agree, we learn from our mistakes, I always asked to be corrected, (Las correcciones siempre son bienvenidas) I would much prefer that to people ignoring my mistakes, otherwise I'll never know. However if you're trying to belittle people, it sounds much better if you're talking sense.

Definitely agree with that. One of my greatest friends here is a 70yr old lady who speaks with me everyday and is very impressed with my improvements week by week. And yes, she does laugh with me... and then corrects me

Being silent helps no one....the Spanish dont want you standing there with your mouth hanging open, they would rather you make the effort to TRY!

thank you - I was beginning to think it was just me

I am at the moment trying to learn the tenses, and now the penny is starting to drop.
At first I found it ssssooooo confusing with my poor memory issue.

The more I learn the more I realise, I dont know, if that makes sense, but I remain determined to continue.

I went to bed last night and i as dreaming that I was telling the waiter in spanish.
it was my aunts birthday and she was 80.
What meat have you got on the menu as my friend does not like fish .
Ordered a bottle of red house wine and sparkling water.
To finish off telling the waiter to thank the lady in the kitchen for an excellent meal.( probably was all wrong ) But I do agree that one can feel a failure sometimes as I do try so very hard.
I did not sleep well tossing and turning all night.
As I read the thread replies before I went to bed and as Im back in Spain soon getting excited I suppose.

It's not easy, is it? The problem is when we start learning relatively late in life, it's a long time since we have done any serious studying, even in our own language. The young kids seem to pick it up naturally, as they would English, but we have to make a lot more of an effort, it's certainly harder as you get older. As the Spanish say la vejez no viene sola, old age doesn't come alone! By the way, aprender only has one "P".

If I can make one person smile a day, I'm happy. Yo repito, 'If I can . . . .'

I went to a Spanish birthday party earlier, well, Colombianos, they speak Spanish don't they? Spanish without the lisp. It was actually a lady, a Colombiana, but there were men present, so maybe Colombianos was correct.

They were ancianos, and I was there with my marida, mujer if you prefer, she prefers mujer as well - she's an interpreter and frequently ticks me off for my Campo Spanish, as she calls it.

The other day she got angry and called me a guiri. Coming from a lady born in Stratford, the London one, I should have been angry, but I wasn't. I like being a guiri. Even with my Spanish driving licence, I'm still a guiri.

Thanks for the correction, I will not forget now as I have been pulled up on line

Not "pulled up", it was meant in the nicest possible way, as Kenny Everett would say, but hopefully you will remember, otherwise you'd always be writing it with 2 P's. Two of us have a weekly get together with a Spanish lady, and we've had grammar until it's coming out our ears in the past, so we've asked for just conversation, but she still tells us when me make a mistake, after all that's what we are paying her for.