Trying to Learn Spanish

Just recently, I restarted taking Spanish classes while in Cuenca, Ecuador. Before these classes, I’ve learned a bit of Spanish in school, but we all know that learning languages in public school never really work out. Honestly, I’ve never met a single person who actually remembered a language or anything in general that they learned in public school.

My Spanish learning career has so far been like this: Learn. Forget. Repeat.

While staying in Uruguay, I went to a Spanish school in Montevideo called Academia Uruguay, http://www.academiauruguay.com/. It was actually like a legit school where I took the public bus, then started my classes at around 9:30 AM, then classes finished at around 1:30 or something like that. I actually had fun because it was interesting to see other people who were traveling like me. Also we went on mini tours/excursions twice a week.

After learning at Academia Uruguay, I really learned a good amount and I almost had a Uruguayan accent. The Uruguayans have this strange thing where the ‘ll’ and the y make a ‘sho’ sound. So the word ‘yo’ will sound like ‘sho’.

Just when I thought I was improving, we spent a month in Brazil. Portuguese is like a whole different language world. Anyways, I had no way to practice Spanish there, but it did help a bit because of the similarity between Spanish and Portuguese. After being in Brazil, our family went on an overland tour with Tucan Travel, so we were stuck with a bunch of Brits and Aussies for 46 days who only spoke English.

So now I’m here in Cuenca. Overall, I’ve come a long way with my Spanish, but I could definitely be better. I’ve been taking classes in a school called Candor, http://clubcandor.com/. Right now, I really hope to learn some more Spanish and most importantly – retain it.

Have you ever tried to learn a second/third/fourth… language? Leave your comment below.