How long to perfect new language with non-english speaking girlfriend?

pics?

You should

traduccion wrote:

How long will I feel completely fried and exhausted before it gets easier? Did the language barrier affect your relationship (whether with just friends or significant other)? Any tips?

The great thing about being constrained by the language is that you will likely hold your temper a lot more. I find that I let a lot of small stuff go because the effort to argue about it wasn't worth it or maybe the tone wasn't understood. Many times I don't even know how to express what I really wanted to say. This can make the relationship a lot smoother, depending on the dynamic of course.

Another thing to keep in mind is that we have different personalities in different languages, especially if our grasp is different. Since you don't know the nuances of the language, you may be coming off entirely different than you would in English. Just something to keep in mind because things might not work out. I once dated a Brazilian girl for about 6 months until she mastered the language and I realized that she was a total bitch. I speak 5 languages, and I find that my first indicator of really mastering it is dreaming in the language, even if it's with bad grammar.

It's hard to say how fast you will master the language. I saw a girl go from not a word of English to full fluency in 2 months before and I've seen people live out of the country for 3 years and never get past basic greetings. If you can keep it to Spanish only and make a point to look up new words as you hear them, a few months will do. Try to avoid speaking English entirely and your brain will switch pretty quick into learning mode.

Make her learn English. It's the language of the World.

Thanks for the info Kadoo.. going to try and spend as much time with it, as I see it as a bit of a parabolic curve and I want to get the part where my skills grow extremely quickly. I guess it helps that she speaks literally 0 english.

I guess it's worth mentioning that I have plenty of international friends, Spaniards included, but they all speak great english so I get extremely lazy because it'd be "inefficient" to speak to them in Spanish after knowing them only in English. This is the first situation where speaking English is really not an option - but it's kind of what I need to not be lazy.

As far as teaching her English because it's the language of the world, I will - in due time. I told her i'd teach her the next time i'm hungover.. but I'm living in a Spanish speaking country, I'm not going to expect everyone to cater to me. Also, it's estimated that there are more Spanish speakers in the world than English speakers, so at least by population, Spanish has a larger claim to "world's language"..

Universal language wrote:

Make her learn English. It's the language of the World.

The arrogance.

Let the girl speak the language of her country in her country.

OP, you're doing great!

Very relevant to your situation:

http://time.com/3453841/secret-learn-foreign-language-adult/

Personally, I use memrise to hammer vocab and conjugation (and even get colloquial phrases), especially since it's also a mobile phone app. As a singer who blends well, I've never had a problem sounding fluent even after a few weeks of learning a language, but my problem has always been listening skills. However, I've had that problem with English sometimes (needing subtitles for UK accents), but technically, it's not my first language.

la llave de mi libertad wrote:

Universal language wrote:

Make her learn English. It's the language of the World.

The arrogance.

Let the girl speak the language of her country in her country.

Consider it payback for what the Conquistadores did.

If you immerse yourself in the language, you should be quite fluent after 9 months to a year. That's how I learned Spanish while on a church mission. I know it can be exhausting, and it's very tempting to fall back on English whenever you can, but if you listen to Spanish radio/music, watch Spanish TV, and perhaps most important of all READ in Spanish, you'll pick it up and feel confident in very little time. Pick up a pulp fiction novel, so you're entertained by the story and don't think as much about the tediousness of reading Spanish (I used Stephen King novels). Suddenly, you'll find that your brain is no longer thinking in English and translating into Spanish, but you'll be THINKING in Spanish. That's when you know you've really got it.

You are very lucky to have your own Spanish teacher who can't switch to English. Make the most of it, and good luck in the relationship, too.

kanny wrote:

Very relevant to your situation:

http://time.com/3453841/secret-learn-foreign-language-adult/

Personally, I use memrise to hammer vocab and conjugation (and even get colloquial phrases), especially since it's also a mobile phone app. As a singer who blends well, I've never had a problem sounding fluent even after a few weeks of learning a language, but my problem has always been listening skills. However, I've had that problem with English sometimes (needing subtitles for UK accents), but technically, it's not my first language.

Kanny, thanks for the article - i'm going to try implementing some of these things into my schedule.

The only words you absolutely have to be able to communicate are "kitchen" and "sandwich".

Anything more than that is just gravy.