Retired in Euskadi

Or the fact that he says "español". Most Spanish wold refer to their language as "castellano".
As for rolling one's r's as being simple, it's partly genetic. I cannot roll my r's & probably never will. I speak 6 languages, including Persian, but still cannot roll my r's!!!
What's OH & TBH???

Some tips for learning a language:
1 get to know the common verbs in the present & past, such as "go, went, come, came, buy, bought, etc. They are often "irregular". There might be about a dozen or so.
2 a few stock phrases, such as "sorry, could you repeat that", or "is this the right way to ...."
3 Never swear in Spanish unless you have mastered the language. There's nothing worse than a foreign speaker of English using F*** every other word.
4 watch a spanish soap on TV regularly
5 listen to some fluent Spanish, say RNE 1 news broadcasts

Rambling Rose

After four years here with a weekly lesson and spanish TV my comprehension is great but my spoken spanish is rubbish. I'm better if I'm caught off guard or agitated - then I just use the words that come to mind, don't worry about grammar and seem to get understood. However, if I prepare for a conversation I still think in english first and try to translate which is useless and frustrating.
Main problem is lack of practice - my own fault. I was delighted to get into a good old gossip and the supermarket checkout this week only to get home and find I had been given change for a 10 euro note instead of a 20.

Worse still I think my english has deteriorated as well so soon I won't be fluent in any language

Retired in Euskadi

I don't think your English will deteriorate that quickly. You may take a few seconds to think of an English word that would normally come quickly, but heck, that also happens as one gets older!! I'm not suggesting you're old!!!

It's also only natural to think in English 1st.
It appears you live in Catalonia, which might make learning Spanish that much harder, since Catalans are proud of their own language, quite rightly, but some might resent speaking castellano.
Don't worry about your spoken Spanish. At least you've made a big effort to learn Spanish & it sounds as if you've got to a pretty good standard.

My son speaks good "bar Spanish" since he mixed with lots of young people, so knows lots of "with it" expressions. But he rarely reads a newspaper & I get quite surprised at words that he doesn't know, such as "el canalon" (guttering). I know it simply because I needed to buy some recently!!!

Could you set yourself a challenge, such as take an exam, with an oral part, in Spanish, say at an Instituto Cervantes, or something like our British Council. You might be pleasantly surprised.

agoreira

Agree, the double r's are not easy, I'd say I get it right quite a lot, and wrong quite a lot! Also some people seem to go overboard, delighted with their new found ability to pronounce the double r, they then sound it when there is only one r"! Swearing in Spanish seems much more acceptable, for instance when in company, they use words that I would never use the equivalent of in English. So you're right, when they speak in English they often seem to use swear words as they would in Spanish and it sounds awful.

jimenato

Lots of people say that but I can't see why it should be. I'm completely the opposite - I can usually say whatever I want to say but when the stream of Spanish comes back at me I seriously struggle. To me it's obvious - when I'm speaking I use words and grammar that I know - I can't use any other. When they speak to me they use loads of words and grammar that I don't know which is why I can't readily understand them. Can anyone explain how come they can understand lots but not speak it? It doesn't seem logical to me

MaryM79

Thanks for all the replies, didn't expect such a response!
I am starting private lessons tomorrow, so hoping I will do well. I like to think it should be easier due to my italian (and I can roll my Rs, you can always spot a foreigner when they can't roll their Rs.. my mum lived in Italy for 15 years and she never managed it, although she was fluent italian after a few years)
Thanks all!

JLFS

French people can roll their Rs better than the British, but it does not make them better language speakers. People put too much importance on it, and for British people it is difficult. But we the difference between "perro and pero" can be sussed out in the context of the conversation. So there would be not great probs there and if natives make a big deal in not understanding the difference between those 2 words, it is just pretence.

Having a "perfect" accent in a foregin language is vitrually impossible, except with very young children.

I dont know why there is such a hang up with accents, I have never mastered the vowel sound in LYN, (wifes best friend) it always comes out as LEEN, or so I have been told.

But that does not take anything away from my ability to make myself understood.

Rambling Rose

I think in my case it might be that most of my conversations are with catalans so its a second language for them too and they tend to speak it more slowly. When I'm on the phone to telefonica (sorry movistar ) I usually have to tell them to slow down. Watching TV is OK, but then again it might be the sort of things I watch like cookery & travel programmes where the presenter is explaining things.

agoreira

Agree, besides often there can be something attractive about a foreign accent, some women seem to find the French guys attempting English with a French accent sexy! Guy at our Spanish group is "Phil" but it's always "feel" to the Spanish teacher! Lots of Spanish with very good English still insist on putting an "E" in front of an "S", as in "espain" for Spain. Easy to see where it comes from, but a habit hard to drop. As they don't pronounce an "h" they often have problems with that in English, but it's no big deal.

Rambling Rose

You are probably right about the age thing although it tends to be words that I use in spanish a lot that come to mind first and leave me struggling for the english translation.
I have met catalans who would rather speak english than castellano. Our next door neighbour who is in his 70's happily speaks castellano as he is from the generation when catalan was banned but last autumn he enrolled on an english course and now only wants to practice his english.
My husband says I shouldn't beat myself up and I suppose he's right but I did hope to be a lot more confident after 4 years.

sujee

I have been trying to learn Spanish since we decided to move there last spring. I have been using as many resources from the internet as I can find and although I will never manage to roll the rr I do try to work on pronunciation. However when I try to listen to spoken spanish its so fast all I hear is a machine gun rattling away. I hope that improves once we get out there and are immersed in the language. I do have a hearing problem with english at times and am old so learning a new languagecan be tough. However, I have never been one to shy away from a challenge and maybe one day I'll manage a conversation.

lynnxa

try listening to this - slow, clear, Spanish

http://www.newsinslowspanish.com/

sujee

Thanks this is excellent and even if I dont understand it all the sounds are becoming more familiar.

I'm not helped by having tinnitus lol

cricketman

For me, fluency is being able to do anything in Spanish that you would be able to do in English e.g. talking to people, sorting out some legal problem, talking on the phone, sending emails. And of course using full sentences and grammar to do this

I can do this as well in Spanish as in English, although I may make the odd mistake

Sometimes I meet a word I havent come across before, but I can always get by it from the context of the sentence, or ask what it is. It doesnt matter, people know you are a foreigner and are delighted that you can speak Spanish so well

Anyway, you can only get to this level living in Spain and talking to loads of people. Listening is the most difficult thing in Spanish, now I even understand the old guys

Grammar and pronounciation is very easy in comparison

CapnBilly

We moved here about 5 years, and I couldn't speak any spanish. We enrolled at a spanish class run by the ayuntamiento. Two classes a week for about 2 hours each. The teacher (who could speak english) only spoke in spanish. For the first two weeks I couldn't understand a single word. Most of the other pupils dropped out, but I persevered, and I'm glad I did. I went for about 18 months, and then had some private lessons for about 12 months.

The ayuntamiento lessons helped me develop a basic vocabulary and pronunciation but above else I learnt how to listen in Spanish. The private lessons helped me understand the grammar, particularly how to use verbs and sentence construction. I found these much easier to understand when I could ask questions in english.

Where I live the language is either castellano or valenciano, with not much english. Generally I don't have too many problems (biggest problem is recalling vocabulary on demand, even when you know the word) but I realised that at my age I was never going to be fluent, but it was important to try.