Spanish Languages

I failed Spanish but can speak 4 languages now: If you have ever tried to learn a foreign language in school or through language books you buy at the book store, then you understand the great difficulties that exist in learning a new language this way. I took two years of Spanish in school, and at the end of the two years I could barely say "the book is on the table." The best grade I ever got from 8 terms of Spanish was a C-. It seemed like learning a foreign language was just not my thing. After high school graduation and five years later, I was able to speak four different languages and understand five. The languages I now speak: English, Chinese, Portuguese, French, and I can understand Spanish (because of Portuguese). I don't mean to say

Before I went I couldn't speak any Portuguese. To get around, I carried a phrase book and read from it. I made some Brazilian friends who all spoke English, so I didn't learn a lot of Portuguese from them. Instead what I did to learn was go to the book store and buy comic books. The ones I read were the "Cascao" comics (the most popular ones in Brazil). Also, every morning I would watch a TV program called "Bom dia e Cia." During the day I would go around and practice the phrases that I learned. After four months I was making friends that didn't speak English, only Portuguese, and having conversations with them. As my Portuguese improved, I would read more difficult books, and watch more difficult TV

I felt that the only way to do this was to be able to read Chinese. I sat down with a list of 500 common Chinese characters and started to memorize them. By the end of the first week, I was able to read simple reading material. (That is the great thing about languages, the range of vocabulary words used is very small). From that point on I felt a lot more comfortable with my Chinese, and improved at a greater rate. From there, I started listening to Chinese music and watching movies and cartoons in Chinese, just like how I had done with Portuguese. I have continued to learn Chinese in this way and now Chinese, although the most difficult to learn, is my most fluent