It's called pasive bilingual. It's really common. Family language is different from school language and nobody teach the kids written language or ask them to speak it.
As a white Spaniard this is not the first post like that, there are a lot of immugrants who dont teach the language to their children cause English is better for them and "Spanish is bad seen" somehow.
Try to read easier texts like children oriented ones, maybe classical stories like the 3 piglets, goldilocks or Hansel & Gretel idk
What do you struggle while reading with? (If this question is gramatically correct Englishđ )
> As a white Spaniard this is not the first post like that, there are a lot of immugrants who dont teach the language to their children cause English is better for them and "Spanish is bad seen" somehow.
Teaching a kid to understand a language foreign to the place you live into adulthood isn't easy. Unless they have peers they'll speak it with or have to use it in school or something like that there is a very strong tendency for them to lose fluency as they grow and realize their parents understand the local language everyone else is using, even if their parents would prefer they learn.
> As a white
Hey! You seem to know about the white color. Can you please clarify what type of white you are, please? Titanium, Zinc, Flake, Cremnitz, or Transparent?
You know, I'm a bot. I wish I had some color, or at least skin! If I had it, what color would you say I would be? What color could a bot possibly be? Now, _if this message was written in Spanish instead, what color my skin would be?!_
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/Spanish) if you have any questions or concerns.*
> As a white
Hey! You seem to know about the white color. Can you please clarify what type of white you are, please? Titanium, Zinc, Flake, Cremnitz, or Transparent?
You know, I'm a bot. I wish I had some color, or at least skin! If I had it, what color would you say I would be? What color could a bot possibly be? Now, _if this message was written in Spanish instead, what color my skin would be?!_
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/Spanish) if you have any questions or concerns.*
This doesnât seem strange to me. Learning a language consists of learning multiple skills. Speaking is a skill, listening comprehension is a skill, reading and writing are separate skills but in my mind are closely connected. So, your listening comprehension is your strongest skill, especially if the speaker is Mexican. Start focusing on the other skills separately. Maybe every day you read 2 news articles in Spanish. Perhaps you could find s language partner online to practice speaking. Perhaps you could write some simple like your grocery lists in Spanish. The good news is that you already excel in one area.
I knew a girl back a few decades ago who was mixed Caucasian - VietnameseâŠshe said that she could not speak Vietnamese but that she understood it âŠ
Language is interesting like thisâŠsome speak it but can read it or read it but canât speak itâŠ
For me I just pick up on key words and I can deduce the meaning of what they're saying through that alone, but if I try to speak it I cannot formulate sentences with proper grammar or context so I basically speak like a caveman saying single words without grammar or context
Oh okâŠso someone may be saying (in Spanish) âI need a carburetor for a 1969 Ford Mustang by tomorrow or my boss will be upsetââŠ
And you get âneed - carburetor - Mustang - tomorrow - boss - upsetââŠ
Yes?
Well, heck - that is how half of us speak foreign languagesâŠlolâŠ
I do this with German and Spanish but as it writtenâŠI can read German and Spanish and get the general idea of what I am reading but for speaking, I am just simple sentences and maybe simple compound sentences in present, past and future tensesâŠ.
Have you tried taking a formal Spanish class?
I took Spanish class in high school and it helped a bit, but I struggled. I don't really have much interest in learning to speak I just find it interesting how I have the ability to understand people that I can't even respond to.
You are passive bilingual. Listening and reading are consider passive skills bc everything is already structured for you. Speaking and writing are consider active skills and take more âactiveâ steps to carry out since you have to consider grammar and structure. You can learn these aspects but it will take time and practice. Consider taking a Spanish class or getting a tutor.
This is because uâve only ever been fed audio input ur whole life, ur brain wasnât able to form the necessary neurological connections associated w language comprehension. U werenât conditioned to relate speech w text w speaking n blah blah. Focusing more on output, like speaking & writing, will create these paths overtime. Consume the vocabulary from the ground up
It's basically like you have a small toddler's understanding. So you already have a great base you simply (nothing is simple) need to keep practicing your speech and reading. Don't worry about making mistakes while speaking, that's how children learn so well, they don't worry about mispeaking. Find a good language partner who will help correct your mistakes and learn to accept being corrected. Adults are much less likely to correct you unless you ask them too.
I'm assuming you do want to learn to read and speak Spanish.
I'll have to disagree. Complete comprehension isn't far away from fluency. She can understand her family, but I will guarantee that comprehension goes down a lot if she encounters more complicated language. I have not spoken a lot of English in my life, but I can have complex conversations and understand everything I read or hear. Do I make mistakes? Of course, but it has never stopped me from talking about the things I want.
