I can’t memorize anything. Seriously. The only reason I know my own phone number is I can remember the pattern from the keypad. If we still used rotary phones (Yes, I’m that old – in fact, ¡Hoy tengo 43 años!), I’d be helpless when I have to call home.
This weakness is the major reason I’m so picky about which resources and materials I use for learning Spanish. It’s why I find Rosetta Stone completely useless. I could use it for hours a day for the next ten years and get nothing out of it. I’ve tried. I’m sure it’s fantastico for billions of other people but I’m immune to it. I need context. I need not only complete sentences but conversation.
I feel a soulmate type kinship with Temple Grandin. “I think in pictures.” Yes, I know Rosetta Stone is all pictures but … just trust me, mine are different.
There’s another way I’m very different from other learners. While most people hate grammar and conjugation, I crave it. I can’t seem to use a verb in any tense unless I learn several … just to start off! I kid you not, I forced myself to re-learn how to parse sentences and keep the following list (inspired by the book, 501 Spanish Verbs, and adapted with some help from conjugation.com) around me at all times:
- Present: I eat
- Present Continuous Indicative: I’m eating
- Past Indicative: I ate
- Past Continuous Indicative: I was eating
- Past Participle: Having eaten
- Past Perfect: I had eaten
- Present Perfect: I have eaten
- Present Indicative: I have been eating
- Past Continuous Indicative: I had been eating
- Future Indicative: I will eat
- Future Continuous Indicative: I will be eating
- Future Perfect Indicative: I will have eaten
- Future Perfect Continuous Indicative: I will have been eating
- Command/Imperative: Eat/Let’s eat
Maybe others know how to look this stuff up without carrying a list around like a big dork, but that’s life as I know it.
I can’t just use SpanishDict’s translator, If I want to be able to remember it and use it, I have to know why it’s translated a certain way. In fact, when I’m using SpanishDict to translate whole sentences, I then translate it back to English in whole and/or in parts so I can understand the how/why of the translation.
My Super Suggestion:
If you’re a learner writing or speaking in Spanish and having difficulty with a phrase … having difficulty trying to figure out how to word something … try phrasing it a different way that you can translate more easily. Even if it sounds clunky in English, in my experience, it sounds perfectly articulate en español.
I Highly Recommend:
Speaking of learning that’s relevant, practical, in context, and applicable to real-life with conversations and such, two of the best books I’ve read, borrowed or bought – and there have been a lot – are these by William C. Harvey:
- Household Spanish – It’s described as “how to communicate with your Spanish employees” which, yes, means your maid and nanny, but is totally awesome if you’re trying to learn Spanish as a family (hello, homeschoolers!). If nothing else, you’ll get a kick out of learning to say things like, “Please don’t put chicken bones in the garbage disposal.” Amazon has a bargain priced 2nd edition for $3.32 and the brand-spankin’-new 3rd edition for $8.25
- Outreach Spanish – Targeted toward educators, counselors, health care workers, clergy, social workers, public servants, and friendly neighbors. As of this writing, Amazon has new 2nd editions as low as $6.19 and there’s also a 2nd edition that comes with a CD.
Both of those books are broken down by subject – meaning, what you’re talking about, who you are, what your role is, and who the person is you’re speaking with a well as what they need and how you’re serving them. Great not only for social workers and teachers but, I think, for police officers and firefighters who could use a few, choice memorized phrases to comfort frightened children and such.