¡Hola a todos!
I’m probably safe in assuming that all of you understand that phrase. Sometimes we don’t realize it, but Spanish-language culture has had a huge influence on the United States, and it pervades our lives. Spanish is everywhere, and it’s hard to avoid picking up some of it just by living here. Everyone knows “hola”, “adiós”, “gracias”, “bueno”, “me gusta”, “te amo”… sure, they’re basic phrases, but few other languages can rival Spanish in this regard.
Spanish is a thriving and ubiquitous language, not only in the Americas, but across the world: it’s the official language in 20 different countries. In total, there are roughly 490 million fluent speakers of Spanish, which makes it the third most commonly spoken language in the world by total number of speakers, behind Mandarin and English.
So what’s Spanish like?
Well, a lot of English speakers will tell you that it’s the easiest language to learn. That’s not necessarily true, but Spanish is relatively regular and simple compared to many other languages, and it shares a fair amount of roots with English, meaning that there are plenty of cognates (similar words) between both languages. As well, there’s a ton of free learning material out there for anybody interested in Spanish, and in the States, there are many opportunities to use the language in context with native speakers.
All of these factors mean that, yes, Spanish shouldn’t be a particularly difficult language to learn, but it’s important to remember that the most important factor is your own motivation and determination. Learning any language is a long, drawn-out process; it’s rewarding, but you shouldn’t expect a quick success.
Anyway, let’s get down to the details.
Spanish is a romantic language, which means that like French, Italian, and Romanian, it descended from Latin. Over the course of its development, it was influenced by Basque and Arabic as well as other local languages.
Thankfully, Spanish doesn’t use cases, which prevents a lot of grammatical headaches for students. However, don’t worry – you’ll still spend plenty of time studying grammar, especially once you start your journey into the mess that is Spanish verb tenses.
So most of those tenses should look familiar to any English grammar nuts out there, but what the hell is the subjunctive? Well, it’s the most confusing and unfamiliar part of Spanish – basically, it’s another set of conjugations which you use to express doubt, fantasy, or any sort of unreality. I’d go into a more detailed explanation, but, well…
(comic from Itchy Feet)
Yeah, it gets kinda confusing. Thankfully, besides the subjunctive, Spanish grammar isn’t particularly difficult.
There are some minor differences in vocabulary and accent between different Spanish-speaking countries, especially between Latin America and Spain. Despite those differences, Spanish speakers can readily understand one another, and studying one particular dialect won’t hamper your ability to communicate across the world.
Overall, Spanish is a ubiquitous language, and if you’re interested in getting started with language learning, it’s not a bad choice. There’s a large variety in Spanish-language culture that may surprise you, and the language itself has a nice flow and sound to it, in my opinion. I’m not sure whether or not I’ll minor in it, but I’d definitely like to get conversational in Spanish – there are just too many benefits to ignore a language like this.
Songs for this week:
Pablo Alborán – La Escalera (Spain, 2015)
Anacondaz – Круглый год / Krugliy god (Russia, 2013)
images credit:
https://c2.staticflickr.com/6/5471/14399913416_bb78edd786_b.jpg
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/43/Study_of_spanish.svg/2000px-Study_of_spanish.svg.png
https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/0c/b6/81/0cb681ce3173c647a39b12db88344207.png
http://www.itchyfeetcomic.com/
info sources:
http://research.omicsgroup.org/index.php/List_of_languages_by_total_number_of_speakers
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_language
http://www.omniglot.com/writing/spanish.htm
I enjoyed your discussion of the pervasiveness of many Spanish phrases. You combined simple information with your personal opinions. The comic was funny, too.
I really likes your input on the difficulty level when learning Spanish. I took Spanish in high school, and when I’d tell people that, the first response is usually “oh so you took the easy way out?” But 5 years of any language is difficult and while yes, there are a lot of cognates and the pronunciation is pretty obvious, the tenses and, of course the subjunctive!
Your comment about needing motivation and determination to learn a language makes me think of my own personal situation with my family’s native Chinese dialect (not Mandarin); I never felt the desire to really master it when I was younger, and I regret that a lot now. Since I took over 4 years of Spanish, I’m thinking that I should start doing something on my own time to retain what I know, especially since, as you pointed out, it’s usually not too difficult to grasp
I haven’t taken Spanish since junior year of high school, but I agree it’s a really fun language to speak! I often find myself saying small phrases or sentences, like donde esta? (where is it?), or hola! or que pasa? (what’s up), in Spanish instead of English. Subjunctive was one of the harder topics…I also think that it’s very difficult for a novice Spanish speaker like me to understand a fluent speaker because they speak muy rapido! I have always been amazed by how easily and rapidly Spanish speakers conjugate verbs in discussion! Gracias por su blog, Eli!
Spanish phrases are DEFINITELY incorporated into some English conversations. Unfortunately, I took Latin instead of Spanish in high school, so some of these phrases I find “going over my head”. Looking at that list of Spanish Verb Tenses is quite intimidating, but thats not to say I have not considered taking a Spanish course or two in order to understand the basics!!!