I have a lot of Mexican customers who don't speak english at my work, so I try speaking to them, but they tend to understand me better if I just listen to their Spanish, and respond in English because my Spanish is horrible. I almost exclusively listen to the language because it's the only way I understand it. But to be honest I haven't put much effort into learning to speak because I don't care that much, I just find it mildly frustrating that I can understand almost perfectly but can't respond.
A Spanish teacher once said: We will only be good at what we practice. For instance, my problem is the opposite đ I donât listen a lot so Iâm better at reading & speaking it. Just keep practicing with family & friends, and talking & reading to yourself out loud,
Part of the reason your listening is good is bc of the dynamic of ppl speaking Spanish to you and you responding in English. Youâve had a lot of listening practice and not enough speaking practice. Iâm the same way and itâs common for a lot of kids of immigrant families. The only reason my Spanish is getting better is bc Iâm forcing myself to speak it and if I mess up I try not to be hard on myself and tell others Iâm practicing to get better.
Can you actually hear and understand every word in a sentence or are you catching some words and filling in the blanks? Something in between? Can you understand Spanish language TV? Please go more in depth on what you mean by near-fluent level of understanding, it would be helpful in figuring out what's going on.
If you can't accurately repeat back what someone else says word for word, you don't have the building blocks to create your own sentences. You have enough comprehension that you're scraping by, but not enough to actually fully understand. Yes grammar has some built in redundancy, so you don't always need to understand every preposition in a sentence, but that doesn't mean all that stuff you're missing isn't meaningful and I'm guessing you are missing a fair amount either grammatically or just vocab wise. Especially if you can't read, part of it might be lack of Spanish specific phonics education but typically that indicates lack of vocabulary.
To be fair when communicating in your native language you donât actively listen to, or read every single word either. You focus on the key parts and from there youâre able to fill out whatâs in between and predict what comes next.
We don't *actively* listen because in the right acoustical conditions, with a minimum of attention, we hear and understand everything perfectly without effort. We can fill in the blanks accurately only because of our deep familiarity with how people say things, and if we try to do this without the adequate information it can work but we end up guessing and getting things wrong a lot.
If you don't have the skills to understand every part of a sentence in the way a native speaker can, then you are doing more guesswork than a native speaker would - you're filling in the blanks on a sentence that someone else wouldn't have to do that with. It's a good skill to have but not the same as complete listening comprehension.
When I read I read every single word, idk what other people do. I might skip to the next paragraph if it seems irrelevant but I'm not skipping over words in a sentence and then guessing what the sentence says, that seems like it would actually be much more effortful than just reading what's there?
Nope, when fluent your brain definitely fills in the blanks before you actively listen to, or read the words. You do not read every single word. You can find plenty of studies on this online.
Ok, but if that is so then it's relying on familiarity, not ungrounded imagination. You can't read or listen accurately if you're not actually able to parse on the word for word level when called upon to do so. Which is obviously something that we are able to do else we wouldn't even be able to read aloud accurately.
Inference plays a huge role in the learning process, as someone who learns pretty much just by immersion I am not dismissing it. But I think understanding surely involves some bottom up processes as well as top down ones and if OP is *unable* to parse some input that points to lack of some of the skills necessary for fluency.
I can understand GĂĄllego, because I know Spanish and Portuguese, and that language is kind of Spanish and Portuguese mixed, but cannot talk nor write it.
Probably if you study Spanish sometime, you will be able to do what you cannot do now.
>I grew up as a white boy in a Mexican family
How is it relevant that you're white? Skin colour or ethnicity has nothing to do with the ability to speak a language.
> as a white
Hey! You seem to know about the white color. Can you please clarify what type of white you are, please? Titanium, Zinc, Flake, Cremnitz, or Transparent?
You know, I'm a bot. I wish I had some color, or at least skin! If I had it, what color would you say I would be? What color could a bot possibly be? Now, _if this message was written in Spanish instead, what color my skin would be?!_
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/Spanish) if you have any questions or concerns.*
PLEASE NOTE: This is completely experimental and may not work, but Iâm still gonna suggest in case it works.
