Dos cervezas por favor, learning Spanish / español help and chat

That’s interesting as it is sort of to do with not struggling

Maybe just “no lucha"
Does that make sense?

No lucha, no llorar

Luchar prohibido.
No luchando.

I had to look this up, but the negative imperative of Luchar is "no luche" (in the 3rd person impersonal). I had forgotten about negative imperatives - I only did positive imperatives last month.

I think "no luche" - no fighting - may be more fitting. I am drinking with my Spanish teacher tomorrow, so I can pursue this further.

I'm enjoying the depths this tattoo is permeating (pun not entirely intended).

¿Hay alguien acá que habla regularmente con un hablante nativo en zoom o algo?

Si es así, ¿como le encontraste y qué tan útil es?

No aprendí español en la escuela secundaria, pero recientemente he vuelto de un viaje alrededor América Latina donde fui a la escuela de idiomas en Medellín y Cusco. No quiero olvidar el poquito de español que yo aprendí allí pero Duolingo no me ayuda mucho y el curso en Morley college que he estado yendo a es demasiado despacio para mí.

Supongo que hay otras en la misma situación.

Exactly the same with me. I did the spring term at Instituto Cervantes, not to learn but just to get talking again and refresh my vocabulary.

Veo que se puede tener dos lecciones a la semana allá. Creo que eso es mejor que solo uno.

Es caro, aunque.

for that kind of thing, it's much more common for it to say "prohibido luchar" (forbidden to fight) than "no luchar" (no fighting), unlike in English

example

As for what was said before:

• no lucha is exactly what you want to avoid
  
• no luche/no luches (formal/informal) is the imperative: "don't (you) fight" which despite being correct it would look out of place in this instance
  

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Luchar prohibido.

Got the syntax wrong but thought that. I did an image search for no diving signs in Spain but they were all next to English ones so probably from Brit resorts.

We got very drunk with our Spanish teacher over the weekend, so I'm afraid we didn't solve the issue of your tattoo. @Zebra sounds like they know what they are talking about though, I only just scraped my A2 exam last week.

Tuve mi primero clase con "Juan de Colombia" en italki (gracias @skinny por tu recomendación en otro lugar). Fue "chévere": muchas preguntas para mi a respuestar (necesito mucha pràctica para eschuchar y hablar) y conversamos mucho sobre su pais.

Lo recomiendo.

Anyone tried one of these type of books? Did you find them at all useful?

https://www.fluentu.com/blog/spanish/bilingual-books-spanish-english-for-adults/

I've tried a few.
Ended up with my partner more or less laughing her ass off at each one I got. She says academically, they're fine enough, but it makes you difficult to understand by any Spanish speaker. Grammatically too formal.
Her recommendation, which isn't ideal for everyone, is go to a Meetup event.

I'm loud and obnoxious, so it's easier for me to just throw words out at people, but it doesn't work with everyone.

I love the grammar. I can sight read out loud very well. I can take dictation (at the appropriate level). I can explain the linguistics and semantics of the language. But I cannot speak it or understand what anyone is saying to me. Mrs P just dives in there, spouts words out, mispronounces things, uses the incorrect endings, and gets herself understood far more than I do. She has more chats with strangers than I've ever had.

Throwing words out is the way to go I think. At least you are saying the words. Waiting until you get things "exactly right" doesn't work. Which is a bummer for me.

Have you ever done a course with a group before? When I first started to learn French I found it really difficult to just dive in a blurt things out, I was always over analysing and getting worked up in my own head.

When you're thrown in a course with a load of randoms and you just have speak, it doesn't take long to just lose all the inhibitions you had. Needs to be an immersive course though, no good if they let you speak English.

Immersion is the way. We have two x two hour group sessions a week (and 2x1h internet sessions also). The class dynamics of who sits with who are very weird, and we've given up trying to share ourselves around. It's very noticeable that the people who only hang out with their own language speakers (looking at you, Brits, Germans and Dutch) have progressed less quickly than those who HAVE to speak Spanish, however badly.

That's a shame, I never had any issues like that. I always has a big mix of language speakers but never had groupings of people stick with their own. That seems like poor work from the teacher? I'd expect them to not let things get segregated like that.

It is a teacher thing, but it's also a "I'm not sitting with them" thing. Also, the Brits, German and Dutch are all retirees, so have little contact with Spanish, whereas the Moroccans, Ukranians, Romanians, Russians, Polish aren't retired, and have to work, or have children in the school system who speak Spanish, so have much more exposure to the spoken word.

LTDR: Yes, your are right, and having to speak Spanish, however badly, is better than not speaking it at all.

thinking about maybe signing up to do DELE C1 next november. a year enough time to jump from high A2/B1 to C1? only thing that gives me pause is I don’t practice reading or writing. only listening and speaking. I should do more reading though (to learn words) and writing (to improve production). maybe passing B2 is more achievable. B2 would be good enough to work in spain, which would bee useful given my company has offices there

That’s a huge jump. Unless you are already speaking at that level I don’t think it’s achievable via evening classes.

Estoy buscando un buen curso de youtube para aprender español básico, de manera conversacional. Si alguien conoce alguno. Ahora necisito apreder.

I’ve been thinking about doing this over Christmas, I need a refresher. Google “ best youtube videos for learning spanish” and it brings up some interesting results.

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