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RRRolling the rrīs RRRolling the rrīs Hi, Steve- Finally, for
whatever consolation it might give you, I still, after almost 30 years of speaking
Spanish, occasionally muff the rr rolling business. Do your best, with the knowlege
that youīll never be perfect. The idea is to not make the kind of mistakes that
will interfere with communication. After all, weīre not native speakers, and
native speakers who hear us will almost certainly be tolerant of the kind of mistakes
(like only getting 2 trills instead of 3 in an rr situation) we make as foreigners. How
many words: importance of structure and vocabulary About
how many words does the entire platiqumos course cover?I’’ve read that about
1500 words covers Hi, Keith- Youīve raised a complex and contentious issue here. How many words you need to know varies greatly from person to person, depending on individual habits and needs. For example, a semi-literate field worker probably doesn īt use even 500 different "words" in a typical day, and may very well have a meaningful command of only about a thousand. On the other hand, an educated person who wants to keep up with the news, engage in meaningful conversation, and perhaps read a novel in Spanish, would find even 3,000 to be insufficient. Then comes the issue of what do we count as words. Do we count "am", "is", "are", "was", "were" as words, or only the infinitive [to] "be"? As far as dictionaries are concerned, it īs almost always just the infinitive--but in practice the different forms of the verb are just as important to know for communication as nouns, adjectives, adverbs, etc. Second, the mind-set of those who emphasize the number of "words" a person needs tends to neglect what I (and many scientific linguists, including those who developed the original FSI Basic Course) believe: that vocabulary by itself is not very useful, but memorizing word lists is time consuming. Even having memorized 10,000 "words" is of little value without being able to put them together to form meaningful utterances; i.e., without having a good command of the structure--or to use a word many of us hate--grammar of the language. It is important to know on a very deep level a good stock of examples of "regular" verbs (in Spanish the –ar, –er, and –ir verbs), and be able to readily and rapidly "conjugate" them in speaking or to understand them in reading or listening. The same is true of irregular verbs, including those that are sub-classes of regular verbs, such as stem vowel changing –er verbs, as well as those that are so irregular they must be learned individually: ir "to go" is a good example. Of course, this kind of command of the structure of the language cannot be attained without also acquiring along the way a pretty good stock of nouns, adjectives, etc. The issue then becomes for the learner (and for those who claim to be able to help the learner, whether through materials or personal instruction) where to spend most of the many hours it takes to either acquire a large vocabulary, or to assimilate the structure of the language so that the vocabulary can be used meaningfully. The original authors of the FSI Basic Course chose to concentrate on structure, and Platiquemos emulates this approach. This does not mean that you donīt learn vocabulary with Platiquemos (the entire course contains about 3,300 "words"), only that the vocabulary in the form of nouns, adjectives, adverbs, etc., is learned within a structural context, not as isolated vocabulary units to be memorized from lists. My own philosophy, which has served me well in over 25 years of seriously using Spanish both in my previous professional life and now as a facilitator of othersī learning is that vocabulary, especially nouns, beyond a relatively small stock of very common ones, is the easy part. A word (except for verb forms, which to me are "words") can easily be looked up in a dictionary or you can ask somebody. The important thing then is being able to use that "word" to form a meaningful communication. Platiquemos, like the original FSI Basic Course, places most emphasis on acquiring at a deep, almost subconscious, level the structures of the Spanish language. This in itself is a big task (those who peddle miracle solutions to the contrary notwithstanding), but in the process a significant amount of vocabulary is also acquired. To sum up, Platiquemos is mostly about acquiring a command of the structures of the language sufficient to use in oral communication (meaning almost automatically, since in a conversation there isnīt much time to think about what to say). Vocabulary learned along the way, including the most important part, regular and irregular verbs, is learned through examples in sentences, not through memorizing lists. The total count in Platiquemos is about 3,300 words, more than enough for most normal, everyday communication. To go further and be able to use Spanish proficiently in oneīs business or profession will require the acquisition of additional vocabulary. If, however, you have mastered the structure of the language as presented in Platiquemos, you will be able to use that additional vocabulary, whether from a dictionary or asking a native speaker through circumlocution, meaningfully and accurately. I hope this information will be of some use to you. Please bear in mind that I donīt pretend to be an "expert"; I have just through happenstance and a lot of hard work learned through experience something of what it takes to learn languages. Please forgive the length of this message; your questions could have been answered directly in a couple of sentences. I do think it is important, though, to have some understanding of the vital role that structure plays in attaining meaningful proficiency. As always, I close with my best wishes for your success in learning Spanish. Don Casteel How fast for a quick learner? Youīve posed
a difficult question, as there are many variables. While some people do learn language
faster than others, acquiring the structures and vocabulary to effectively communicate
orally can īt be done super fast--it takes repetition, and repetition takes some time.
Also, some people are more perfectionist than others, and thus take longer to be
absolutely sure they īve "got it". We usually give as a ballpark number for
average learners about 6 to 8 hours per unit. Let īs guesstimate that you could do a unit
in 4 hours, with 55 units that makes 220 hours, divided by 3 is about 73 days. That would
be fast! At the Foreign Service Institute, the whole program was usually done in small
classes in about 360 hours--but in a class you īre pretty much held to the speed of the
slowest. Also, remember to take advantage of the little bits of time that sometimes are
otherwise wasted: driving, waiting for an appointment, etc. You can get quite a bit done
in even 15 or 20 minutes with a car stereo or a Walkman-type device. I hope this gives you
something to go on, and I īm sorry I can īt come up with a definite number. Don Casteel
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