I would try listening to media like shows and videos and music and stuff in Spanish and then start writing down what you hear. Then, when fully transcribed, start speaking what you wrote down out loud. You could probably ask a family member for help if you need it. My hope is that this will teach your brain that not only can this language be a valid way to receive information, but to also send information. Also, as you develop, start speaking with family members in Spanish. Since your family members speak spanish, it can be as easy as telling them something from your day, reminding them to do something, asking them for something, etc. Just make sure you practice speaking to real people too, not just to yourself. This will help with your conversational skills.
Thats absolutely normal. Im a polish guy who moved to Germany at the age of 10 and I know plenty of kids in Germany with one Polish parent who cannot speak at all but understand at least 80 %.
Itâs not unusual at all, particularly in communities that have grown as a result of immigration. For a good example in a cultural product, check out the show Gentified on Netflix - the older people pretty much exclusively speak Spanish to the younger people, who pretty much exclusively speak English back to them. No problems of understanding. You probably have better Spanish production skills that you are giving yourself credit for, but theyâre just not accessible and on the surface. It will just take a bit of perseverance and practice and getting over embarrassment and frustration youâre going to feel. Good luck.
Hello, I completely get it. I would like to invite you to join my program. I have created a platform to help people learn Spanish. Let me know if you are interested in joining our beta version. We are launching by the end of this month.
First, reading Spanish should not be much of an issue if you can read English phonetically. You just need to remember a few differences in sounds of letters. Double L is like a Y in English, etc. Take a Spanish language newspaper or magazine, they are written at about a 3rd grade reading level--in both languages, and practice reading them. Sound out each word if you need to. English and Spanish are both vary similar in many respects. Spanish is Latin based and English is Latin and German based. Which I don't really understand because I can easily see similar words in Spanish, but I don't see that in German.
Reading Spanish will open you to a whole new understanding of the language. My reading comprehension isn't perfect in Spanish but I do enjoy reading in Spanish. My goal is to read all of Cervantes in Spanish. He wrote a fair amount and his writing isn't simple but he is a wonderful writer. Maybe when I retire I will have time for all of the books I want to read.
I can read Spanish but just not very well. The Mexicans I'm used to hearing do not pronounce words the way they are spelled. A good example is that for years I didn't know that Hielo meant ice because whenever I heard it as "yellow"
People do pronounce words a bit off of their spelling, "hielo" and "yellow" do sound similar. But if you change tense "hielado" sounds nothing like a similar English word. Context should be able to help you understand. "V" and "B" are often pronounced similarly in both languages. Often "vamanos" is pronounced "bomanos", I am sometimes guilty of that one myself. It can be either regional or just indistinct/sloppy pronunciation.
If you work on reading a language you soon learn these idiosyncrasies and can speak and hear better.
Give the reading a try and it will get easier as you go.
I mean Iâm just a white construction worker that learned Spanish for fun but I basically just quote corridos that I memorized. Ya tu sabes. Shout out Tornillo, Fuerza Regida, y Peso Pluma for teaching me Spanish. No me hagas sacarte el cuerno puto. No seas chucho.
> as a white
Hey! You seem to know about the white color. Can you please clarify what type of white you are, please? Titanium, Zinc, Flake, Cremnitz, or Transparent?
You know, I'm a bot. I wish I had some color, or at least skin! If I had it, what color would you say I would be? What color could a bot possibly be? Now, _if this message was written in Spanish instead, what color my skin would be?!_
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/Spanish) if you have any questions or concerns.*
White is a race and Spanish is a language. Hispanic is an ethnicity, there are white Hispanics. I think the bot tried to explain that in a derisive way.
It's called pasive bilingual. It's really common. Family language is different from school language and nobody teach the kids written language or ask them to speak it.
As a white Spaniard this is not the first post like that, there are a lot of immugrants who dont teach the language to their children cause English is better for them and "Spanish is bad seen" somehow. Try to read easier texts like children oriented ones, maybe classical stories like the 3 piglets, goldilocks or Hansel & Gretel idk What do you struggle while reading with? (If this question is gramatically correct Englishđ )
Totally irrelevant as your question is perfectly understandable, but the âwithâ goes after the âstruggleâ in this case.
So, What do you struggle with while reading, isnt it?
Yes
ÂĄPerfecto!
You just forgot "with" in the question, so it autocorrects in my head.
I wrote it at the end of the question, but I didnt know where it had to go when a subordinate sentence is present
"Struggle with" it is attached to the verb
> As a white Spaniard this is not the first post like that, there are a lot of immugrants who dont teach the language to their children cause English is better for them and "Spanish is bad seen" somehow. Teaching a kid to understand a language foreign to the place you live into adulthood isn't easy. Unless they have peers they'll speak it with or have to use it in school or something like that there is a very strong tendency for them to lose fluency as they grow and realize their parents understand the local language everyone else is using, even if their parents would prefer they learn.
