After much deliberation with my international friends at work (I live in South Texas) I decided that since Spanish was considered the easiest language to learn I would give it a shot. They seemed very sure that for an English speaker, learning Spanish wouldn't be that hard. Looking back on it, it strikes me that they were patient with me and kept referring to the fact that I was a native English speaker. I think in an international context it is generally accepted that people who are fortunate enough to speak English as a first language just feel it is their birthright to have everyone communicate in a way that is convenient for them. Every other language learns that they must know multiple tongues in order to communicate effectively around the world.
I was tired of coming to work and not understanding much of what was going on around me. My boss was also an original Spanish speaker and there was little doubt I was at a disadvantage when applying for promotions. I am thankful that I had a decent support system and motivation to help me learn the language so quickly and efficiently.
They pointed out to me that Spanish would be the easiest language to learn in my case because it bore many similarities to English that were not readily apparent to me at first. It seems that there are a surprising number of words that sound similar to their English counterpart. Sometimes just being comfortable with this much of a language makes the rest easier to learn I was assured. They were definitely right. During my studies I found out that English and Spanish (as well as French and Portuguese) all descended from the same Latin roots way back.
The other main thing that helped me learn the language (in combination with great friends) was the fact that many of the grammatical prices are the same in the two languages. Spanish is much easier to learn than French in that regard. This is because in French, the order of many sentences does not directly translate properly to English. Spanish thankfully does not have this problem.
I now have much more success in talking with the sizable number of Spanish speakers at my workplace. My ability to speak to them in their native tongue gives me a deeper and more trustworthy relationship with them. It was well worth taking a few evenings to learn.
I managed to master conversational Spanish rapidly thanks to an innovative interactive course that helped me put the natural learning process on turbo. Click the link to find more information on how I did it and why Spanish is the easiest language to learn.
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