Maybe you’re able to hold a meaningful conversation in Spanish with someone other than a 4-year-old native Spanish speaker. For example, maybe you feel comfortable speaking in Spanish to your Spanish instructor or any Spanish speaker who goes out of their way to
speak extra slowly and extra clearly so that you’ll understand them.
But when it comes time to have a meaningful conversation with ordinary, everyday Spanish speaking folks, you’re at a loss of words, literally!
Unless you’re a brand-new to learning-Spanish, then you probably already know about me and my story . . ..
I spent the better part of the late 1990s and early 2000s, learning Spanish with every Spanish book and Spanish course I could get my hands on – mainly cassettes and CDs in that era.
It was as if every Spanish course was designed to teach us (native English speakers) the Spanish that they (Spanish instructors) felt that we “needed” to learn. It was as if no one had ever bothered to ask us what do we “want” to learn.
If they had, they would have found out that we wanted to learn real authentic conversational Spanish – not that watered-down, formal Spanish that is so commonly taught. Certainly, there’s a place for formal Spanish . . .
Maybe in a business setting or when speaking to a college professor, you’ll want to speak very formal Spanish. But what about when it comes time to communicate with your average everyday Spanish speaking folks? That rigid or stiff Spanish that you learned just won’t cut it.
After all, every Spanish speaker who you encounter is not a business executive, college professor or even a hotel clerk, restaurant waiter or airline employee. Or anyone else who is going to go out of their way to speak Spanish slowly and clearly - just for you - because they’re accustomed to communicating with English speakers who speak very little Spanish.
In your journey to learn Spanish, you’ll have to communicate with ordinary Spanish speaking folks – such as, taxi drivers, shop owners or perhaps you have Spanish-speaking employees or co-workers. Or maybe you have Spanish-speaking friends, a significant other or in-laws -- and communicating with them while using overly formal Spanish just won’t do the job.
I came to this realization back in 2004. Yes, I know it sounds like prehistoric times for some younger learners of the Spanish language :-)
When I realized this, I teamed-up with several Spanish instructors who had helped me learn Spanish, and we created the ORIGINAL version of Learning Spanish Like Crazy Level 1. At the time, it was the first Spanish course ever that taught real, authentic, conversational Latin American Spanish.