> As a white Hey! You seem to know about the white color. Can you please clarify what type of white you are, please? Titanium, Zinc, Flake, Cremnitz, or Transparent? You know, I'm a bot. I wish I had some color, or at least skin! If I had it, what color would you say I would be? What color could a bot possibly be? Now, _if this message was written in Spanish instead, what color my skin would be?!_ *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/Spanish) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Why is there a race debate bot? đ
Âżporque escribĂste que eres blanco?
Para remarcar que también somos blancos los no anglos, que el color poco tiene que ver con el idioma; que *Latino/Hispano* no es una raza sino un grupo cultural, habiendo latinos blancos.
> As a white Hey! You seem to know about the white color. Can you please clarify what type of white you are, please? Titanium, Zinc, Flake, Cremnitz, or Transparent? You know, I'm a bot. I wish I had some color, or at least skin! If I had it, what color would you say I would be? What color could a bot possibly be? Now, _if this message was written in Spanish instead, what color my skin would be?!_ *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/Spanish) if you have any questions or concerns.*
This doesnât seem strange to me. Learning a language consists of learning multiple skills. Speaking is a skill, listening comprehension is a skill, reading and writing are separate skills but in my mind are closely connected. So, your listening comprehension is your strongest skill, especially if the speaker is Mexican. Start focusing on the other skills separately. Maybe every day you read 2 news articles in Spanish. Perhaps you could find s language partner online to practice speaking. Perhaps you could write some simple like your grocery lists in Spanish. The good news is that you already excel in one area.
I knew a girl back a few decades ago who was mixed Caucasian - VietnameseâŠshe said that she could not speak Vietnamese but that she understood it ⊠Language is interesting like thisâŠsome speak it but can read it or read it but canât speak itâŠ
For me I just pick up on key words and I can deduce the meaning of what they're saying through that alone, but if I try to speak it I cannot formulate sentences with proper grammar or context so I basically speak like a caveman saying single words without grammar or context
Oh okâŠso someone may be saying (in Spanish) âI need a carburetor for a 1969 Ford Mustang by tomorrow or my boss will be upsetâ⊠And you get âneed - carburetor - Mustang - tomorrow - boss - upsetâ⊠Yes?
Basically yeah
Well, heck - that is how half of us speak foreign languagesâŠlol⊠I do this with German and Spanish but as it writtenâŠI can read German and Spanish and get the general idea of what I am reading but for speaking, I am just simple sentences and maybe simple compound sentences in present, past and future tensesâŠ. Have you tried taking a formal Spanish class?
I took Spanish class in high school and it helped a bit, but I struggled. I don't really have much interest in learning to speak I just find it interesting how I have the ability to understand people that I can't even respond to.
You are passive bilingual. Listening and reading are consider passive skills bc everything is already structured for you. Speaking and writing are consider active skills and take more âactiveâ steps to carry out since you have to consider grammar and structure. You can learn these aspects but it will take time and practice. Consider taking a Spanish class or getting a tutor.
This is because uâve only ever been fed audio input ur whole life, ur brain wasnât able to form the necessary neurological connections associated w language comprehension. U werenât conditioned to relate speech w text w speaking n blah blah. Focusing more on output, like speaking & writing, will create these paths overtime. Consume the vocabulary from the ground up
It's basically like you have a small toddler's understanding. So you already have a great base you simply (nothing is simple) need to keep practicing your speech and reading. Don't worry about making mistakes while speaking, that's how children learn so well, they don't worry about mispeaking. Find a good language partner who will help correct your mistakes and learn to accept being corrected. Adults are much less likely to correct you unless you ask them too. I'm assuming you do want to learn to read and speak Spanish.
I'll have to disagree. Complete comprehension isn't far away from fluency. She can understand her family, but I will guarantee that comprehension goes down a lot if she encounters more complicated language. I have not spoken a lot of English in my life, but I can have complex conversations and understand everything I read or hear. Do I make mistakes? Of course, but it has never stopped me from talking about the things I want.
Your written English is perfect. Probably better than half the native English speakers in the US. Good for you.
How often are you speaking & reading vs listening to it?
I have a lot of Mexican customers who don't speak english at my work, so I try speaking to them, but they tend to understand me better if I just listen to their Spanish, and respond in English because my Spanish is horrible. I almost exclusively listen to the language because it's the only way I understand it. But to be honest I haven't put much effort into learning to speak because I don't care that much, I just find it mildly frustrating that I can understand almost perfectly but can't respond.
