How easy or difficult is Spanish to learn?

plein de force

i will probably be doing Spanish in college along with majoring in french as i already have a high level of proficiency in it and do very well in it in at school.
i will be completely new to spanish when i go into college, i may take a class in beginners spanish in the summer to introduce myself to it. what i want to know is how difficult is it to learn, as i'm already good at picking up languages and quite good in french.

browneire

Great language to learn. I recommend doing the Michel Thomas language tapes

emka1984

i believe that your abilities with French can help you with Spanish... although apparently can make some aspects pretty tricky as well (can't tell, don't speak French)... But it's a lovely language to learn! Good luck with it!

GoingBk2School

From a standing start, I began learning Spanish and got an A1 in the LC within 6 months (I'm an adult, though, so I didn't have the clutter of any other LC subjects). It's a nice language - pronunciation is fairly easy as is the vocab. There are some tricky grammatical points but I've heard that it's generally an easier language than both French and German. It's also very, very useful - you'll encounter Spanish speakers everywhere!

Landyaddict

Me, I watch dora the explorer...... thats how I learnt the basic, then I took on Michael thomas audio course.

currently doing Russian, now thats a tough one to learn.

emka1984

Landyaddict wrote: »

Me, I watch dora the explorer...... thats how I learnt the basic, then I took on Michael thomas audio course.

currently doing Russian, now thats a tough one to learn.

Good luck with Russian - that really IS a challenge

djcervi

I'm currently studying 1st year of French and Spanish in Trinity. Having studied both languages for quite a few years now I can tell you that you shouldn't have problems taking up the language. In my class there are a few people who are studying Spanish as a beginner language. They are finding it straightforward. Plus Trinity has a lot of language support for the beginners, including Peer Tutoring, where other Beginners of Spanish (but they are now in 2nd year) meet up with the 1st year beginners and help with the language. They also give ye a few tricks, and are helpful and nice enough. If you need anymore information feel free to PM.

GoingBk2School

Landyaddict wrote: »

Me, I watch dora the explorer...... thats how I learnt the basic, then I took on Michael thomas audio course.

currently doing Russian, now thats a tough one to learn.

Hey that's interesting! I've just started Russian too. Are you doing the MT course on that too?

Jk_Eire

I took Spanish and German in IT-Tallaght as an absolute beginner.
German never flew with me, mainly because I didn't like the language nor enjoyed it.

I took up Spanish extremely quickly and found it very easy.
I'd put it down to 50% good lecturers, and 50% enjoyment in learning the language.

I found online websites very helpful in building my grammar profiency and building vocab. Particularly, http://www.studyspanish.com/tutorial.htm

Your French will definitely help, but overall you'll need to take a pro-active interest and enjoyment in learning spanish. Do you course work, carry a spanish dictionary eveyrwhere! , watch videos clips on websites like Euronews where you can watch a news clip in Spanish, then english, and have the text on the video beneath.

Also, make friends with the Spanish erasmus students in your college and arrange to do Intercambios de Conversacion.

Worked very well for me. By the time I was in third year and doing my Eramus year in Spain I was confident enough to hold myself in any situation.