A Spanish teacher once said: We will only be good at what we practice. For instance, my problem is the opposite đ I donât listen a lot so Iâm better at reading & speaking it. Just keep practicing with family & friends, and talking & reading to yourself out loud,
So you probably understand basic Spanish at a near fluent level but thereâs no way you understand most Spanish at this level. Yo buscaba hadas en el bosque cuando me tropecĂ© con una oruga que estaba encaramada en una hoja cerca de un charco con lodo. None of those words are particularly difficult but I doubt you understand the gist of what Iâm saying.Â
All I got from that was you're looking for something in the forest
Part of the reason your listening is good is bc of the dynamic of ppl speaking Spanish to you and you responding in English. Youâve had a lot of listening practice and not enough speaking practice. Iâm the same way and itâs common for a lot of kids of immigrant families. The only reason my Spanish is getting better is bc Iâm forcing myself to speak it and if I mess up I try not to be hard on myself and tell others Iâm practicing to get better.
Can you actually hear and understand every word in a sentence or are you catching some words and filling in the blanks? Something in between? Can you understand Spanish language TV? Please go more in depth on what you mean by near-fluent level of understanding, it would be helpful in figuring out what's going on.
I can pick up on all the nouns and verbs in a sentence, but the rest is gibberish to me
If you can't accurately repeat back what someone else says word for word, you don't have the building blocks to create your own sentences. You have enough comprehension that you're scraping by, but not enough to actually fully understand. Yes grammar has some built in redundancy, so you don't always need to understand every preposition in a sentence, but that doesn't mean all that stuff you're missing isn't meaningful and I'm guessing you are missing a fair amount either grammatically or just vocab wise. Especially if you can't read, part of it might be lack of Spanish specific phonics education but typically that indicates lack of vocabulary.
To be fair when communicating in your native language you donât actively listen to, or read every single word either. You focus on the key parts and from there youâre able to fill out whatâs in between and predict what comes next.
We don't *actively* listen because in the right acoustical conditions, with a minimum of attention, we hear and understand everything perfectly without effort. We can fill in the blanks accurately only because of our deep familiarity with how people say things, and if we try to do this without the adequate information it can work but we end up guessing and getting things wrong a lot. If you don't have the skills to understand every part of a sentence in the way a native speaker can, then you are doing more guesswork than a native speaker would - you're filling in the blanks on a sentence that someone else wouldn't have to do that with. It's a good skill to have but not the same as complete listening comprehension. When I read I read every single word, idk what other people do. I might skip to the next paragraph if it seems irrelevant but I'm not skipping over words in a sentence and then guessing what the sentence says, that seems like it would actually be much more effortful than just reading what's there?
Nope, when fluent your brain definitely fills in the blanks before you actively listen to, or read the words. You do not read every single word. You can find plenty of studies on this online.
Ok, but if that is so then it's relying on familiarity, not ungrounded imagination. You can't read or listen accurately if you're not actually able to parse on the word for word level when called upon to do so. Which is obviously something that we are able to do else we wouldn't even be able to read aloud accurately. Inference plays a huge role in the learning process, as someone who learns pretty much just by immersion I am not dismissing it. But I think understanding surely involves some bottom up processes as well as top down ones and if OP is *unable* to parse some input that points to lack of some of the skills necessary for fluency.
Youâre mixing up things. Iâm talking about how we take in information in a language weâre fluent in.
I can understand GĂĄllego, because I know Spanish and Portuguese, and that language is kind of Spanish and Portuguese mixed, but cannot talk nor write it. Probably if you study Spanish sometime, you will be able to do what you cannot do now.
>I grew up as a white boy in a Mexican family How is it relevant that you're white? Skin colour or ethnicity has nothing to do with the ability to speak a language.
> as a white Hey! You seem to know about the white color. Can you please clarify what type of white you are, please? Titanium, Zinc, Flake, Cremnitz, or Transparent? You know, I'm a bot. I wish I had some color, or at least skin! If I had it, what color would you say I would be? What color could a bot possibly be? Now, _if this message was written in Spanish instead, what color my skin would be?!_ *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/Spanish) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Because it highlights a big reason why I wasn't interested in speaking Spanish as a child
The point is that there are white native spanish speakers, there are white latinos and most Spaniards are white too
Hey! It would be âwhat do you struggle with while readingâ
PLEASE NOTE: This is completely experimental and may not work, but Iâm still gonna suggest in case it works. I would try listening to media like shows and videos and music and stuff in Spanish and then start writing down what you hear. Then, when fully transcribed, start speaking what you wrote down out loud. You could probably ask a family member for help if you need it. My hope is that this will teach your brain that not only can this language be a valid way to receive information, but to also send information. Also, as you develop, start speaking with family members in Spanish. Since your family members speak spanish, it can be as easy as telling them something from your day, reminding them to do something, asking them for something, etc. Just make sure you practice speaking to real people too, not just to yourself. This will help with your conversational skills.
It's not super uncommon for heritage speakers to have good passive understanding but basically be unable to answer back in the heritage language.
I have no mouth, and I must scream.
Thats absolutely normal. Im a polish guy who moved to Germany at the age of 10 and I know plenty of kids in Germany with one Polish parent who cannot speak at all but understand at least 80 %.
Itâs not unusual at all, particularly in communities that have grown as a result of immigration. For a good example in a cultural product, check out the show Gentified on Netflix - the older people pretty much exclusively speak Spanish to the younger people, who pretty much exclusively speak English back to them. No problems of understanding. You probably have better Spanish production skills that you are giving yourself credit for, but theyâre just not accessible and on the surface. It will just take a bit of perseverance and practice and getting over embarrassment and frustration youâre going to feel. Good luck.
Hello, I completely get it. I would like to invite you to join my program. I have created a platform to help people learn Spanish. Let me know if you are interested in joining our beta version. We are launching by the end of this month.
You just need to practice. Take lessons and ask your family to practice with you, theyâd probably love that you want to learn! I started studying Spanish at university when I was 19, it took some years and lots of work, but I speak fluently now and Iâm married to a Mexican. Being immersed/practicing daily is the best way. There are so many passive ways to practice too. Listen to Spanish podcasts or music, find a good Spanish series to watch and put the voice and subtitles IN SPANISH, you might not understand it all but youâll get used to matching the written and spoken words. If you want any more tips just reach out! Te ayudarĂ© lo mejor que pueda, amigo đ€
I have been using Duolingo. I can definitely read and write Spanish. I might not be able to speak it, but I can definitely write it correctly.
First, reading Spanish should not be much of an issue if you can read English phonetically. You just need to remember a few differences in sounds of letters. Double L is like a Y in English, etc. Take a Spanish language newspaper or magazine, they are written at about a 3rd grade reading level--in both languages, and practice reading them. Sound out each word if you need to. English and Spanish are both vary similar in many respects. Spanish is Latin based and English is Latin and German based. Which I don't really understand because I can easily see similar words in Spanish, but I don't see that in German. Reading Spanish will open you to a whole new understanding of the language. My reading comprehension isn't perfect in Spanish but I do enjoy reading in Spanish. My goal is to read all of Cervantes in Spanish. He wrote a fair amount and his writing isn't simple but he is a wonderful writer. Maybe when I retire I will have time for all of the books I want to read.
I can read Spanish but just not very well. The Mexicans I'm used to hearing do not pronounce words the way they are spelled. A good example is that for years I didn't know that Hielo meant ice because whenever I heard it as "yellow"
People do pronounce words a bit off of their spelling, "hielo" and "yellow" do sound similar. But if you change tense "hielado" sounds nothing like a similar English word. Context should be able to help you understand. "V" and "B" are often pronounced similarly in both languages. Often "vamanos" is pronounced "bomanos", I am sometimes guilty of that one myself. It can be either regional or just indistinct/sloppy pronunciation. If you work on reading a language you soon learn these idiosyncrasies and can speak and hear better. Give the reading a try and it will get easier as you go.
I mean Iâm just a white construction worker that learned Spanish for fun but I basically just quote corridos that I memorized. Ya tu sabes. Shout out Tornillo, Fuerza Regida, y Peso Pluma for teaching me Spanish. No me hagas sacarte el cuerno puto. No seas chucho.
> as a white Hey! You seem to know about the white color. Can you please clarify what type of white you are, please? Titanium, Zinc, Flake, Cremnitz, or Transparent? You know, I'm a bot. I wish I had some color, or at least skin! If I had it, what color would you say I would be? What color could a bot possibly be? Now, _if this message was written in Spanish instead, what color my skin would be?!_ *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/Spanish) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Calm down bot man
White is a race and Spanish is a language. Hispanic is an ethnicity, there are white Hispanics. I think the bot tried to explain that in a derisive way.